Tag: DESIblitz

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DesiBlitz Festival 2023 Line Up Announced

ramblingmads

Now in its 7th year the DESIblitz Literature Festival 2023, will take place across venues in Birmingham including from 20th – 29th October and will feature some of the biggest names in British South Asian writing, fiction, poetry, storytelling, music, film, TV and publishing as well as exciting up and coming talent.

DESIblitz founder Indi Deol set up the DESIblitz Literature Festival because he wanted to create a platform that would establish writing as a viable career among British South Asian communities. At the heart of the festival is the desire to showcase the talents of established British South Asian writers to demonstrate to young minds and budding writers that it is possible to be a professional writer in the UK if you are from an Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi or Sri Lankan background. In order to make literature as accessible as possible most of the festival events are free. Tickets are available via Eventbrite, the DESIblitz Literature Festival website and through partner venues. 

The DESIblitz Literature Festival also has a focus on bringing writing, storytelling and culture from South Asia to schools across the UK with the DESIblitz Truck Art Bus.  The Truck Art Bus was decorated last year by world-renowned professional truck artist Haider Ali from Pakistan and has so far visited 11 schools and will be at the festival this year with a programme of story telling from a range of South Asian cultures.

The headline event at the 2023 DESIblitz Literature Festival will be a 25th Anniversary panel with the cast of Goodness Gracious Me. Actors including Kulvinder Ghir and Nina Wadia will be joined by original script writer Sanjeev Kholi to discuss why Goodness Gracious Me was a watershed moment for actors from the British South Asian Community, and the legacy of the show 25 years later.

 

Broadcaster and Journalist Saima Mir, talking about her critically acclaimed Muslim female led crime novel The Khan with the theatre director and crime writer Ajay Chowdhury will discuss his latest crime novel The Detective published by Penguin Vintage in April. Historical fiction novelist Melissa Addey has written several historical fiction series covering histories in Morocco, Ancient Greece and India and will discuss her latest release.

Inspiration for children will come from established authors Bali Rai and Jasbinder Bilan. Bali Rai’s popular children’s book Rani & Sukh described as a “true mash-up of Shakespeare, Bollywood and Punjabi folk tales”, was published in 2004 and later became a GCSE set-text, his latest novel A Sudden Storm comes out in October, while Jasbinder Bilan is the Costa Award winning children’s author of Asha and the Spirit Bird. In her writing she loves creating magical worlds inspired by her love of nature and wild places.

Nonfiction comes from some of the UK’s leading Doctors and Lawyers including Dr Shahed Yousaf is a prison doctor dedicated to caring for people on the margins of society. An outsider on the inside, in his memoir Stitched Up (Penguin August 2023) he introduces us to a cast of unforgettable characters, including killers, con men and auto-cannibals.

At a time when medicine is a highly sought-after career for Indian women, it is hard to imagine what it was like for the pioneers. Lady Doctors: The Untold Stories of India’s First Women in Medicine by Kavitha Rao (Jacaranda Books August 2023) tells the story of how women were bound by the restraints of family, caste and society, and how fiercely they fought to escape.

 

Founder Indi Deol

Nash Ramji, who arrived as a refugee from Uganda in 70s and has gone on to become one of Leicester’s leading law practitioners and a justice of the peace, his novel The Price Of Honour: A Thrilling Story About An Honour Killing is inspired by the true story of an honour killing that he presided over.

Rupinder Kaur

Poetry is a big theme of this year’s festival, poets reading their work at the festival include Angela Rideau, Abda Khan, Charnjit Gill, Jaag Collective, Rupinder Kaur, Shamim Azad, Sharena Lee Satti, Sumera Farman, Anisa Butt and Suna Afshan.

Grewel Twins

Music will come from Channi Singh OBE the “godfather” of Bhangra in the West, Punjabi Music Composer Harbans Singh Jandhu, Kulwant Singh Bhamrah from the traditional Bhangra street band Apna Sangeet, up and coming Punjabi folk singers the Grewal Twins as well as the master of bhangra dancing Sukhi Bart.

For full details on the 2023 DESIblitz Literature Festival as well as ticket details please visit https://www.desiblitz.com/literaturefestival/

*post created from a press release but any opinions expressed remain my own.

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DESIblitz – The UK’s Leading South Asian Literary Festival begins 18th September

ramblingmads

The DESIblitz Literature Festival 2021 is the UK’s leading South Asian Literature Festival. Opening in Birmingham City Centre on 18th of September with a string of leading British South Asian and South Asian literary stars, the festival, with a mix of in-person and digital events and runs until 1st October. All tickets are free apart from three headline events at £2.99 per ticket with Sathnam Sanghera, Nikesh Shukla and a panel event on Cultural Representation in Literature. Live events will take place at the Rep Theatre and B Music (formerly Symphony Hall) in the city centre.

Buy your tickets here  

The festival is designed to encourage young and aspiring British Asian writers but is open to all. It provides a much-needed programme of author events, workshops, performances and panel discussions, showcasing the work of British South Asian authors and poets, and international writers with South Asian heritage. As well as aiming to inspire new creative writers, the festival  provides an opportunity to highlight the way writers of South Asian descent have contributed to the literary canon across the world.

