February 2022

MAnoj Das was widely admired by his readers for his powerful portrayal of people’s lives in traditional Indian society. His works were particularly known for their fusion of realism and fantasy. This made him the most popular writer of Odia origin.

“Manoj Das was an interpreter of ancient traditions, who, in his works, brought together not only eras but also literary currents, from Antiquity to modernity” Professor Rudra Thulasidoss alias Ilambharathi, nonagenarian multilingual writer-translator who was in translate Das’ novel Amruta Phala (The Divine Fruit) in Tamil for Sahitya Akademi, ThePrint said.

The bilingual writer

In the words of historian Ramachandra Guha, “there are those who are functionally bilingual; and others who are intellectually and emotionally bilingual. Manoj Das belonged to the latter.

A few decades ago, when Das was writing in Odia, his mother tongue, he felt that the Indo-Anglian fiction that claimed to depict Indian life was not doing him justice. In his own words, “It was an anxiety to project Indian life that motivated me to write in English.” His attachment to rural life was more natural, and childhood memories of the villages of Odisha made him “present an authentic atmosphere of rural life in India”. This appears much more prominently in his memoirs Chasing the Rainbow: Growing up in an Indian Villagepublished in 2004.

Das made his debut as an English writer in 1967 with his collection of short stories titled A Song for Sunday and Other Stories. As an Indo-Anglian writer, he had won praise from his peers such as Mulk Raj Anand and Ruskin Bond among others. He is famous for his works which include The Escaped, Concepts and Literary Antiquities of India, The Submerged Valley and Other Tales, The Bridge in the Moonlit Night, Cyclones, Mystery of the Missing Cap, Myths, The Lady with the Crocodile, Farewell to the Ghost, A Tiger at dusk and Legends among others.

In fact, Das did not translate his works into another language. If he found the particular theme exciting, he would “attempt a new performance” in another language. In an interview he said: “If I translate, I cannot be called a bilingual writer. By its very definition, a bilingual writer is one who writes in two languages. They basically stay the same, but since I’m the writer, I can take the liberty of changing them or reconstructing or elaborating on a certain situation while rewriting it in the second language.

Das has also written extensively for children. In an interesting encounter, he said he had no idea Harry Potter series and its popularity among Indian children. It was in 2001, when the children of English-speaking Indian homes had become “Potterheads”.

Das was prolific. In addition to these literary works, his columns appeared regularly in almost all the newspapers…The Times of India, The Hindustan Times, The Hindu and The statesman. Between the 1970s and 1980s, he also contributed his stories to India’s Illustrated Weekly and The footprint. He was editor-in-chief of The patrimonya cultural magazine published by Chandamama from 1985 to 1989.

“.. Written by Creative Inspiration; some are written for joy; some are out of a commitment to society. The columns I wrote for newspapers were driven by the latest,” he said in an interview with Mother India in 1998.

The western world had identified Manoj Das in the early 1970s. His works of literary fiction were published in Ascension, Le Carleton Miscellaneous, and an avant-garde newspaper The New York Blacksmith among others. Editor Alan Maclean chose Manoj Das to edit an anthology for Macmillan in 1971.

Das was the first writer from Odia to win the Sahitya Akademi Prize for his short stories Manoj Dasanka Katha or Kahani in 1972, alongside Jayakanthan for Tamil. He was the only writer to have received the Odisha Sahitya Akademi Award twice in 1965 and 1989 for his works. Aranyak and Kete Diganta (Part-I & II) respectively. He was the second writer to be awarded the Sarala Puraskar in 1980 after Surendra Mohanty. His novel Odia Amrita Phala won him the Saraswathi Samman Prize in 2000.

His major works in Odia include Sesa Basantara Chithi, Dhumabha Diganta O Anyana Kahani, Manoj Panchabinsatiand Tuma Gaan O Anyanya Kavita among others. Today, his works are available in several languages. Das had also served as a member of the General Council of Sahitya Akademi between 1998 and 2002. The Government of India honored him with the Padma Shri in 2001. He was also awarded one of the highest literary honors – the Sahitya Akademi Scholarship, reserved for ‘ the immortals of literature’ in 2006.

