Hello friends and family. The annual Desi Kid Lit Summit 2021 was this past Sunday, October 24th. It was a fantastic three hour virtual event. Today’s blog post is dedicated to sharing the experience.
Rajani LaRocca (author of Red, White, and Whole) commenced the summit with a beautiful keynote. She articulated how many Desi authors have felt. Noone has the right to tell us who and what to write about. We decide what we write about. We belong. So, go create your art. Go write your story. Write them for the whole world. Most importantly, write them for you.
Then, Rashmi Bismark (author of Finding Om) and Archaa Shrivastav offered a heartfelt tribute respecting those who laid the foundation for us to grow together. Remembering them reconnects us to our appreciation for their work. It connects us to that space in each of us that yearns to keep that alive. They honored writers like Uma Krishnaswamy and Tanuja Desai Hidier and Padma Venkatraman and Hena Khan.
Following the tribute, Saadia Faruqi discussed her latest book, Yusuf Azeem is Not a Hero, which she wrote about 9/11. She was tired of the few MG books about the people who were seen as the enemy. Rukhsanna Guidroz (author of Samira Surfs), Shanthi Sekaran (author of Samosa Rebellion), and Anita Amin (author of Raja’s Pet Camel) shared their backgrounds, experiences as traditionally published authors, and characters of hope in their books.
Adiba Jaigirdar, author of Hani and Ishu’s Guide to Fake Dating introduced Priyanka Taslim (author of upcoming book The Love Match), Naz Kutub (author of the upcoming book The Loophole), and Aamna Qureshi author of The Lady or the Lion. They shared how their books are relevant to the Desi community. This relevance includes using Urdu words, queer South Asian books, and Bangladeshi-inspired YA works. Aamna advised marginalized authors to never give up. There is someone waiting for your story. Priyanka shared similar advice, and that the long journey to traditional publishing is worth it. Writers can feel isolated, but we have this wonderful community who lift one other up. Naz reminded all of us we should be our biggest inspirations in our stories.
All of the 2022 debuts in attendance had an opportunity to introduce our novels. I was thrilled to share more about my debut YA Lioness of Punjab releasing in the Fall of 2022. Check out the full list below:
Next, in true Desi style, we had a dance party to Lamborghini!! I must say Sita Singh has amazing Bhangra moves. 🙂
After the dance party, Swati Avasthi (author of Split) discussed decolonizing our imaginations, a growing theory and practice, with Meera Sriram (author of a Gift for Amma) and Karuna Riazi (author of The Gauntlet). Swathi shared our mutual struggle with writing stories about and for people of diverse backgrounds because we haven’t read many stories with people like us.
Meera grew up in India, and associated proficiency in English with intelligence. Then when she immigrated to the U.S. and missed her homeland, she yearned for her native Indian stories. That is how she gained the courage to tell stories about her homeland.
Then, Karuna discussed the importance of seeing ourselves in stories, and stories like The Secret Garden being told through the Desi lens. Swathi eloquently quoted Jarret Martineau and Eric Ritskes: “…the task of decolonializing artists, scholars and activists is not simply to offer amendments or edits to the current world, but to display the mutual sacrifice and relationality needed to sabotage colonial systems of thought and power for the purpose of liberatory alternatives.”
Finally, Gayatri Sethi and Anuradha Rajurkar closed out the conversation with beautiful reflections from the summit. Gayatri (author of Unbelonging) shared a powerful quote from Valarie Kaur’s memoir See No Stranger: “Shallow solidarity was baked on the logic of exchange—You show up for me and I will show up for you. But deep solidarity was rooted in recognition—I show up for you because I see you as a part of me. Your liberation is bound up in my own.”
Also, check out this amazing reel Nadia Salomon put together:
Thank you to Gayatri Sethi and Saadia Faruqi and all of the panelists and speakers. Thanks to Sailaja for hosting the zoom and creating the recording, and Nadia for preparing the website. Thank you to the planning committee featured below:
Names in order of left to right and top to bottom: Gayatri Sethi, Saadia Faruqi, Sailaja Joshi, Payal Doshi, Nadia Salomon, Rashmi Bismark, Navdeep Singh Dhillon, Adiba Jaigirdar, and Swathi Avasthi.
I think I speak for all of the attendees when I say we are grateful for your time and sharing of information. But mostly, we appreciate the Desi community’s uplifting and authentic storytelling.