DESIblitz Literature Festival 2023

 

The UK’s leading book festival celebrating British South Asian writing will today announce the line up for the 2023 edition of the festival. Now in its 7th year the DESIblitz Literature Festival 2023, will take place across venues in Birmingham including from 20th – 29th October and will feature some of the biggest names in British South Asian writing, fiction, poetry, storytelling, music, film, TV and publishing as well as exciting up and coming talent.

Showcasing the real breadth of talent and creativity in British South Asian literature today, themed events will feature crime fiction, children’s fiction, historical fiction, poetry readings, memoir, as well as discussions about diversity in British publishing, with a variety of music from Bangla to Punjabi Folk Music being performed.

The UK’s biggest festival for South Asian culture was established by the beating heart of British South Asian news and media – DESIblitz.com an award-winning news and entertainment platform that showcases and celebrates all things British South Asian with a big focus on arts, culture and books.

Indi Deol

DESIblitz founder Indi Deol set up the DESIblitz Literature Festival because he wanted to create a platform that would establish writing as a viable career among British South Asian communities. At the heart of the festival is the desire to showcase the talents of established British South Asian writers to demonstrate to young minds and budding writers that it is possible to be a professional writer in the UK if you are from an Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi or Sri Lankan background. In order to make literature as accessible as possible most of the festival events are free. Tickets are available via Eventbrite, the DESIblitz Literature Festival website and through partner venues.

The DESIblitz Literature Festival also has a focus on bringing writing, storytelling and culture from South Asia to schools across the UK with the DESIblitz Truck Art Bus. The Truck Art Bus was decorated last year by world-renowned professional truck artist Haider Ali from Pakistan and has so far visited 11 schools and will be at the festival this year with a programme of story telling from a range of South Asian cultures.

Festival Director Indi Deol Said: "Our mission at the DESIblitz Literature Festival is to continue bringing together diverse audiences, transcending boundaries and celebrating the richness of cultures. With 90% of our festival events free to attend, we open doors to all, fostering inclusivity and accessibility. At the heart of our festival, we champion new and emerging voices, amplifying their stories and perspectives. We believe in nurturing talent and providing a platform for aspiring writers to shine. We invite you to explore the vibrant tapestry of storytelling, where renowned authors, thought-provoking panel discussions, interactive workshops, and mesmerising performances await. Mark your calendars and join us for a transformative experience that will leave you inspired, enlightened, and connected."

*THE 2023 DESIBLITZ LITERATURE FESTIVAL LINEUP*

The headline event at the 2023 DESIblitz Literature Festival will be a 25th Anniversary panel with the cast of Goodness Gracious Me. Actors including Kulvinder Ghir and Nina Wadia will be joined by original script writer Sanjeev Kholi to discuss why Goodness Gracious Me was a watershed moment for actors from the British South Asian Community, and the legacy of the show 25 years later.

Broadcaster and Journalist Saima Mir, talking about her critically acclaimed Muslim female led crime novel The Khan with the theatre director and crime writer Ajay Chowdhury will discuss his latest crime novel The Detective published by Penguin Vintage in April. Historical fiction novelist Melissa Addey has written several historical fiction series covering histories in Morocco, Ancient Greece and India and will discuss her latest release.

Inspiration for children will come from established authors Bali Rai and Jasbinder Bilan. Bali Rai’s popular children’s book Rani & Sukh described as a "true mash-up of Shakespeare, Bollywood and Punjabi folk tales", was published in 2004 and later became a GCSE set-text, his latest novel A Sudden Storm comes out in October, while Jasbinder Bilan is the Costa Award winning children’s author of Asha and the Spirit Bird. In her writing she loves creating magical worlds inspired by her love of nature and wild places.

Nonfiction comes from some of the UK’s leading Doctors and Lawyers including Dr Shahed Yousaf is a prison doctor dedicated to caring for people on the margins of society. An outsider on the inside, in his memoir Stitched Up (Penguin August 2023) he introduces us to a cast of unforgettable characters, including killers, con men and auto-cannibals.

