Cultures of peace 2015: Focus on NE writers

By our Staff Reporter
GUWAHATI, Oct 20: The North East Writers’ Forum (NEWF), Zubaan and the Heinrich Boell Foundation are going to hold their 2015 edition of Zubaan’s Cultures of Peace, an event that focuses on the Northeast, on October 24 in Guwahati.
Begun in 2011, Cultures of Peace takes place annually in multiple locations and focuses on writers and writing, as well as music, food, poetry, and more. This year's Cultures of Peace takes place in Guwahati, Bangalore and New Delhi. Supported by the Heinrich Boell Foundation, its Guwahati edition will take place on October 24, 2015 at Guwahati Town Club. Entry is open to all.
Cultures of Peace aims to build bridges and make connections with people in other parts of India and to help create awareness on the region and its present day context. To this end, discussions this year will focus on travel writing, the troubled question of ethnicity, the media and women, new directions in writing and the translators’ dilemma. The participating writers include Arzuman Ara, Meexk Barkataki-Ruscheweyh, Surajit Barooah, Molisa Changkija, Bibash Chaudhry, HN Das, Sruitamala Duara; Arup Kumar Dutta, Uddipa Goswami, Mitra Pukhan, Teresa Rehman; L Somi Roy, Anuradha Sharma Pujari, Anya Shankar Guha, Bijoy T Singh and others.
The NEWF draws its membership across writers and translators working in English across the eight States of the region. Established in 1997, it is a vibrant organization which has an eclectic mix of members, young and senior, many of whom are making significant contributions to Indian writing in English today in diverse genres. This day-long event is the latest in a long line of projects and events undertaken by the Forum, which include an important translation project covering all eight states, as well as several literary festivals.
Zubaan is an independent feminist publisher based in Delhi. It grew out of India’s first feminist press, Kali for Women. Zubaan’s aim is to centre-stage the work of women writers, both tiolly and intertiolly. It publishes both fiction and academic non-fiction, as well as books for young adults.
The Heinrich Boll Stiftung (HBF) is the Green Political Foundation. Headquartered in Berlin (and with an office in Delhi since 2002) and with more than 25 intertiol offices, HBF conducts and supports civic educatiol activities and projects worldwide.