Rebecca Gould who head of arts at British Council Wales, described how a series of online events attracted an audience keen to hear how culture has helped build connections between Wales and India. In the first of six blogs she talked about the 'Collaborations in literature' event.
Collaborations in literature, was their launch event in partnership with Welsh Government’s Digital Diwali #DiwaliCymru. The event was introduced by Barbara Wickham OBE, Director British Council India and was chaired by Clare Reddington, British Council Trustee and CEO of the Watershed in Bristol. The panel included award winning Welsh poet Natalie Ann Holborow, Alexandra Büchler, Director of Literature Across Frontiers, poet and curator Mamta Sagar and, Arunava Sinha, literary translator and Associate Professor of creative writing, Ashoka University.
Online book launch
The event explored the many recent India-Wales collaborations in literature and saw the launch of ‘Modern Bengali Poetry: Desire for fire’ by Parthian Books, a leading publishing house based in Wales. The book celebrates over one hundred years of poetry from the two Bengals - the Eastern Indian state and the country of Bangladesh - represented by over fifty different poets and a multitude of forms and styles, selected and translated by Arunava Sinha.
There was a powerful poetry recital by Arunava Sinha who went on to talk about his personal connection to Wales as he grew up reading poetry by Dylan Thomas. He spoke about his book Modern Bengali Poetry and thanked Richard Davies at Parthian Books for conceptualizing and publishing the book.
