South Asian voices: Our Diwali 2022 celebration
To celebrate Diwali 2022, Wellington City Libraries and The Cuba Press brought together some of Aotearoa’s finest award-winning writers to talk about their work.
The first of these events were held at Newtown Library on Wednesday 26 October and, with such a stellar panel involved, we thought it was fitting to record the event and create a permanent record.
The authors who took part in the Newtown event were:
Brannavan Gnanalingam – (Winner Best Novel prize at the Ngaio Marsh Awards and shortlisted for the 2021 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards.) Brannavan Gnanalingam is also a lawyer and the author of seven novels, three of which have been listed for the Ockham NZ Book Awards. His latest novel is Slow Down, You’re Here.
Rijula Das – Rijula Das is an author and translator and the programmer for Verb Readers and Writers Festival. She received a PhD in Creative Writing in Singapore and her debut novel A Death in Shonagachhi was published in India where it won the Tata Literature Live! First Book Award. It is being published this year in USA and elsewhere as Small Deaths.
Rajorshi Chakraborti – Rajorshi Chakraborti was born in Kolkata and grew up there and in Mumbai, and now lives in Wellington with his family. He has published six novels and a collection of short fiction – The Man Who Would Not See was longlisted for the Ockham NZ Book Awards and his latest novel is Shakti.
Sudha Rao – Sudha Rao was originally from South India before migrating to New Zealand. She trained in classical South Indian dance and established Dance Aotearoa New Zealand. Sudha participated in the International Bengaluru Poetry Festival in 2019 and her first collection of poems On Elephant’s Shoulders was published this year.
romesh dissanayake – romesh dissanayake is a chef, poet, writer and artist from Korea, Kazakhstan, and Sri Lanka. He is currently working on his first novel as part of an MA at the International Institute of Modern Letters.
Rupa Maitra – Rupa Maitra is a fiction writer born in New Zealand to Bengali parents. Her book of short stories, Prophecies, was published in 2019.
All these authors have very different voices, with very different things to say about language, home and belonging. All are of the highest calibre, many of whom are already multi-award-winning authors, and so this event was entertaining, stimulating and a fabulous way to celebrate Diwali.
We wish to extend our heartfelt thanks to all the authors involved and The Cuba Press for making this very special event happen.
Please note: Adult topics of a sexual nature are discussed within this event, specifically about Calcutta’s notorious red-light district. Explicit language is also used in this context.