Youth

Born in the coastal village of Sankhari in Balasore district of Odisha in 1934, Manoj Das witnessed the cyclonic devastations, famines and lootings of the century. He spent his childhood in the villages, “allowing himself to be charmed by myths and folklore”. His pen articulated his encounters, and so his first anthology of poems, Satavdira Artanada, came out when he was just 14 years old. The following year his short stories were published. Das is said to have had an early influence from the works of Fakir Mohan Senapathy, the father of modern Odia literature. He also said in an interview that he was inspired by the work of Somadeva Kathasaritsagara and Vishnu Sharma Panchatantra.

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Stalin’s Disciple to Aurobindo’s Disciple

In school and college, Manoj Das was inclined towards the idea of ​​Marxism. As a student leader, he led protests and was imprisoned for provocative speeches in 1955. Following this, he was sent to Bandung, Indonesia to attend an Afro-Asian student conference in 1956, where he escaped an attack by an anti-communist group. . When he returned he wrote Indonesia Anubhuti, an account of this trip. Das was devastated when he learned of Joseph Stalin’s ruthless actions in the Soviet Union. Much later, when he remembered it, Das had apparently wondered, “What if a believer in Stalin had died before the report (Kruschev’s de-Stalinization report)?” He would have died without knowing the truth, with the conviction that Stalin was the embodiment of all that was good.

He taught English at Christ College, Cuttack, for four years. It was at this time that he wrote A trip to the jungle (later made into the movie Aranyaka in 1994 by AK Bir) at a time of transition when he had lost his beliefs about all political and philosophical beliefs. He married Pratijna Devi from royal offspring of Kujang. It was recorded that a child was born to them who did not survive even a few weeks. Das had mentioned that it was then that his search for the meaning of life led him to Sri Aurobindo. Following this, he and his wife arrived in Pondicherry in 1963. They taught English and Psychology respectively at the Sri Aurobindo International Center for Education here.

Manoj Das criticized modernism and observed that the “pleasure-seeking” attitude defeated the true purpose of life. In an interview published in 2001, he deplored “human conscience is blunted today by popularization, consumerism, the brutalization of politics and values”. He also, on one occasion, mentioned that he disliked Arundhati Roy’s film. The God of Little Things. “Forty percent is eroticism, it commits violence against the English language and is calculated to sell,” he said.

Manoj Das has lived and written from Pondicherry for over five decades. The ailing writer died in Union territory in April 2021.

(Edited by Sukriti Vats)

Naturally, it looks and feels like all the cards have been tossed, but I’m better now than I was a week ago. Ness lay down on her bed and fell asleep. Ness was gorgeous – her skin was so incredibly clear. Ness pointed out that my shirt was still a bit unbuttoned. Ness said she wasn’t thinking about boobs. Ness said she would only read a St. Petersburg story if I killed myself at the end. Ness thinks my desire for beauty is like someone else’s desire for money. Ness was caressing me and I had my white tank top on. New sheets for the bed. New York, I think, made me depressed. Next week I will get a gym membership. Next year is going to be great, I hope. Long after we were done lying there, holding him, but at some point it became too much, and that’s when I had to leave. Nine years later, almost the exact same thing. No email checking on Sundays. No cigarettes this year. It is useless to fantasize, to delude yourself that he wants you when he does not. There is no point in knowing anything in advance. No grandmother. Person. No matter how nice or interesting these people are, it’s not worth it. No money. More mysticism — or not as much. No more publishing in textbooks. No more doubt. No more stupid homework. Do not worry anymore. No one at this point in history knows how to live, so we read biographies and memoirs, hoping for clues. Nobody sees, nobody applauds. No phone, no internet. No union is without its empty spaces. None of his work required him. None of this provokes the slightest wave of emotion in me. None of this is very interesting to read, and I know it won’t be interesting for me to read it later.

