5 Out of Print Authors on the 2012 20 under 40 list

Thrilled and proud that five Out of Print authors, which includes our editor, Samhita Arni, are on the Elle 20 out of 40 list.

As Deepanjana Pal says in her blog post, From Elle: The Storytellers, ‘Inspired by Granta’s 20 under 40, the book enthusiasts in ELLE thought it was about time that there was a desi equivalent, so we got in touch with some of the sharpest reviewers in the business and with their help, emerged the list you see in the article titled “The Storytellers”.’

The Elle cover and editorial celebrate the issue’s commitment to literature. 

Below, our five authors, and links to their Out of Print stories. Congratulations!

- Samhita Arni

Sita in June 2011 (accompanying artwork, Ram Rahman. Click on image for story)
- Jahnavi Barua 

Birdsong in March 2011 
- Chandrahas Choudhury

Dnyaneshawar Kulkarni Changes His Name in September 2011

- Kuzhali Manickavel

This Is Us And This Is Us Outside in September 2010 

The Dolphin King in June 2011 (accompanying art, Jittish Kallat. Click on image for story)

- Annie Zaidi

Sujata in September 2011 

Out of Print Author Series: Chandrahas Choudhury

Out of Print author and friend, Chandrahas Choudhury’s Arzee the Dwarf is translated into German as Der Kleine Koenig von Bombay. Editor Samhita Arni’s review that appeared in Caravan in October 2009 heralded Arzee as ‘a welcome change in a literature that has, for the most part, been susceptible to reflecting the narrow, English-speaking world of its writers and many of its readers.’ Arzee’s adventures, real and imagined, dreamt and experienced resonate to the ‘beating and pulsing’ as the blurb says, of Bombay. At the height of his despair Arzee says, ‘I’ve lived so many lives already, I’ve seen incarnations! Now I’ll live another: I’ll be a new man. I was so miserable, so desperate, so abject! But now I am at peace, now I am strong, because I’ve left my make-believe life behind.’ But if we are uncertain if his soul has been stifled by his resolve, we know it is not so as, in front of Maratha Mandir cinema hall where Dilwale Dulhaniya still plays at the matinee, he reflects on ‘the miracle of art – it stayed evergreen, kept speaking and speaking to people.’ Will this incarnation of Arzee, stay true to his essential faith in the magic of make-believe and convey the great pulsing soul of his city to a German readership? We cannot wait to hear.  

Chandrahas Choudhury launches 'India: A Traveller's Literary Companion'

A few Fridays ago at Crosswords in Mumbai, the novelist, blogger, and friend of Out of Print Chandrahas Choudhury launched ‘India: A Traveller’s Literary Companion’, a collection of short fiction which aims to be geographically representative of India, which he edited. At the launch, he discussed the emergence of Indian literature in English, as well as the difficulty of presenting an accurate picture of the richness of Indian literature in all the languages it exists in, simply because of the difficulty of finding good translations of vernacular literature.

The discussion was based largely around the novel and its evolution. It makes one wonder what place the short story occupies in the history of Indian literature and how the modern short story relates to the rich history of subcontinental writing? In Chandrahas’ opinion, the format has commonalities with the Jataka tales and folk storytelling in the oral tradition. It will be interesting to see whether this is visible in the stories we receive for our next issue, which has the theme of mythology.

by Mira Brunner, editor, Out of Print 

Links we Like

Amitav Ghosh @ Amitav Ghosh

Chandrahas Choudhury @ The Middle Stage

Jai Arjun Singh @ Jabberwok

Kuzhali Manickavel @ kuzhali manickavel

Nilanjana Roy @ nilanjana s roy

Rebecca Lloyd @ Rebecca Lloyd