Sheroes & the written word

A festival of women, by women and for women. That might be the moniker of this celebration of stories, but this festival brings a whole gamut of experiences and narratives that are global in nature. SheThePeople’s Women Writers’ Festival 2018 in Bengaluru will be held on September 1, 2018 from 10 am to 6 pm. It is a coming together of different mindsets, inclinations, ideas and beliefs to a common platform to debate, and create change. To be held at Gilly’s Redefined in Koramangala, the festival will put the focus back on women writers, be it fiction, nonfiction, short stories, gender narratives, children’s fiction, and the ever-growing community of offline and online book clubs in Bengaluru. 

With an august body of speakers that include Shinie Antony, Jahnavi Barua, Madhavi Mahadevan, Monideepa Sahu, Ruth D’souza Prabhu, Amruta Dongray, Sunayana Roy, Aparna Raman, Tarangini Sriraman, Keerti Ramachandra, Aparna Athreya, Shalini Srinivasan, this edition, promises to spark the women’s movement in writing. 

From fierce and firebrand discussions, the festival will delve into the need for strong female protagonists in children’s fiction. From short story fiction, to chronicling strong women it brings gender narratives and challenges of women authors to the fore.  

Founder Shaili Chopra, Ideas Editor Kiran Manral, and independent consultant Shonali Advani are on a path to give women writing the place it deserves.

For co-curator and Ideas Editor, SheThePeople.tv, Kiran Manral, the festival helps nourish inclusive conversations. “Focussing on topics relevant to women like the need for strong female protagonists, gender and narrative, chronicling the feminine experience and more, my panel will be speaking on whether women authors need to shout louder to be heard. A very relevant discussion especially when you see how skewed awards, reviews etc have been towards male authors,” explains Manral.

The scenario sees a few women writers who have turned the tide in favour of their narrative. Sandhya Menon’s attempt is to explore the idea of a strong woman and what makes her. “I’d like to talk about how these narratives are played out and where. For instance, the way strength and power is expressed on social media is very different from narratives in literature or TV news interviews. And what about the strong women who don’t have a platform for a voice? A matriarch in a small town perhaps who runs a tight ship of a household in a joint family. I’d like to explore their journeys too,” says Sandhya.

Writer Nandita Iyer, a food writer, thinks such platforms help bring about a connect and will be sharing experiences on blogging, food writing, etc. 

Author and Mills and Book writer, Milan Vohra expectantly awaits being able to converse with articulate, reading and thinking women. She was a part of the festival last year, and also liked that people don’t come with the hope of seeing celebrities or clicking selfies at such events, thankfully. “The panels are well-defined, the panelists are in a more cosy and intimate space. I’ll be on a panel where we will talk about book clubs. I’m looking forward to sharing my learning from running Book Masala, the book club I began six years ago.” As she explores the future in book clubs with the emergence of a large number of online book clubs, the atmosphere is ripe for creativity and debate to flow unfettered.

“Our festival is a progressive, safe and buzzing space where women get together to discuss writing independently and fiercely with firebrand authors and writers. While we pioneer a festival like the Women Writers Festival in India across six to seven cities, I do hope works by women not only get popular but also find a larger audience. Next up are — Kolkata and Ahmedabad for us,” Shaili Chopra, organiser of the Women’s Writers Festival, concludes.