Nora gave me a piece of pink jewelry to remind me of the pink shoes I didn’t buy. Not a very literary editor. Not boys, ideas, writing or being super cute. Don’t buy expensive gifts for people. Not casual, pose. Not decadent, narcissistic, meaningless, worthless. Do not drink alcohol or coffee or even black tea. Not enough brains to distribute among us humans. Not enough girls in my week. Not enough time to walk, be alone and think. Not everyone needs a home with other people. Not everyone needs a spouse and children. Not everyone does it, but that’s part of the reason for its success. Do not smoke cigarettes. Don’t spend money. Do not keep in touch by phone – only by postcards or letters. Neither filmmakers, nor fashion designers, nor chefs. Not physicists. Don’t waste a life. Do not be afraid to marry or marry. Do not live according to images but according to time. Do not live according to history but according to feelings. Not reaching out to her out of love when I want to be reassured is not the same thing. That’s not to say you should live a life as a monk without a partner or other humans, but remember what you’re actually married to and marry like in your girlish fantasies you imagined you’d marry a man. No more talking to Rosa about my romances – she’s too influential, the things she tells me. Stop using the book as an excuse for anything, because there will always be a book. No more worrying about sentences or numbers. Don’t worry about opportunity. Don’t worry too much about things. Not wanting painful feelings. Not wanting to fill that void with him. Dumb boys aren’t fun to be around. Note for the future. Nothing can damage the writing. Nothing other people do is because of you. Nothing really happened this month. Now, all of a sudden, I want Pavel. Now all the men I loved the most are lost to me, and all the lesser men too. Now he’s gone and I feel better. Now he sees someone else now. Now I drink tea. Now I feel bad. Now that I’m tired, I’ll write another story and go to bed. Now I don’t live honestly anymore. Now I am reading fiction again. Now I’m reading “Lady Chatterley’s Lover.” Now I think about my book and how everything was on track until Pavel said the other night, “Maybe if it contained some emotion, your 700-page book could makes it worth reading.” Now I come to the part of the night I don’t want to write about, because I started getting drunk and woke up this morning with shame and regret. Now I want to cry. Now I feel pretty calm; if only i could put a system in place to not waste money. Now I have Dave Hickey’s agent. I now know what to do with my book. Now I think I finally understand trust: you can’t have real trust with a person if you show them a mask. Now I want to cry even more. Now I’m back to this? Now I am crying and feeling very hurt, angry, upset and neglected. Now it’s later in the summer. It is now 1am. Now it’s climbing, and later it will be grazing. Now is a story of a girl who searches for herself, gives up art in the meantime, tries to find ways to live that look like art but aren’t art, can’t find the answer for how to make art that isn’t art while at home, so goes and travels the world trying to figure it out, but nothing happens there either; her mother calls her home to help her clean up her childhood things from the basement, the daughter comes back, is broke, starts working in a hair salon when she meets a hairdresser who is so awesome for she — is a model of professionalism and mastery — and she realizes that’s what she wants to be, a master of her craft, so she leaves the salon and returns to the art knowing where, how and in which direction to go. Now my feet are going numb and my legs are weak. Now my whole body is cold, very cold. Now that the book is finished, I can engage with it, I think. Now that the book is finished, I don’t need to panic anymore. Now the next 12 years begin. Now the sky is the color of computers.

Author Rosemary Jenkinson has denounced her former publisher, Doire Press, for withdrawing its offer to publish her first novel. The Galway-based small independent press made the decision after the Belfast writer penned a controversial article in Fortnight magazine last October wondering why his fellow writers in the North were ‘reeking more than ever on the corpse of the Troubles’ and advocated that they “modernize [their] concerns”.

