Rijula Das Announced as Verb Readers & Writers Festival Programmer 2022
MEDIA RELEASE: 21 December 2021
For immediate release
Rijula Das announced as Verb Readers & Writers Festival Programmer for 2022
“We are delighted to welcome writer, translator, ex-bookseller and buyer, long-time Verb participant and attendee, Rijula Das as our new programmer” says Claire Mabey, Founder of Verb Wellington.
Claire Mabey has programmed LitCrawl and Verb Readers & Writers Festival since she and Andrew Laking founded the organisation in 2014. “It’s time for me to make space for someone else to bring their ideas into the house we’ve built. I have long admired Rijula’s talent as a writer but also as a warm, enthusiastic member of this vibrant community of writers and readers here in Wellington. I know that Rijula will make this world of conversation about books and stories her own. We all feel extremely lucky to have her.”
Rijula will begin her role in January 2022 with the Festival scheduled to take place between 3 - 6 November 2022 (with LitCrawl on Saturday 5 November).
On the appointment, Rijula says: "I’m looking forward to contributing to Verb’s kaupapa, and bringing together a 2022 festival that reflects the diversity and uniqueness of our artistic community. Verb has long been the highlight of my year, when our very familiar Wellington haunts become magical nooks of arts and ideas, and a time to meet friends. I'm always blown away by the aroha and camaraderie in the room. The possibilities are endless, and I'm so very excited for what we'll do in 2022!"
ABOUT RIJULA
Rijula’s debut novel A Death in Shonagachhi was published in July 2021 by Picador India and will be published as Small Deaths in USA & World in 2022 by Amazon Crossing. A Death in Shonagachhi was longlisted for the JCB prize 2021 and won the Tata Lit Live First Book Award 2021. Adaptation rights have been optioned by Drishyam Films, and a limited series is currently in development.
Rijula is a recipient of 2019 Michael King Writer's Centre Residency in Auckland and the 2016 Dastaan Award for her short story Notes From A Passing. Her short story, The Grave of The Heart Eater, was longlisted for the Commonwealth Short Story Prize in 2019.
Her English translation of Nabarun Bhattacharya's short fiction has appeared in Nabarun Bhattacharya: Aesthetics and Politics In A World after Ethics, Bloomsbury, 2020.
Her translation of Bhattacharya's novel Kangal Malshat is forthcoming from Seagull Books in fall of 2022.
Rijula received her PhD in Creative Writing/prose-fiction in 2017 from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, where she taught writing for two years. Her critical research focuses on the connections between public space and sexual violence. A Death in Shonagachhi was born of this research.
Her short fiction and translations have appeared in Newsroom, New Zealand and The Hindu. She lives and works in Wellington, New Zealand.
ENDS
For queries or interviews please contact claire@verbwellington.nz