At a time when medicine is a highly sought-after career for Indian women, it is hard to imagine what it was like for the pioneers. Lady Doctors: The Untold Stories of India's First Women in Medicine by Kavitha Rao (Jacaranda Books August 2023) tells the story of how women were bound by the restraints of family, caste and society, and how fiercely they fought to escape.

Nash Ramji, who arrived as a refugee from Uganda in 70s and has gone on to become one of Leicester’s leading law practitioners and a justice of the peace, his novel The Price Of Honour: A Thrilling Story About An Honour Killing is inspired by the true story of an honour killing that he presided over.

Poetry is a big theme of this year’s festival, poets reading their work at the festival include Angela Rideau, Abda Khan, Charnjit Gill, Jaag Collective, Rupinder Kaur, Shamim Azad, Sharena Lee Satti, Sumera Farman, Anisa Butt and Suna Afshan.

Music will come from Channi Singh OBE the "godfather" of Bhangra in the West, Punjabi Music Composer Harbans Singh Jandhu, Kulwant Singh Bhamrah from the traditional Bhangra street band Apna Sangeet, up and coming Punjabi folk singers the Grewal Twins as well as the master of bhangra dancing Sukhi Bart.

Tying in with the festival’s theme of opening up the UK publishing industry to writers from the South Asian diaspora, the festival will host a panel discussion about representation in the UK publishing industry which speakers including Habiba Desai founder of Fox & Windmill the UK’s first independent publishing company for British South Asian writers, Nick Wells Founder of Flame Tree Publishing, Pooja Aggarwal, Director of Academic and Professional Publishing, Bloomsbury Publishing and Zaynah Ali Legal and Compliance department for Macmillan Children's Books.

Festival Details

Dates: Friday 20th – Sunday 29th October

Website: https://www.desiblitz.com/literaturefestival/

Tickets: All events are free but ticketed apart from the Opening Night event with the cast of Goodness Gracious Me and Ajay Chowdhury at The Police Museum. Tickets are available via the festival website and Eventbright https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/

Festival event Locations:

Opening Night Friday 20th: B Music (Symphony Hall), Goodness Gracious Me Panel

Birmingham City Centre: The Exchange Building, The Police Museum, B Music (Symphony Hall), Aston University, Birmingham City University, Apna Ghar

Hamdsworth: Hamdsworth Library, Grosvenor Road Studios,

West Bromwich: West Bromwich Library, Prince of Wales Pub



About DESIblitz Literature Festival

DESIblitz Literature Festival was created by the team behind the multi-award winning publication DESIblitz.com which publishes editorial content related to British Asian lifestyle with a South Asian theme.

Having developed over hundreds of writers, journalists and video producers in digital media, DESIblitz.com has acted as a tremendous catalyst to help kick-start careers and jobs. Helping those with ethnic and disadvantaged backgrounds to build careers in mainstream media, securing jobs with national newspapers, magazines and broadcast outlets.

Seeing the success of the DESIblitz website to develop the careers of aspiring journalists from the community, the DESIblitz Literature Festival was created to engage ethnic creatives and to give them access to the world of publishing.

OUR VISION: Equality of access to the arts, and equality of opportunity of careers in the arts and journalism for young people and minorities.

OUR MISSION: To support minority communities to experience, understand and create meaningful and ambitious art and journalism.

About DESIblitz.com

The term ‘Desi’ refers to a connection with South Asian subcontinent roots. It is derived from the word ‘des’ or ‘desh’ which refers to ‘country’ and in this case primarily India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. ‘Desi’ has emerged as a collective term that classifies culture and people from these countries.

DESIblitz.com is the proud winner of the Best Publication/Website award for 2021 at the UK national Asian Media Awards, and the Best Website Award winner for 2017, 2015 and 2013. It is an Aidem Digital publication and as a social digital venture, the magazine aims to deliver quality rich content to primarily British Asian and Desi communities worldwide.