Jenkinson suggested that the success of Anna Burns’ Booker-winning Milkman and Lisa McGee’s Channel 4 comedy series Derry Girls had encouraged imitators to “peddle that narrow-minded Belfast Noir”. The article drew an outpouring of criticism on social media, although Jenkinson says she also received plenty of support, including from writers Mike McCormack and Anne Devlin. Crime writer Sharon Dempsey responded with an article in The Irish Times, titled Don’t Mention the War: Why Writers Shouldn’t Tackle The Troubles?

“Whatever you say, say nothing – the old refrain by which we lived and were silenced,” Dempsey wrote, “is still brandished, except this time it’s by a writer [Jenkinson].” Dempsey argued that Northern writers had in fact had to overcome enormous resistance to have their stories of the Troubles published and continued: “In the absence of a truth and reconciliation process, fiction offers a space to determine how we navigate the past in order to move forward.”

Within days, Jenkinson said, Doire Press emailed him advising of their decision to rescind their offer to publish his novel. “There was no prior conversation; no phone calls to discuss their concerns; no right of reply was granted to me. They had agreed to publish my novel and scheduled it, but wrote that after reading my article in Quinzaine, they were “not ready to take the risk of publication”. You seem to have chosen to upset the majority of your Belfast peers. They added: “You are entitled to have your opinions and express them as you see fit, but with all the work that a book is and how difficult it is to sell them, we need writers who will try to expand their audience, not shrink it.

Jenkinson, whose Doire Press Lifestyle Choice 10mg short story collection was shortlisted for the 2021 Edge Hill Prize, said it was “ludicrous” to suggest her readership had dwindled or that she had upset the majority of writers north. -Irish. “If, as my (former) editor said, I have the right to express my opinions, they should have continued to support and promote my work when I did. They have every right to disagree, or even get angry under the collar of what I write, but their action was disproportionate.

“This email shook me and I wonder: what exactly is the function of writers these days? Is it just about writing congratulatory tweets and keeping quiet about the relevant issues of the day? I have always admired fearless explorers of society and politics like Milan Kundera who refused to limit himself.

John Walsh and Lisa Frank, editors at Doire Press, replied: “The decision not to go ahead with Rosemary’s novel was not a matter of censorship but was financial. From the start, we knew that Rosemary was controversial in her opinions and in her writing, which we never hesitated and, in fact, encouraged.

“With the exception of a novel published in 2011, we only publish collections of poetry and short stories, so publishing Rosemary’s novel had to be a very big step and a very big risk for us financially, because we are anyway such a small operation, and especially after the growing difficulties that the Covid is causing us.

“That said, we’ve always made it very clear to our writers the importance of expanding a writer’s audience and viewed it as a partnership. That’s why we used all-expenses-paid reading tours and paid workshops, which Rosemary benefited from.

“So we were extremely concerned about Rosemary’s article in Quinzaine. We felt the piece was misguided. We also felt it was likely to alienate a significant number of people who would be the core readership of Rosemary’s novel. Rosemary of course has every right to express her opinions publicly. However, in our opinion, the effect of the play was likely to reduce his readership rather than expand his readership, and so we decided that we could no longer afford to take the already significant financial risk of publishing his novel.

“We also felt that we could no longer afford to devote the necessary resources to the full publishing of Rosemary’s novel due to the now very questionable financial return. Unfortunately, under these circumstances, we thought Rosemary would be better off with another editor. (We knew that Rosemary had published a collection of short stories with a different press and we had already wished her success with this publication).

“Rosemary agreed in November that it was best for us to part ways, we did so without acrimony. We are very proud of the two Doire Press books published by Rosemary, and wish her well in her future career.

Jenkinson is currently writing a play for the Abbey Theater called Manichea, which she says contrasts today’s ‘cancellation culture’ with our 1960s past. “What people don’t realize, it’s that being censored for holding certain ideas is very much alive in Irish literature.”

