Local Bengali writers to be featured at Toronto International Festival of Authors

Local writer Subrata Kumar Das will be taking part in the Toronto International Festival of Authors this month.

Like many events that used to feature in-person sessions and live audiences, the 2020 version of this year’s festival will be held online.

Das, who is executive director of the Bengali Literary Resource Centre in East York and author of Kanadiyo Sahityo: Bichchhinno Vabna (Canadian Literature: Some Snapshots), will be among the writers taking part in the festival’s Life Through Language presentations.

A critic, essayist, translator and editor, Das has 27 books to his credit and is a member of the Writers’ Union of Canada and the Literary Translators Association of Canada.

Along with Das, Bengali authors Manosi Saha, Tasmina Khan, and Dr. Dilip Chakraborty will take part in the online Life Through Language: Bengali Literature, A Retrospect on Oct. 30 at 6:30 p.m. The presentation will be in English. “Meet the authors writing in languages that represent unique communities from around the world and across the local neighbourhoods of Toronto,” says the festival’s website.

Also, on Oct. 27 at 6 p.m. an interview in Bengali will be presented at the festival by Bas in which he interviews Syed Iqbal, Asoke Chakravarty, Akbar Hussain, and Nahar Monica. On Oct. 22 at 6 p.m., Das interviews Saeed Jadid, Tasmina Khan, Sujit Kusum Paul, Dr. Dilip Chakraborty, Surajit Roy Majumder and Manosi Saha about translating Canadian literature into Bengali in the Life Through Language: CanLit to Bengali presentation. The interviews will be in Bengali.

For more information, please visit www.festivalofauthors.ca/book-author/subrata-kumar-das

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