DESIblitz Literature Festival Director Indi Deol said: This is the third annual literature festival curated and produced by DESIblitz.com. As in previous years, the aim of the  festival is to provide a platform for new voices from within the British South Asian writing community, as well as feature existing British South Asian voices who are already successful as role models. As well as aiming to inspire new creative writers, it provides an opportunity to highlight the way writers of South Asian descent have contributed to the literary canon across the world. It has never been more important to showcase the incredible and multifaceted talent of Britain’s South Asian literary community.

 

Discussions on Diversity in British Publishing

The British South Asian demographic is still hugely underrepresented in British publishing and panel events taking place at the festival will include “Diverse Characters Matter” a panel discussion about the importance of diversity in children’s books, with leading authors Bali Rai, Serena Patel, Sita Brahamchari and Monika Singh Gangotra; “Cultural Representation in Literature” a panel discussion about the importance  of diversity in adult writing with Saima Mir, Pragya Agarawal and Sufiya Ahmed; as well as Women of Colour in Publishing a panel discussing the importance of diversity in British Publishing with Farhana Shaikh from Dahlia Publishing, and Hannah Chukwu from Penguin.

Workshops to Inspire and Ignite

Workshops taking place in person at the festival include: Genre, Setting and Character led by Bali Rai the award winning children’s author, Writing Memoir led by Shyama Perera, Guardian and Channel 4 Journalist and author of three novels, as well as a South Asian Poetry Masterclasswith acclaimed poet Rupinder Kaur – a Birmingham Panjabi writer and performer whose debut poetry book Rooh (2018) was published with Verve Poetry Press.  

 

Author Events:

Highlights from the author programme include talks with the award winning Bangladeshi novelist and Granta Young Writer Tahmima Anam about her critically acclaimed 2021 novel The Startup Wife.

Bestselling author, journalist and screenwriter, Sarfraz Manzoor will be discussing his new book They: What Muslims and Non-Muslims Get Wrong About Each Other.

Nikesh Shukla bestselling author of The Good Immigrant, will talk about his new book Brown Baby: A Memoir of Race, Family and Home.

Social media influencer, podcaster and BBC presenter Anchal Seda will talk about her new book What Would the Aunties Say? A brown girl’s guide to being yourself and living your best life.

Acclaimed journalist and author Sathnam Sanghera, will talk about his latest book Empireland: How Imperialism Has Shaped Modern Britain.

Successful self-published author Preethi Nair will also host a talk on how to get published called “Being Published – Traditional or Indie. The pros and cons.”

 

Sci-fi, crime & graphic novels

Writer-painter Amruta Patil is India’s first female graphic novelist whose work sits at the cusp of ancient Indian philosophy and ecological-feminist stirrings. In 2017, she received a Nari Shakti Puraskar from the 13th President of India for “unusual work that breaks boundaries” in art and literature.

Samit Basu is an Indian SFF novelist. His most recent book, Chosen Spirits, a near-future anti-dystopian Delhi novel, was shortlisted for the JCB Prize, India’s biggest literary award.

Kia Abdullah is an author and travel writer from London. Her novel Take It Back was named one of the best thrillers of the year by The Guardian.

Saima Mir is a British Pakistani journalist who grew up in Bradford. Her essay for It’s Not About The Burqa (Picador) appeared in the Guardian and received over 250,000 hits online in two days. She will be talking  about her debut crime  fiction novel The Khan whichis currently being optioned for TV.

 

Poetry

An evening of Poetry on Sunday 19th will showcase the work of leading South Asian Poets including Founder of Kiota Bristol, Shagufta K Iqbal is an award-winning writer, workshop facilitator and Tedx Speaker and will read from her poetry collection ‘Jam Is For Girls, Girls Get Jam’, described by Nikesh Shukla as ‘a social political masterclass.’ One of the UK’s most exciting young poets and playwrights, Afshan D’Souza-Lodhi who is currently a Sky Writers writer in residence will read from her debut collection of poetry re;desire – longlisted for the Jhalak Prize.

In addition the world leading Pakistani poet Imtiaz Dharker whose work is part of both the GCSE and A-Level syllabus in the UK and has been described by Carol Ann Duffy as “If there were to be a World Laureate, then for me the role could only be filled by Imtiaz Dharker” will read from her extensive poetry collection.

About DESIblitz  Literature Festival

The DESIblitz Literature Festival provides a much-needed programme of author events, workshops, performances and panel discussions, working with British Asian authors and poets, as well as those with South Asian heritage. The festival is designed to encourage young and aspiring British Asian writers, but is open to all.

DESIblitz.com’s first venture into literature events began with the production of a specific British Asian Literature strand for the Birmingham Literature Festival in 2017. The organisation then went on to produce a series of high quality, independent festivals every year since then. The festival in 2020 was converted to an online offer owing to the UK wide situation with Covid 19. The festival is grant funded by Arts Council England

DESIblitz.com is a non-profit organisation, dedicated to promoting South Asian literature. In particular we aim to make British South Asians and the wider Desi community aware of the huge catalogue of literature written by and for those with South Asian heritage.

The organisation increased its commitment to supporting creative practitioners from within the British South Asian diaspora with the launch of the dedicated online platform, DESIblitz Arts, in 2020.

DESIblitz Arts is focused on encouraging and showcasing submitted works produced by creatives that include short fiction and poetry which have a South Asian theme.

*this post was created using text and images from a press release. I received no payment for this but wanted to share this fascinating and enjoyable event with you.*