“Imagine if Colm Tóibín was dropped by Viking for his commentary on genre fiction; whether John Banville was shown the door by Faber & Faber for saying he despised the revival movement; if John Boyne was released by Penguin for expressing his trans views,” Jenkinson said. “If that were the case, publisher slander and free speech petitions would no doubt ensue. The majority of people assume that the suppression and punishment of free speech is a rare thing and belongs to the least tolerant nations of the world. Surely, they think, this could not happen in contemporary Ireland, north or south.

“Irish publishers have great power due to weak competition, but they should refrain from abusing it. Ultimately, if an editor lets an article trump an author’s passion for writing, it strikes at the heart of what writers do. This clearly demonstrates how power can be misused. In contrast, Alan Hayes of Arlen House has fully supported me in writing what I believe to be true, as he was a strong advocate of free speech for many decades. I’m lucky to have future plans with Arlen House, but the danger is that for some writers, being fired for expressing opinions can spell the end of their publishing careers.

I’ve spent a lot of time this pandemic being deeply obsessed with Dungeons & Dragons. I started watching a ton of D&D shows like critical role, Oxventureand Rating 20, and I joined a D&D group to play the game myself. We meet every Tuesday, my terrible wizard is only 30 hit points, and it’s the highlight of my week. D&D lets you live out some of your most deeply desired fantasies; having a group of friends to hang out with, earning an appropriate amount of money for whatever work you do, and taking a long rest from time to time. And, in the 80s, you could add romance to that wish list.

Dungeons & Dragons is enjoying a resurgence in popularity right now and it’s easy to forget the true age of the game. Created in 1974 by Gary Gygax, the game has gone through many different iterations in pop culture. It’s been misunderstood, reviled as satanic, despised as the haven of basement goons, and caricatured for cheap comedic points in sitcoms and movies. At various points in its history, D&D has attempted to shed these stereotypes to show that tabletop RPGs can be for everyone. This resulted in a focus on publishing fantasy fiction from the 1980s, leading to the launch of the Dragonlance novels and the creation of other memorable settings and characters like the drow ranger Drizzt Do’Urden and the wizard/adventurer Volothamp Geddarm.

Looking for a way to involve more young women in the role play (despite the fact that girls have been playing from the start, but that’s a whole different story), Dungeons & Dragons also branched out and commissioned a series of Choose Your Own Adventure-style romance novels. Since you probably haven’t heard of them, you can fairly assume that they didn’t set the publishing world on fire, but they are fascinating relics, especially for D&D fans and/or fans. or romance novels from the 80s. Personally, I had never heard of these books either, until I came across an amazing Twitter thread from 2019 in which Rebecca B (@arkhamlibrarian) shared the details of the first four novels, which completely blew my mind…

The first thing that came to mind was that in taking this approach to reaching a new audience, D&D clearly recognized a reality that many others tend to overlook: romance novels are widely read, widely shared and often very lucrative for the publisher. For too long, the romance genre has been denigrated or dismissed as silly or worthless for reasons firmly rooted in sexism and misogyny, despite the fact that the genre is (and has long been) hugely popular and commercially successful. It’s perhaps no surprise that the folks behind D&D, very used to being fired for similar short-sighted reasons, were willing to give it a shot.

Called “HeartQuest Books,” the first set of six novels were written by novelists under pseudonyms. Each book took a character class from D&D (druid, wizard, rogue, etc.) and cast a young female protagonist in that role, discovering her magic and worth in a dangerous fantasy world while facing trials and tribulations. tribulations of falling into loving. Each book was illustrated by Larry Elmore, well known for his fantastic illustrations, including his illustrations and concept art for other D&D projects and materials. His paintings gave the books a more classic fantasy lineage and gave them a signature style similar to D&D gamebooks of the time.

The stories in the books themselves feel slightly overworked, like all the best classic 80s romance novels, and yet genuinely fun and exciting. The first novel in the series, Ruby Dragon Ring by Jeannie Black, is the story of Chandelle, a young woman who must save her kidnapped jeweler father from a great evil with a bag of magical gems. The book is written in the second person, with the reader assuming the role of Chandelle as she faces various choices. At your side are the handsome knight Coren and the mischievous fighter Sir Torbeck, who compete for your affection while helping you pull off this most daring rescue. Call me crazy, but I want to read this right now. Chandelle’s Adventures looks action-packed and dramatic in the best way, suitable for a lazy afternoon of reading (or as a jumping-off point for a hilarious D&D session with friends).