DESIBLITZ LITERATURE FESTIVAL 18th September - 1st October 2021

THE UK’S LEADING SOUTH ASIAN LITERARY FESTIVAL

18TH SEPTEMBER -1ST OCTOBER 2021

Tickets: https://www.desiblitz.com/arts/events/

The DESIblitz Literature Festival 2021 is the UK’s leading South Asian Literature Festival. Opening in Birmingham City Centre on 18th of September with a string of leading British South Asian and South Asian literary stars, the festival, with a mix of in-person and digital events and runs until 1st October. All tickets are free apart from three headline events at £2.99 per ticket with Sathnam Sanghera, Nikesh Shukla and a panel event on Cultural Representation in Literature. Live events will take place at the Rep Theatre and B Music (formerly Symphony Hall) in the city centre.

The festival is designed to encourage young and aspiring British Asian writers but is open to all. It provides a much-needed programme of author events, workshops, performances and panel discussions, showcasing the work of British South Asian authors and poets, and international writers with South Asian heritage. As well as aiming to inspire new creative writers, the festival provides an opportunity to highlight the way writers of South Asian descent have contributed to the literary canon across the world.

Organised by the popular DESIblitz.com website, one of the festival’s core aims is to create an incubator for British South Asian literary talent, inspiring and encouraging the British South Asian writers of the future. The DESIblitz.com website has launched the careers of over 40 British South Asian journalists, and the festival was started three years ago to encourage a younger generation of British South Asians to read more books and to become writers.

A literary celebration unlike any other in the UK, the DESIblitz Literature Festival will showcase the work of 18 leading writers and thinkers of South Asian descent, alongside a series of workshops, panel events and poetry readings.

From the biggest new book releases, to up to the minute political debate, there will be events covering fiction, poetry, history, politics, diversity, erotica, psychology, science, art, and much more, that will inspire a love of reading in adults of all ages.

DESIblitz Literature Festival Director Indi Deol said: This is the third annual literature festival curated and produced by DESIblitz.com. As in previous years, the aim of the festival is to provide a platform for new voices from within the British South Asian writing community, as well as feature existing British South Asian voices who are already successful as role models. As well as aiming to inspire new creative writers, it provides an opportunity to highlight the way writers of South Asian descent have contributed to the literary canon across the world. It has never been more important to showcase the incredible and multifaceted talent of Britain’s South Asian literary community.

Discussions on Diversity in British Publishing

The British South Asian demographic is still hugely underrepresented in British publishing and panel events taking place at the festival will include “Diverse Characters Matter” a panel discussion about the importance of diversity in children’s books, with leading authors Bali Rai, Serena Patel, Sita Brahamchari and Monika Singh Gangotra; “Cultural Representation in Literature” a panel discussion about the importance of diversity in adult writing with Saima Mir, Pragya Agarawal and Sufiya Ahmed; as well as Women of Colour in Publishing a panel discussing the importance of diversity in British Publishing with Farhana Shaikh from Dahlia Publishing, and Hannah Chukwu from Penguin.

Workshops to Inspire and Ignite

Workshops taking place in person at the festival include: Genre, Setting and Character led by Bali Rai the award winning children’s author, Writing Memoir led by Shyama Perera, Guardian and Channel 4 Journalist and author of three novels, as well as a South Asian Poetry Masterclass with acclaimed poet Rupinder Kaur - a Birmingham Panjabi writer and performer whose debut poetry book Rooh (2018) was published with Verve Poetry Press.

Author Events:

Highlights from the author programme include talks with the award winning Bangladeshi novelist and Granta Young Writer Tahmima Anam about her critically acclaimed 2021 novel The Startup Wife.

Bestselling author, journalist and screenwriter, Sarfraz Manzoor will be discussing his new book They: What Muslims and Non-Muslims Get Wrong About Each Other.

Nikesh Shukla bestselling author of The Good Immigrant, will talk about his new book Brown Baby: A Memoir of Race, Family and Home.

Social media influencer, podcaster and BBC presenter Anchal Seda will talk about her new book What Would the Aunties Say? A brown girl's guide to being yourself and living your best life.

Acclaimed journalist and author Sathnam Sanghera, will talk about his latest book Empireland: How Imperialism Has Shaped Modern Britain.

