2024 dialogues
30 August - 1 September, India International Centre (Annexe), New Delhi
With participating writers Najwan Darwish, David Herd, Sharmistha Mohanty, Mantra Mukim, Habib Tengour, Anitha Thampi.
Evening readings
6:30 pm, India International Centre Annexe
Friday, 30 Aug
Anitha Thampi
David Herd
Saturday, 31 Aug
Sharmistha Mohanty
Najwan Darwish
Sunday, 1 Sept
Mantra Mukim
Habib Tengour
Day discussions
Friday, 30 Aug
2-5 pm, Conference Rm 1, IIC (above library)
“..the girl with palm-thatch braids,
daughter of the muddy water…
- Anitha ThampiPerhaps it is only in poetry that the oneness between the human and the land can still be spoken. There is a singular presence of the earth in the work of the poets meeting at this Dialogues. The soil, the waters, the vegetation in the poems of Anitha Thampi; the created borders through which suffering or freedom moves in the work of David Herd; land ravaged and devastated by war and genocide, for Najwan Darwish; and for Sharmistha Mohanty all the things that the land engenders that are moving towards extinction. What does it mean to write the land?
Saturday, 31 Aug
10 am-1 pm, Conference Rm 1, IIC (above library)
“Hope devoted to despair,
despair delivered from hope.”Palestinian poet Najwan Darwish speaks of his life and work.
Sunday, 1 Sept
10 am-1 pm, Conference Rm 1, IIC (above library)
'The passing Maghrebian is surrealist in Djeha.
Sidi Ahmed ben Yussef is surrealist in cursing.
I am surrealist when I am not there.'
—Habib Tengour, Maghrebian SurrealismHas there ever been a line that universally cuts between reality, dreamscape, and madness? For Habib Tengour such a line does run, however jaggedly and with ample breaks, from the epicentres of European modernism to its very own pavé in North African artistic expressions. The development of poetic modernisms around the world is closely linked to each culture's unique sense of modernity, yet there are overlaps and continuities always at work in the space of the poem.
Fill in the form to register to attend the Almost Island Dialogues 2024
The Almost Island Dialogues began as a natural extension of the journal. It is a very intimate gathering where writers can talk at length on craft, form, their different cultural contexts. The writers who are invited for these Dialogues span several continents, they have spoken in many languages, with the help of interpreters. They were chosen because we deeply admired their work, their singularity. Almost always we knew the work well. We were not concerned with their fame or lack of it, we invited those we admired. We have been called the "anti-festival", but the intention was to only be what we are.
editions
2022 | Aug. 19-21 | IIC, Delhi
With S. Anand reading Namdeo Dhasal, Raúl Zurita, Sharmistha Mohanty, Anna Deeny Morales, Kristin Dykstra , Aishwarya Iyer, Balam Rodrigo
2019 | Dec. 6–8 | BIC, Bangalore
with Zoë Wicomb, Togara Muzanenhamo, I. Allan Sealy, Michael Kelleher, Jayant Kaikini, Joy Goswami, Vivek Shanbhag, Sharmistha Mohanty
2018 | Dec. 22–23 | IIC, Delhi
With Ari Sitas, Mani Rao, Subhro Bandhopadhyay, Rahul Soni, Vivek Narayanan, Sharmistha Mohanty
2017 | Dec. 16–17 | IIC, Delhi
with Bei Dao, Mohammed Bennis, Arvind Krishna Mehrotra, Manglesh Dabral, Sergio Chejfec, I. Allan Sealy, Joy Goswami, Emily Sun, Jared Stark, Magaret Carson, Vivek Narayanan, Sharmistha Mohanty
2015 | Feb. 13–15 | IIC, Delhi
with Raul Zurita, Joy Goswami, Kutti Revathy, K. Satchidanandan, Anna Deeny Morales, Bahauddin Dagar, Parvathy Baul, Vivek Narayanan, Sharmistha Mohanty
2013 | Dec. 19–22 | IIC, Delhi
with Xi Chuan, Bahauddin Dagar, Renee Gladman, László Krasznahorkai, Arvind Krishna Mehrotra, Ashis Nandy, Sharmistha Mohanty, Rahul Soni
2011 India-China | Dec. 19–21 | Jnanapravaha, Mumbai
with Bei Dao, Adil Jussawalla, Irwin Allan Sealy, Xi Chuan, Ouyang Jianghe, Han Shaogong, K. Satchidanandan, Rukmini Bhaya Nair, Ge Fei, Ashis Nandy, Li Tuo, Lydia Liu, Yourou Zhong, Vivek Narayanan, Sharmistha Mohanty
2011 | Mar. 11–13 | IIC, Delhi
with Forrest Gander, Vahni Capildeo, George Szirtes, Irwin Allan Sealy, Rahul Soni, Giriraj Kiradoo, the Cybermohalla Collective, Charu Nivedita, Vivek Narayanan, Sharmistha Mohanty
2010 | Mar. 18–21 | IIC, Delhi
with Tomasz Salamun, Vahni Capildeo, Eliot Weinberger, Joy Goswami, Xu Xi, Anita Agnihotri, Charu Nivedita, Vivek Narayanan, Sharmistha Mohanty
2009 | Feb. 12–15 | IIC, Delhi
with Ashis Nandy, Kunwar Narain, Bei Dao, Joy Goswami, Xi Chuan, Ouyang Jianghe, Ge Fei, Zhai Yongming, K. Satchidanandan, Li Tuo, Vinod Kumar Shukla, Irwin Allan Sealy, Rukmini Bhaya Nair, Vivek Narayanan, Sharmistha Mohanty
2008 | Mar. 6–9 | IIC, Delhi
with Claudio Magris, Bei Dao, George Szirtes, Udayan Vajpeyi, Irwin Allan Sealy, Nabaneeta Dev Sen, Mani Kaul, Vivek Narayanan, Sharmistha Mohanty
2006 | Dec. 15–17 | IIC, Delhi
with Irwin Allan Sealy, George Szirtes, Mani Kaul, Mariko Nagai, K. Satchidanandan, Vinod Kumar Shukla, Arvind Mehrotra, Vivek Narayanan, Sharmistha Mohanty