The other books are apparently just as fantastic, presenting you as a druid priestess falling in love with a charismatic and secretive bard, or as a lady knight torn between a noble thief and a cunning mage. Since they’re written in the Choose Your Own Adventure style, the books offer readers the feeling of participating in a D&D campaign and determining your own destiny (no dice necessary!), with the added benefit of a immediate replay as you try to find the best ending for these characters. Honestly, it’s such a great idea that I almost want D&D to try again. The books kind of evoke the same fantastic female-centric vibes that Garth Nix did. Sabriel or Tamora Pierce’s Tortall books – and even now we can always use more of them in the fantasy genre.

Alas, the early HeartQuest books did not sell as well as the publisher had expected, and the series was canceled after six volumes. Paperbacks are hard to come by now and considered expensive rarities if you manage to nab one. It’s a shame, it looks like they were really onto something here. Branching out into the romance genre was a new strategy for D&D in the 80s and it didn’t seem to fit as well as they would have hoped back then – it’s not like today, where popular D&D romances like critical roleCaleb Widogast and Essek Thelyss rack up thousands and thousands of hits on Twitter and Archive of Our Own. There are tons of guides online on how to introduce romance into your D&D campaigns and it’s become an interesting game mechanic to try out. Romance is no longer just for bards seducing dragons!

So maybe it’s time to give it another shot. What do you say, Wizards of the Coast? It’s time to give D&D romance novels a second chance and make it work this time… I’ll be the first to pre-order a set! My terrible wizard with 30 hit points could really use some help.

Originally published November 2021.

Meghan Ball is a writer, editor and goth disaster. She enjoys playing guitar, cross-stitching, and spending too much time on Twitter. You can find it there at @EldritchGirl. His work has been published in Uncanny Magazine, Tor Nightfire and the 3,2,1…Action! series of role-playing games. She currently lives in a weird part of New Jersey.

In his latest book “Trust Me” ($16.99 HarperCollins/Thomas Nelson), Irvin takes on two fellow San Antonio residents, while providing his usual colorful travel diary of some of the city’s most popular sights. city.

“Trust Me” revolves around the murder of Delaney Broward’s best friend, Ellie, whom she finds stabbed to death in Ellie’s candle shop in La Villita. To compound the tragedy, Broward’s brother, Corey, was similarly murdered 10 years earlier.

Shortly after discovering Ellie’s body, Delaney is attacked by the killer, who warns her, “Stay out of this or you’re next.”

Of course, she doesn’t.

Meanwhile, Delaney’s boyfriend Hunter, who was convicted of Corey’s murder, has just been released from prison and asks for Delaney’s help in investigating both murders.

“So the story is basically about trust,” Irvin said recently, sitting in the cozy living room of her Helotes home, a jet with images of shelves full of books on the chair behind her. “Delaney still has feelings for Hunter, but can she trust him when he says he’s not a murderer?”

In addition to La Villita, Irvin staged his grisly tales of murder and mayhem at such San Antonio locations as the Alamo, Haven for Hope, the downtown courthouse, and the Market Square.

Although she didn’t live here, she said San Antonio was an ideal setting for her novels.

“There are so many iconic and historic places here,” she said. “I was being interviewed about this book by a woman who said, ‘We came to San Antonio when I was a kid and I remember visiting La Villita.’ So many readers can imagine these places when they read my books.”

Originally from Kansas, Irvin worked for 10 years as a journalist in El Paso and Laredo before moving to San Antonio in 1989 when her husband, Tim, a videographer, got a job at a television station here.

