MAYA ROSE FERNANDES
A friend from out-of-town said that he was extremely impressed with Goa’s literary production, considering its small size and population.
If one looks at the steady list of books, launched at the Goa Arts and Literary Festival (GALF) 2024 by Goan and Goa-based writers, this weekend alone, one would be hard-pressed to disagree.
Selma Carvalho, Bina Nayak, Mario Coelho, Michelle Mendonca Bambawale, Rahul Alvares, Damodar Mauzo and many others besides, launched new titles at the annual Goa litfest held at the International Centre Goa in Dona Paula last Thursday to Saturday.
Not least among them was the Goa Writer’s group's own hot-off-the-press anthology of writing and verse, called Ways of Belonging.
Goa’s status as a former Portuguese colony and its melting pot of religious and cultural influences has always provided fecund soil for literary exploration and innovation.
It seems more writers have been taking inspiration from this cultural mosaic, infusing their works with heritage, longing and explorations of ways of belonging as well.
Goa’s natural beauty and relatively slower pace of living continues to attract writers from across India and beyond, in search of a muse for their work.
As a result, it’s literary scene is teeming with fresh and emerging talent, and no end to storytelling on the page.
Up until a few years ago, literary production in this little coastal state was still stale and uninspired, with just a few tomes released here and there, and a dwindling audience of readers who could still stand to be away from digital books for the length of time it takes to read a book.
Now, besides festivals like the Goa lit fest, there’s also the Konkani Youth Literature Festival happening, a Brazilian literature book club just birthed at Dogears Book Shop and Goa Book Fair 2024 in Margao just ended.
There’s also the long-standing Café Literati monthly book club with a side of potluck dinner and dessert. It’s taken some time, but Goa can be said to now have a ‘literary scene.’
Play reading groups and spoken verse performances abound. Interesting independent bookstores like Dogears, That Bookstore, Champaca, Café Literati and others have been popping up across the state in the last decade or so.
Book swap events are happening and pre-loved books are being collected and sold in various spots. One might even venture so far as to say Goa is developing a literary pedigree of sorts.
The rewards stretch from preserving cultural heritage and fostering intellectual discourse to capturing oral histories and enabling artistic expression.
Let’s be frank though. In many cases, it’s a matter of quantity vs. quality or substance, but one needs contrast to help one appreciate the diamonds in the rough.
The systems and infrastructure that enable this level of literary production must continue and be supported even more than before, not only by its audience, but also by the powers that be.
However, Goa’s marginalized voices are starkly missing or severely underrepresented in the state’s literary production.
There needs to be more active support and enabling of voices and narratives that foster inclusivity and reflect true diversity beyond just the standard, established, privileged melting pot that we are all accustomed to by now.
