2026 dialogues
10 - 12 April, G5A Warehouse Mumbai
With participating writers Aleš Šteger, Don Mee Choi, Mantra Mukim, Najwan Darwish, Sampurna Chattarji, Sharmistha Mohanty, Vyomesh Shukla
Evening readings
Friday, 10 April | 6.30 pm
Vyomesh Shukla
Sampurna Chattarji
Aleš Šteger
Saturday, 11 April | 7 pm
Mantra Mukim
Don Mee Choi
Sunday, 12 April | 7 pm
Sharmistha Mohanty
Najwan Darwish
Day discussions
Friday, 10 April | 2 - 5 pm
The Poetry of Najwan Darwish
Najwan Darwish absorbs millenia of time in a poem, and then releases it again at the poem’s end, like something he has gathered in his palms and let free into the wind again. We would like to hear from him about the eternities that his work carries, both in the long history of his birthplace and the Arabic literary traditions he has made his own as a contemporary lyric poet.
Saturday, 11 April | 2.30 - 5.30 pm
Image/text
Is the image another way of saying the text, or decentering it, or altering its possibilities? Images are documentary evidence which can extend the reality of words, and they can also be the opposite, a redundancy that produces an excess of meaning or emotion. Do images also function as a fictional, imaginary space from which the text draws a certain kind of sustenance? There are several older traditions where the two appear together, as in classical Chinese landscape poems and paintings, or the “illustrated” texts of Indian epics and religious poetry. In recent times the place of images embedded in the text is far more unpredictable, precarious.
The tense dynamic between image and text, the slippage from one to the other, the dominance of one over the other, their mutual indifference, makes their coincidence in a book imminently eventful. It begs the question: what is the book for? what is its language? In this discussion on Image/Text, we hope we can address this dichotomy that unfolds, and refolds some of our books.
Sunday, 12 April | 2.30 - 5.30 pm
Language and Difference
To go deeper into one’s language, the histories and geographies that form it, the language’s formal registers, the common speech—this is to go deeper into difference, into what marks each language as separate from another. A language is a world view and even in this age of globalization, these differences are sharp, they matter and they need to be celebrated. How do writers navigate the apparent homogeneity of globalization to go further into their own languages and cultures?
Register to attend the Day Discussions
The Almost Island Dialogues began as a natural extension of the journal. It is a very intimate gathering where writers can talk at length on craft, form, their different cultural contexts. The writers who are invited for these Dialogues span several continents, they have spoken in many languages, with the help of interpreters. They were chosen because we deeply admired their work, their singularity. Almost always we knew the work well. We were not concerned with their fame or lack of it, we invited those we admired. We have been called the "anti-festival", but the intention was to only be what we are.
Almost Island is grateful to have received continuous support from the Torsteel Research Foundation in India for all its projects, and support for the Dialogues and the journal from Columbia University, Yale University, University of Wisconsin at Madison, The India International Centre, the Veni Rao Foundation, the Bangalore International Centre, as well as several individuals and friends.
editions
2024 | Aug. 30 - Sep 1 | IIC, Delhi
With participating writers David Herd, Sharmistha Mohanty, Mantra Mukim, Habib Tengour, Anitha Thampi.
2022 | Aug. 19-21 | IIC, Delhi
With S. Anand reading Namdeo Dhasal, Raúl Zurita, Sharmistha Mohanty, Anna Deeny Morales, Kristin Dykstra , Aishwarya Iyer, Balam Rodrigo
2019 | Dec. 6–8 | BIC, Bangalore
with Zoë Wicomb, Togara Muzanenhamo, I. Allan Sealy, Michael Kelleher, Jayant Kaikini, Joy Goswami, Vivek Shanbhag, Sharmistha Mohanty
2018 | Dec. 22–23 | IIC, Delhi
With Ari Sitas, Mani Rao, Subhro Bandhopadhyay, Rahul Soni, Vivek Narayanan, Sharmistha Mohanty
2017 | Dec. 16–17 | IIC, Delhi
with Bei Dao, Mohammed Bennis, Arvind Krishna Mehrotra, Manglesh Dabral, Sergio Chejfec, I. Allan Sealy, Joy Goswami, Emily Sun, Jared Stark, Magaret Carson, Vivek Narayanan, Sharmistha Mohanty
2015 | Feb. 13–15 | IIC, Delhi
with Raul Zurita, Joy Goswami, Kutti Revathy, K. Satchidanandan, Anna Deeny Morales, Bahauddin Dagar, Parvathy Baul, Vivek Narayanan, Sharmistha Mohanty
2013 | Dec. 19–22 | IIC, Delhi
with Xi Chuan, Bahauddin Dagar, Renee Gladman, László Krasznahorkai, Arvind Krishna Mehrotra, Ashis Nandy, Sharmistha Mohanty, Rahul Soni
2011 India-China | Dec. 19–21 | Jnanapravaha, Mumbai
with Bei Dao, Adil Jussawalla, Irwin Allan Sealy, Xi Chuan, Ouyang Jianghe, Han Shaogong, K. Satchidanandan, Rukmini Bhaya Nair, Ge Fei, Ashis Nandy, Li Tuo, Lydia Liu, Yourou Zhong, Vivek Narayanan, Sharmistha Mohanty
2011 | Mar. 11–13 | IIC, Delhi
with Forrest Gander, Vahni Capildeo, George Szirtes, Irwin Allan Sealy, Rahul Soni, Giriraj Kiradoo, the Cybermohalla Collective, Charu Nivedita, Vivek Narayanan, Sharmistha Mohanty
2010 | Mar. 18–21 | IIC, Delhi
with Tomasz Salamun, Vahni Capildeo, Eliot Weinberger, Joy Goswami, Xu Xi, Anita Agnihotri, Charu Nivedita, Vivek Narayanan, Sharmistha Mohanty
2009 | Feb. 12–15 | IIC, Delhi
with Ashis Nandy, Kunwar Narain, Bei Dao, Joy Goswami, Xi Chuan, Ouyang Jianghe, Ge Fei, Zhai Yongming, K. Satchidanandan, Li Tuo, Vinod Kumar Shukla, Irwin Allan Sealy, Rukmini Bhaya Nair, Vivek Narayanan, Sharmistha Mohanty
2008 | Mar. 6–9 | IIC, Delhi
with Claudio Magris, Bei Dao, George Szirtes, Udayan Vajpeyi, Irwin Allan Sealy, Nabaneeta Dev Sen, Mani Kaul, Vivek Narayanan, Sharmistha Mohanty
2006 | Dec. 15–17 | IIC, Delhi
with Irwin Allan Sealy, George Szirtes, Mani Kaul, Mariko Nagai, K. Satchidanandan, Vinod Kumar Shukla, Arvind Mehrotra, Vivek Narayanan, Sharmistha Mohanty