[Reader-list] Almost Island Dialogues, India International Centre, New Delhi, from 18th to 21st March 2010

[Chintan]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Chandni Parekh

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Almost Island <almostisland.edit at gmail.com>
Date: 2 March 2010 23:00
Subject: ALMOST ISLAND: DIALOGUES 4
To: ashwinibhat00 at yahoo.co.in


Dear Friend,



Welcome to the fourth edition of the Almost Island Dialogues, to be held at
the India International Centre, New Delhi, from 18th to 21st March 2010.  The
past three years of this conference have seen presentations and readings by
major international figures like the Italian writer Claudio Magris and
Chinese writer Bei Dao (both Nobel literature nominees) in mutual
conversation with crucial and singular Indian writers like Arvind Krishna
Mehrotra, Irwin Allan Sealy or Vinod Kumar Shukla.



This year we plan to continue that unfolding with more (equally singular)
writers, in our usual format that emphasises intimacy and rigour.  The
mornings and some afternoons are kept for intense, extended, freewheeling
talks and discussions; the evenings, for readings and performances.



Please find below more details about the event, including schedule and
writer biographies.



For a note about the discussions from Almost Island editor Sharmistha
Mohanty, see: http://www.scribd.com/doc/27661953 .



For periodic updates, with links to work by the invited writers available
online, visit or join our new facebook group:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=279757768380 .



If you have any questions, feel free to contact Ashwini Bhat at:
almostisland.edit at gmail.com .





With kind regards,



Sharmistha Mohanty [Editor]

Vivek Narayanan [Consulting Editor]

Ashwini Bhat [Editorial Assistant]





*Evening Readings on the IIC Annexe Lawns*

(All are welcome…)



*Thursday, March 18, 6:30 p.m.*

Vivek Narayanan / Eliot Weinberger



*Friday, March 19, 6:30 p.m.*

Vahni Capildeo / Joy Goswami



*Saturday, March 20, 6:00 p.m. (Note earlier start time) *

Anita Agnihotri / Xu Xi / Charu Nivedita



*Sunday, March 21, 6:30 p.m.*

Sharmistha Mohanty / Tomaz Salamun





*Panels and discussion schedule:*

(Please note: panels are also open to all who wish to come, but
*pre-registration is required*. Contact Ashwini Bhat  --
almostisland.edit at gmail.com -- for more details.)

* *

The overarching objective of the morning panels will be a dialogue
around “innovation,
the making of the new, the originary.” See:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/27661953 for a more detailed presentation.



The writers’ presentations will be staggered as below.  Each writer will
have about 10-15 minutes for a basic laying out of thoughts; this is meant
only to provoke a more extended, open-ended discussion among all the
participants.



March 19, 10 a.m-1:00 p.m.  : Sharmistha Mohanty, Tomaz Salamun, Vahni
Capildeo

March 20, 10 a.m-1:00 p.m.  : Vivek Narayanan, Eliot Weinberger, Charu
Nivedita

March 21, 10 a.m.-1:00 p.m. : Xu Xi, Anita Agnihotri, Joy Goswami



There will also be a discussion with the invited audience on March 19,
2:30-4:00



*Writer Biographies*



The Slovenian Tomaz Salamun is widely acknowledged to be one of the great
post-war Central European poets, and indeed one of the “indispensable poets
of [our] era” (Jorie Graham). He has over thirty books of poetry, including
several in excellent translations, done by a range of poets.  Recent titles
in English include: The Book for My Brother (Harcourt), Poker (Ugly Duckling
Presse) and The Selected Poems of Tomaz Salamun (Ecco Press).

Eliot Weinberger is a translator and essayist who first came into prominence
as the primary translator of Octavio Paz. He writes an innovative prose that
takes the documentary essay to the borders of poetry.  He is considered
among the most significant of prose stylists writing in English; his own
work regularly appears in translation and has been published in some thirty
languages. Weinberger’s recent books of essays include An Elemental Thing,
Karmic Traces, and Oranges and Peanuts for Sale (all from New
Directions).  Translations
include Vicente Huidobro’s Altazor, books by Bei Dao, and Borges’ non
fiction.



Xu Xi is a fiction writer and essayist who pushes the borders of both, her
fluidity a reflection of her life as a Hong Kong Chinese woman, born of
Indonesian parents, writing in English.  She is the author of six books,
including Overleaf Hong Kong, History's Fiction and The Unwalled City.



Vahni Capildeo is at the vanguard of a new generation of Caribbean poets who
are both fully conscious of their literary inheritance and ready to extend
and transform it in startling ways. She is the author of three collections:
No Traveler Returns, Person Animal Figure (a Guardian Poetry Book of the
Year for 2005) and, most recently, Undraining Sea. Capildeo is experimental,
but “without fear of traditional subjects or language” (Bernard O’Donoghue).
She often works through the long sequence or book length poem.

Charu Nivedita was born and initially raised in rural Tamilnadu. He has four
novels and many books of essays in Tamil. Zero Degree, his second novel, was
published in English translation by Blaft Books in 2008.  Deeply
transgressive and radical in form and narrative structure, reminiscent of
authors like William Burroughs or Kathy Acker, the book sent shock waves
through the South Indian literary world (and became a huge success) when it
first appeared in Tamil in 1998 and in Malayalam a year later.



Joy Goswami is one of Bengal's foremost poets. He has created an original
poetic idiom in the language and given new directions to contemporary
Bengali poetry.  He has more than 30 published books, including three
volumes of compiled poems numbering close to a thousand, 12 novels, two of
which are written in verse and 5 collections of essays.  A book of poems in
English translation by Sampurna Chattarji is to be published soon.

Anita Agnihotri is a poet and fiction writer who writes intensely and
genuinely about the marginalized in rural India, among whom she has lived
and worked.  She writes in Bengali, but has published two books in English
translation—Forest Interludes and The Awakening (both from Zubaan books).



Vivek Narayanan’s first book of poems, Universal Beach, appeared in 2006.
Publications in anthologies include: 60 Indian Poets (Penguin) and Language
for a New Century: Contemporary Poetry from the Middle East, Asia and Beyond
(W.W. Norton).  He works at Sarai-CSDS and is Consulting Editor for Almost
Island.



Sharmistha Mohanty has published two novels, Book One and New Life, as well
as a recent translation of Tagore's fiction, Broken Nest and Other Stories,
for Tranquebar press. She is the founding Editor of Almost Island and the
initiator of the Almost Island Dialogues.