Successful self-published author Preethi Nair will also host a talk on how to get published called “Being Published - Traditional or Indie. The pros and cons.”

Sci-fi, crime & graphic novels

Writer-painter Amruta Patil is India's first female graphic novelist whose work sits at the cusp of ancient Indian philosophy and ecological-feminist stirrings. In 2017, she received a Nari Shakti Puraskar from the 13th President of India for “unusual work that breaks boundaries” in art and literature.

Samit Basu is an Indian SFF novelist. His most recent book, Chosen Spirits, a near-future anti-dystopian Delhi novel, was shortlisted for the JCB Prize, India's biggest literary award.

Kia Abdullah is an author and travel writer from London. Her novel Take It Back was named one of the best thrillers of the year by The Guardian.

Saima Mir is a British Pakistani journalist who grew up in Bradford. Her essay for It's Not About The Burqa (Picador) appeared in the Guardian and received over 250,000 hits online in two days. She will be talking about her debut crime fiction novel The Khan which is currently being optioned for TV.

Poetry

An evening of Poetry on Sunday 19th will showcase the work of leading South Asian Poets including Founder of Kiota Bristol, Shagufta K Iqbal is an award-winning writer, workshop facilitator and Tedx Speaker and will read from her poetry collection ‘Jam Is For Girls, Girls Get Jam’, described by Nikesh Shukla as ‘a social political masterclass.’ One of the UK’s most exciting young poets and playwrights, Afshan D’Souza-Lodhi who is currently a Sky Writers writer in residence will read from her debut collection of poetry re;desire - longlisted for the Jhalak Prize.

In addition the world leading Pakistani poet Imtiaz Dharker whose work is part of both the GCSE and A-Level syllabus in the UK and has been described by Carol Ann Duffy as “If there were to be a World Laureate, then for me the role could only be filled by Imtiaz Dharker” will read from her extensive poetry collection.

About DESIblitz Literature Festival

The DESIblitz Literature Festival provides a much-needed programme of author events, workshops, performances and panel discussions, working with British Asian authors and poets, as well as those with South Asian heritage. The festival is designed to encourage young and aspiring British Asian writers, but is open to all.

DESIblitz.com’s first venture into literature events began with the production of a specific British Asian Literature strand for the Birmingham Literature Festival in 2017. The organisation then went on to produce a series of high quality, independent festivals every year since then. The festival in 2020 was converted to an online offer owing to the UK wide situation with Covid 19. The festival is grant funded by Arts Council England

DESIblitz.com is a non-profit organisation, dedicated to promoting South Asian literature. In particular we aim to make British South Asians and the wider Desi community aware of the huge catalogue of literature written by and for those with South Asian heritage.

The organisation increased its commitment to supporting creative practitioners from within the British South Asian diaspora with the launch of the dedicated online platform, DESIblitz Arts, in 2020.

DESIblitz Arts is focused on encouraging and showcasing submitted works produced by creatives that include short fiction and poetry which have a South Asian theme.

About Indi Deol: Festival Director and Founder of the DESIblitz Literature Festival

Indi Deol is the Founding Director of the UK’s largest online British Asian magazine DESIblitz where he leads on advertising, leadership development and strategic business growth. He also runs Aidem Digital CIC which is a Social Enterprise and digital media agency focused on delivering projects that produce a positive social return. Indi sits on the board for Culture Central – which is the collective voice of the cultural sector in the West Midlands, the advisory board of Aston University Business School; he is a consultant for BFI Film Audience Network and he sits on the West Midland Combined Authority Cultural Leadership Board. He thrives on achieving success through utilising his digital skills to solve marketing and business problems. His education and background include a strong emphasis on fashion design, and over the last decade, he has been immersed in online media, and content marketing.

TICKET INFORMATION

Tickets to all events can be booked here: https://www.desiblitz.com/arts/events/

Most events are free but ticketed, and three events cost £2.99 per ticket.


Venues for live events:

Birmingham Repertory Theatre, Broad St, Birmingham B1 2EP

B Music Symphony Hall,8 Centenary Square, Birmingham, B1 2EA