THE READING ROOM: ACROSS GENRES

Shinie Antony, Gaea Schoeters(V) and Bulbul Sharma in conversation with Rachna Singh

Supported by European Union

At a time when literary pursuits span different forms and formats of narrative possibility, and genres merge and intersect, two writers, with unique tones of voice and storytelling techniques, speak of their experiments with language and literary conventions. Belgian writer, screenwriter, librettist and journalist Gaea Schoeters’s latest novel Trofee, is the story of Hunter White, a wealthy American share trader, who goes to Africa to shoot a rhinoceros. Her debut work, a travel book titled Girls, Muslims and Motorcycles, was followed by three novels and the interview-collection Het Einde. Schoeters received special mention at the European Union Prize for Literature in 2022.

Indian writer, columnist and director of the Bengaluru Poetry Festival, Shinie Antony’s new novella, Can’t, features a storyteller in her seventies teaming up with a teenage poet to travel the world while the recently published Eden Abandoned: The Story of Lilith is an imaginary biography of Lilith, Adam’s first wife. Artist and writer Bulbul Sharma’s recent work, Sunbirds in the Morning is a delightful narrative which recounts her observations of birds and animals she encountered throughout the COVID19 pandemic days. In conversation with Rachna Singh, they talk about the variety and range of their writing, and discuss the literary forms they choose to tell their tales.