Now 64, Irvin has been writing fiction for nearly 20 years and has a total of around 30 romantic thrillers and Amish novels to her credit. But even with such a track record, changing attitudes toward cultural appropriation and representation are forcing her to rethink who she writes about and how she writes about them.

“It’s definitely on everyone’s mind, and everyone approaches their books with a very keen eye towards, ‘Is this my story to tell?'” she said. . “It’s something I’m hypersensitive to and maybe wasn’t before.”

But as a genre writer, she’s also aware that following the “write what you know” advice often given to authors would severely limit the number of novels she could write and the kinds of people she could portray. .

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“So how do I balance that?” she asked. “Especially in a place like San Antonio which is so diverse, so multicultural. I struggled with that because even though I think I know someone’s story, I didn’t walk in those shoes.

One possible answer, she said, is to have a so-called beta reader, someone who is a member of the group she is writing about – whether ethnic, racial or religious – read her manuscripts before the publication and reviews them for missteps and inauthenticities. When she told her agent that she was planning to write a character with muscular dystrophy, for example, the agent mentioned that she had a client with the disease who could review the story to check it out. ‘exactness.

Irvin recently submitted a proposal to her publisher for three books in what would be a new genre for her: women’s fiction.

“It’s more of a family drama, like what Jodi Picoult writes,” she said. “Books that address issues such as domestic violence and postpartum depression.”

Although she touched on such topics in her Amish romance novels, these new books would be set in the secular world and feature women in their 50s facing real-world challenges such as empty nest syndrome, relationship problems and divorce.

“I also want to write about people with health issues, which is pretty important to me,” she said. “How the disease can affect the families of the characters, their spouses and their work. I think these issues can create stories that people can relate to.

In this case, she would write what she knows.

Six years ago, Irvin was diagnosed with primary lateral sclerosis, a motor neuron disease that, although usually non-fatal, slowly destroys nerve cells in the brain that control movement.

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But Irvin’s health has not deteriorated, and since she is also battling ovarian cancer, her doctors have since changed her diagnosis to paraneoplastic syndrome.

“Put simply, my immune system tried to fight off the cancer and attacked my central nervous system instead,” said Irvin, who walks on a wheeled walker. “The good news is that as long as we keep the cancer under control, my condition will not get worse.”

[email protected] | Twitter: @RichardMarini

The discourse around #OwnVoices has changed a lot over the past six or seven years. To put it simply (for now), #OwnVoices generally refers to fictional novels featuring places and characters from a specific background written by authors of similar experience. The idea is to uplift people who are marginalized because of their race, ethnicity, sexuality, ability, nationality, religion, etc., because the publishing industry and Booksellers often donate resources to those outside of these communities to tell their stories. (Or “flood” in the case of Jeanine Cummins American dirt.)

At no time has this term ever been used to describe non-fiction autobiographies and memoirs in general, especially those unrelated to marginalization. Unfortunately, a Barnes & Noble tasked with setting up a #OwnVoices table didn’t get the memo.

How did it happen

In addition to the issue of fiction versus non-fiction, we know there is a big gap in understanding. Even the books of the full (cropped) image, shared by author Ivelisse Housman (which shows about half of the painting), are not very diverse.

A commenter (not from the exact location) said that Barnes & Noble head office no longer sends employees a list of books to include for their table boards. This decentralization allows individual stores to choose books based on the needs of their communities, which is likely a net benefit because they know their community better. This is why those at BookTok also see different Barnes & Nobles accounts based on location.

Unfortunately, those already underpaid employees (most earn minimum wage or a dollar above in their states) at the largest chain of brick-and-mortar bookstores probably don’t have time at work to figure out what that means. term. .

They won’t experience #OwnVoices unless they’re in a community with other bookish people online. That’s why, even if the company puts the work on the employees, I’m not going to sit here and be completely upset about this particular store location.

Barnes & Noble (if they continue to use #OwnVoices) should pivot a sub-theme for stores based on identity and use their vast resources (not that) to provide advice to stores. Additionally, ongoing DEI training for more diverse and better paid staff would help mitigate such mistakes, if only to drive sales by appealing to an increasingly diverse audience that will choose alternatives.

