06 metro hindustantimes SUNDAY HINDUSTAN T IMES,NEW DELH I

JANUARY 15, 2017

metro@weekend

The literary
magazine finds
a digital lifeline
SAVED BY THE WEB Driven by a love for the written word,
youths have started emagazines with quality creative writings
Manoj Sharma
n manoj.sharma@hindustantimes.com
NEW DELHI: India has always been in the
backseatwhenitcomestoaliterary-mag-
azine culture. In fact, Brooklyn borough
ofNewYorkboastsofmoreliterarymag-
azines than the whole of India.
But lately a host of new digital ven-
tures are trying to change that.
Much like acclaimed literary maga-
zinessuchasTheParisReview,TheNew
Yorker and London Review of Books,
these new online lit-magazines are
named after cities or regions -- The Bom-
bay Review, TheBangaloreReview, The
Madras Mag, Mithila Review, etc.
Visually appealing, these magazines
publish high quality work art, essays,
fiction,non-fiction,poetrymerginggen-
res, forms and realities.
Interestingly, some of them are not
publishedfromthecitiestheyarenamed
after. Mithila Review, from example, is
published from Delhi. Its founder, Salik
Shah,saysDelhiisthebestplacetorunan
independent literary press because it is
the heart of political and intellectual
ferment in the country.
Their founders
have similar stories
to share starting
with little or no
money, a bunch of
literary-minded
friends working for
free, and a dream
and desire to take
serious literatureto
n Kaartikeya Bajpai,
21, founder and
editorinchief of The
Bombay Review.
a wider audience at a time when there
seemstobegrowingenthusiasmforcrea-
tive writing.
India lacks literary magazines, it
doesnt have a Tin House or Granta, or
even a goodBrooklynReview. The Bom-
bay Review aspires to change that. An
Indiathatisincreasinglyreadingonline,
needsliterarymagazines,saysKaartik-
eyaBajpai,21,founderandeditor-in-chief
of The Bombay Review, a bi-monthly
founded in 2014.
The magazine, he says, was started
after he realised the poor ratio of Indian
literary magazines compared to those in
New York or London. While Brooklyn
alonehasoveradozenindependentliter-
ary magazines Breadcrumbs, The
AtlasReview,Epiphany,etc,Indiadoes
notoffer muchinthe genrewith acouple
ofexceptionssuchasMuseIndia,TheLit-
tle Magazine and Biblio, both published
from Delhi.
Suhail Rasheed, who co-founded The
BangaloreReviewin2013,saysthemaga-
zinehasitsgenesisinweekenddiscussion
about art and literature among three
friends. At some point, we realised how
littleliteratureandartsourmodernlives
offer us. These discussions gathered
momentum and formed the Bangalore
Review,saysRasheed,managingeditor
of the magazine.
Themagazines,thefounderssay,give
space to new voices that may or may not
havefoundliteraryvalidationelsewhere
those often marginalised in literary
conversations.
The Bangalore Review receives over
200 submissions every month and The
Bombay Review gets about 150 on an
average.Mostcommonsubmissionsare
poetryandtheleastcommonarenon-fic-
tionessays,althoughwewouldliketosee
more of them, says Rasheed.
The contributors are from diverse
backgrounds -- not just full-time writers
andartists,theyarebankers,lawyers,IT
professionals,businessmen,housewives,
and so on. When we receive a work, it is
n Salik Shah is the founder of Mithila Review. a digital literary magazine published from New Delhi.
forwarded to one of our editors usually
withoutthebiooranybackgroundinfor-
mation.Thisenablesustostayawayfrom
biases, he says.
Many young writers believe these
online literary magazines are levelling
the playing field of literature.I do not
thinkyouhavetobeajournalistorapro-
fessor of English or a seasoned writer to
produce serious, perceptive work, says
AmalSinghwhocontributesshortfiction
forMithilaReview.AnITprofessional,he
workswithacompanythatcreatesvideo
content. One has to understand that
evenanengineercanproducesomething
better than a cheesy love story. These
newonlinemagazineshaveemergedasa
good platform to prove that.
While many believe that print -- and
notpixels--istherightmediumtoreadlit-
erature,thefoundersofthesemagazines
say there is a readership for digital liter-
ary magazines--maybe morethan print.
India has a lot of young and curious
minds that know what they are reading
