Issue 14/ June 2024 is out now!
A labour of love featuring original and translated writings.
Dear Reader,
We released our quarterly Issue 14 today! You can download and read an e-copy of the magazine here: Issue 14/ June 2024; and read the webzine directly at the website here: Contents/ Issue 14.
We’re very thankful to our readers, contributors, and well-wishers for their support through our journey of publishing fine literature.
The current issue excels in presenting valuable translations from Indian languages alongside original writings. Two stories from Hindi take us to a bygone era: one introduces us to the character of a hangman (jallad) and his tender affection for a young boy; the other takes us to the partition riots in Calcutta and reflects on the cruel terms of public and divine justice. Another translated story from Telugu ponders upon the question of communal harmony and gives a glimpse into the world of those common people who see significations take on different meanings. The author sums up our situation in a somewhat tragicomic imagery: as we hop onto a bicycle backseat and hear the threatening rumbling of the chain, we “start believing that it won’t break;” thus our bicycle of co-existence wheels forward. The poets in this issue raise their voices against the horrors in Palestine and lament the fate of humanity, they weep at the death of children and curse a world that carries forth. A Hindi poet acridly concludes, “Hence, beneath the seemingly complete poem, / There lies an even larger graveyard / The bigger the graveyard, / The greater the poet and the nation.” There are poems of love, separation, longing, heartbreak; and also of the mundane ways in which we become accustomed to love, and get saturated in the other’s company. Some of the poems dwell on women’s encounters in a man’s world, of navigating public spaces and gazing in the mirror for a form of desirability, articulating the murderous frustration and coping with everyday exhaustion. A set of poetry translations from Odia captures the anxiety of the everyday in surprisingly short verses. There are poems on war, on civilization, and on what it means to be human. Another set of songs by a bhakti poet rendered in elegant translation brings to us the ordinary expression of the divine, coupled with a dream of socio-spiritual emancipation. The essays in this issue devote themselves to criticizing socio-cultural dominance through various modes. In thinking through a book of translated classical Tamil poetry, an essayist reflects on her own position of privilege and critical agency. Another takes up the discussion of a film on Hindustani classical music with the filmmaker and attempts to see through the material and mytho-historical constructions of a musical world. A simple essay by a Hindi writer takes up musing on muskmelons and afternoons. Finally, we have a bold and urgent appeal from the artist of the cover art who draws our attention to the casteist business of visual design, politics, and culture.
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We're now reading for our Issue 14, for which submissions are open from June 10, 2024 to August 10, 2024. We invite entries under four categories: short fiction, poetry, essay, and photo story. We strongly encourage translated works in English. Submission guidelines are available on the website. We hope to reach out to people with a love for literature, everywhere. Help us spread the word!
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