Why do people completely drop the term

This diversion is emblematic of the fact that the expression has become more and more diluted over time, after publishers and chain stores have taken it over. On June 6, 2021, advocacy group We Need Diverse Books released a statement explaining why they also decided to drop using the term. They wrote:

#OwnVoices was created as a hashtag by author Corinne Duyvis in September 2015. It was originally designed as a short-form book recommendation tool in a Twitter feed, allowing readers to recommend books by authors who openly shared the diverse identities of their lead characters. The hashtag was never intended to be used in a broader capacity, but has since widened in usage to become a “catch-all” marketing term by the publishing industry. The use of #OwnVoices in this capacity raises issues due to the vagueness of the term, which has subsequently been used to place various creators in uncomfortable and potentially dangerous situations. It’s important to use the language that the writers want to celebrate about themselves and their characters.

These “uncomfortable and potentially dangerous situations” include circumstances such as authors who are not publicly “excluded” in some capacity, for security reasons, being excluded from the positive elevation provided by #OwnVoices. Another example I’ve seen is feuds within diasporas as the disconnect grows between author intent and marketing motivation (by the publisher) to appear inclusive.

There continue to be many more conversations about whether #OwnVoices is doing more harm than good. Either way, in all of these situations, people tend to be at least on the same page that we’re talking about fictional narratives and marginalization, not Hunter Biden’s memoir.

(via Twitter, photo: Alyssa Shotwell)

—The Mary Sue has a strict commenting policy that prohibits, but is not limited to, personal insults towards anybodyhate speech and trolling.—

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Srinagar: Did you meet a Kashmiri teenager with a passion for Nazism or the fictional 19th century British detective Sherlock Holmes?

In the current age of the Internet, where reading habits are declining, the young writer Muhammad Hussain Khan is not only interested in Nazism and English literature, but also wrote a book about the German dictator Adolf Hitler and tried to recreate Sherlock Holmes in another collection of short stories.

Hussain, who recently took the Class XII exams, was just 16 when he published his first book ‘Man of the Reich’ which describes how Hitler spent his last days in a bunker during the Berlin War. from 1945. Later he published another book called “Consulting Detective” which he said was a tribute to Sherlock Holmes and now at the age of 19 he is back with a spy thriller “Guerrilla -8XV – Espionage, Black Ops, New World Order”. .

Even though the Kashmir Valley has recently seen a surge of amateur writers eager to get published and tell their stories to the world, Hussain’s choice of subjects has amazed readers.

“I was nine years old when I wrote a comic and later my passion for writing grew when I read ‘The Time Machine’ written by the father of science fiction HG Wells. In the meantime, I developed a lot of interest in history and international relations in addition to fiction. At that time, I didn’t know much about publishing, but an editor once heard my speech about Adolf Hitler at a reception. He encouraged me to write and that’s how I published my first book which describes how Hitler spent his last days in a bunker,” said Hussain, originally from Rambagh district of the city, at the Kashmir Monitor.

He said his second book was a collection of short stories where he attempted to recreate Sherlock Holmes and now his current book had a Kashmir connection as well.

“People were surprised by the choice of my subjects. My first book wasn’t widely read because I felt people here weren’t interested in Adolf Hitler or Nazism. My second book that I published when I was 17 was a tribute to Sherlock Holmes and it’s a collection of short stories. Now my third book is a spy novel whose story will begin in Tehran, Iran. Although the events will take place in Kashmir, the whole story will revolve around different countries. The protagonist of the story must carry out missions that will pave the way for the new world order. The book is ready for publication by a New Delhi-based publisher,” he said.

“From Moscow to the Royal Opera House in London, the story unfolds in a dramatic tone. The novel provides insight into the gritty world of espionage where a new world order is being set up. The story is action packed with lots of historical references which can be educational,” he added.