and creating. I feel old already even
though its been just over a decade or so
since I was coding a website for my
poetry,andreadingallsortsofAmerican
magazines online, says Salik Shah, 28,
co-founder, Mithila Review.
Bajpaiadds,Alotofpeopletodayread
more online than they read print books
andmagazines.Moreover,digitalliterary
magazines ensure readership not only
from one but multiple countries, some-
thingthataprintmagazinewouldrequire
huge funding to achieve.
Sharing how Mithila Review was
founded, Salik says, Any literary or
artisticenterpriseisaresponsetowhats
happening around us; the closer you are
to the centre of action, the stronger and
powerful is the response. Mithila
Review, he says, was specifically a
response to the JNU protests.
Delhiisalwaysaplaceofaction.Delhi
isourmuseitsacitywhichcanbecom-
forting and generous, but also equally
heartless and cruel, like a stubborn
loverimperfectbutcharming,crowded
yet soulful, isolating, says Salik.
Its no coincidence, Salik says, that
someofthemostactivewritersandcritics
in the international science fiction and
fantasy world happen to be from or in
Delhi:VandanaSingh,BodhisattvaChat-
topadhyay,GautamBhatia,SamiAhmad
Khan and others.
Rasheed says aspiring writers consti-
tute a large chunk of the readership of
The Bangalore Review. This is not sur-
prising.Mostpeoplewhoreadseriouslit-
erature have wondered at some point if
they could write themselves, or how to
write or what to write, he says.
Bajpaiadds,Alotofourreadersarein
the18-25agegroup.However,onlinesta-
tisticsandsocialmediaanalyticsshowwe
aregainingalotofreadersbetween30and
55 years now.
SowhydoesIndialackaliterarymaga-
zine culture? Salik says one of the many
reasons is the lack of patrons to support
small and independent literary presses.
Besides,hesays,ourwritersprizeforeign
SAUMYA KHANDELWAL/HT
publicationcreditsthanourown.Itsnot
theirfault.Theypaywell,andqualityand
readership of these foreign publications
are really good. Though we gloat that we
haveone ofthe largestEnglish-speaking
population in the world, English is the
languageof our trade andeducation, not
popular art, literature or films, he says.
Bajpai,whose magazine bringsoutan
annualprintanthologyandorganiseslit-
erary events, says the trend of literary
magazines is picking up but India has a
longwaytogointermsofquality,content,
reachandgainingalargeraudienceinter-
est in literary journals.
A lot of people today are not open to
the idea of reading a lot of short fiction.
LiterarymagazinesinIndiawillsucceed
when people start reading short fiction
ona regular basisandbookstoresshelve
literaryjournalsfromacrosstheworld,
he says.
AdityaSharma,anovelist,believesthe
biggest achievement of these magazines
is that they have managed to keep the
shortstoryandpoetryalive.Publishers
these days hardly publish short fiction
and poetry, he says.
ManylikeAmalbelieveliterarymaga-
zinesneedtobreakfreefromtheirclassic
littlemagazinemouldandreachouttothe
wider masses. Online magazines are
best suited to achieve that. There are
manyseriousreadersandyoungwriters
from different professions, he says,
Peoplehaveamyopicviewofwhatgood
literatureis.Itisallabouttellingdifferent
stories, differently.
A NEW PAGE
The online offerings are mostly run by young-
sters using their own money or donations
THE BOMBAY REVIEW
Founded in August, 2014, The
Bombay Review is a bi-monthly
online literary magazine that
publishes short fiction and poetry,
with annual print anthologies. It
conducts literary events across
the country and abroad.
MITHILA REVIEW
Founded in 2015 in Delhi, Mithila
Review calls itself a speculative
arts and culture magazine.
It publishes poetry, fantasy
and science fiction, film and
book reviews, essays and
interviews.
THE MADRAS MAG
Founded in 2014, The Madras
Mag publishes fiction, poetry,
non-fiction, and book reviews .
The magazine actively seeks to
provide a platform to young
literary voices.
THE BANGALORE REVIEW
Founded in 2013, the magazine publishes poetry,
fiction, art and non-fiction from writers old and
young on a rolling basis..

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(Directorate General of Recruiting)
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