Fellowship for Children’s Literature in Kannada | Meet the Winners
Literature
Watch this space for details of literary discussions, photo exhibitions, competitions for college students, and more.
Our experience with Kathavana and discussions with experts highlighted a paucity of original writing/production of children’s literature in Kannada. A substantial part of the available work emerges through translations. Recognising the opportunity to contribute to Children’s Literature by building a repertoire of literary works, contributors and publishers, Azim Premji University has launched a statewide call for original children’s literature in Kannada through a Fellowship programme.
We would like to add to the repertoire of children’s literature in Kannada with new books across genres, by conducting workshops for emerging and experienced writers and illustrators, building a pipeline of trained writers and illustrators committed to literary quality and cultural diversity, and strengthening partnerships with publishers and other literary institutions.
As part of Sahitya Sahavasa, we celebrate Karnataka’s rich cultural milieu, its literary icons, and the Kannada language. We do this through literary discussions, photo exhibitions, competitions for college students, and more.
It was conceptualised to cover Jnanpith awardee Prof U R Ananthamurthy’s lectures on major Kannada writers such as Kota Shivarama Karanth, Kuvempu, D R Bendre, Masti Venkatesha Iyengar, Gopalakrishna Adiga, P Lankesh, Purnachandra Tejaswi, Chandrashekhara Kambara, A K Ramanujan and Girish Karnad. These were on major themes such as the Kannada language, and Kannada Literary movements, namely, Modernism (Navya) and Dalit Literature. Events have also been held to celebrate the life and literary contributions of prominent Uttara Kannada litterateurs Gowrish Kaikini, Yashwant Vithoba Chittal, V G Bhat, and Shantinath Desai.
KathaVana
Under KathaVana, we have an annual children’s literature festival (since 2012). We have also initiated work to add to the repertoire of children’s literature in Kannada.
An annual bilingual children’s literature festival hosted by Azim Premji University since 2012, each edition of KathaVana offers a variety of forums where children, teachers and community members can engage deeply with literature. This happens through book exhibitions, storytelling and read aloud events, puppet shows, meet-the-author and illustrator sessions, professional development workshops for teachers, and forums for different kinds of stakeholders to come together and discuss pertinent issues related to literature.
