Mountain Echoes – A Literary Festival

From Mita Kapur of Siyahi

Mountain Echoes – A Literary Festival

Siyahi presents Mountain Echoes – a literature festival focusing on the magic and mystique of writings off and from the Himalayan regions. The three-day literary festival will be held between 15th and 20th May 2010 in Thimphu, Bhutan, under the aegis of the India Bhutan Foundation who will be hosting the entire festival.

Bhutan, a little kingdom in the shadows of the Himalayas provides a perfect setting for the festival which will communicate tales of our shared landscape in the Himalayan region, both as places of ecological and inspirational value as well as the region’s cultural leitmotif always underscored by a spirit of adventure. The air and atmosphere of Bhutan helps creating a mood of liveliness, joie de vivre and a cherishing of moments where stories are told, poems and song are sung.

The programme will be spread over three days and will focus on unique stories from the mountains with writers from different tracts of the Trans-Himalayan belt, sharing their ideas and literary traditions. Mountain Echoes will provide a platform for authors from India and Bhutan to get together and engage in a cultural dialogue and understand the Indian and Bhutanese literature in all its myriad forms and dimensions. The event will also bring some international authors, poets and performers together at the colourful and vibrant land of the lamas. It will be a major step taken to create an interface between the cultural relationship shared by India and Bhutan. Creative interpretations of the diverse richness found in mountain stories will be at the heart of the festival, to promote an understanding and appreciation of these very special spaces of ecological and cultural distinctiveness. Namita Gokhale is the Programme Consultant and advisor for the festival. The festival was conceptualised by Pavan K. Varma who is currently the Indian Ambassador to Bhutan.

Her Majesty, Ashi Dorji Wangmo Wangchuck, Karma Singye Dorji, Karma Ura, Kinley Dorji, Kunzang Choden, Khyentse Norbu and Sonam Kinga from Bhutan will gather for sessions like Hills are Alive, Beyond the Frame, Of Women, By Women, Travellers and Magicians, Winds of Change, and Languages of Belonging to share the stories, tales and folk narratives of Bhutan. The speakers’ list also includes Patrick French, Chetan Bhagat, Namita Gokahle, Pavan K. Varma, Mamang Dai, Kynpham Sing, Kirin Narayan, Leila Seth, Temsula Ao, Ravi Singh, Urvashi Butalia, Bulbul Sharma, Kirin Narayan, Omair Ahmad and Sampurna Chattarji. They will participate in sessions like Bhutan through the Ages, Grandmother's Tales, History & Biographies, Language and Identity, Poetry and Archery, Shared Dreams and Shared Metaphors, Young Readers, Young Writers, Writing about Mountains, Architecture and Heritage, Music, Love, Poetry, These Hills called Home, and The Himalayas to name a few.

Caferati Listings - A Resurrection and a Change in Format

As you may have noticed, busy lives notwithstanding, I haven't been able to send out a Listing edition for quite a while now. More than six months, to be imprecise.

A day job is one reason (I work for a magazine), but not the only one. Putting things into the format, fact-checking, getting enough together to put a decent edition together, writing the little introductions (yes, even that); all these things take time. And with me being one of the world's finest exponents of the fine art of procrastination, it meant, well, that things didn't get done.

So, rather than kill Caferati Listings off, I'm going to experiment with changing the format. Rather than a digest of at least ten writing opportunities, I'm going to send out a mail every time I spot a decent lead.

There will never be more than one email a day; more likely it's going to be about one a week.

Other things remain the same: we decide what we want to post; we are happy to take recommendations, tip-offs and submissions (see this page for details on how to recommend and submit, please); Caferati’s editors are the only ones who will have access to the email address you use to subscribe to Caferati Listings (and we will never sell, rent or lend this list to any other person or organisation); and we won't charge you for Listings.
Cheers then, and you'll hear from us in the new format very soon.

Caferati Listings is a free newsletter from Caferati that goes out simultaneously to subscribers via Google Groups and Yahoo!Groups. Caferati Listing sends out information of use to writers, including writing opportunities, contests, jobs and calls for submission.
More information about Caferati Listings, including how to send in tips, suggestions and your own listings on this page.
Listings come from submissions, reader suggestions (always attributed), tips from friends (likewise), newsletters we subscribe to, posts on our forum and what we fondly call "research." We present them in good faith. This cannot be construed as an endorsement. Your are advised to satisfy yourself on bona fides before you submit anything to anyone included on this list. And that includes us.
To read archives, or invite others to join the list: log in to the Caferati Listing Google Groups or Yahoo! Groups pages.