“I’d like to see literary magazines become more than mere platforms of publishing good literature.”

Sayan Aich Bhowmik was in conversation with Poet and Writer Maitreyee B Chowdhury. It was wonderful to talk about her role as an Editor, what she expects from new magazines, and the demands of running a literary forum. Read on…

• Sayan: You have been a part of The Bangalore Review for quite some time now. What was the thought process/ thinking motivation behind starting and wanting to be a part of a literary magazine?

Maitreyee: I joined The Bangalore Review a couple of years after its inception. I was looking into the poetry submissions for the magazine at that time. The magazine came about as a result of friends deciding to review books that they felt deeply about. As a city, Bangalore has always had people who are well read. Many of these people turned friends, who met at Koshys or other places like the Airlines Hotel, Cubbon Park, etc to discuss books, poetry, and world literature in general. These became hubs for book discussions or poetry readings. As the magazine developed an audience over the years, we also branched into other areas of literature. As such, the process of becoming a full-fledged literary magazine, from an only reviews platform, was pretty organic I’d say.

I think almost all magazines or libraries originate from the thought of spreading the word about good literature. Like translating, reviewing too is most often a very organic by product of passionate reading. The idea of sharing well thought out reviews with a wider audience, and engaging them in discussions around books is what gave birth to the magazine.

• Sayan: What were the challenges that you faced in the initial days? How did you navigate through those obstacles?

Maitreyee: I think all magazines face similar challenges, whether it is the worry of funding or finding enough time to dedicate to the magazine, or the question of whether people will like the work you produce, or even just bringing together a dedicated and enthusiastic team. Over the years, things stabilised for us, we build a team that understands and goes out of their way to promote good literature. We also invested in Submittable, which allows us to wade through the large number of submissions.

I think when you love the work you do, you also learn to navigate the obstacles, because the option of giving up on the dream that you have been working on is really too hard, and non-negotiable. And this is a dream really, to be able to curate from world over fine literature that impacts others, cannot not be a dream. But also, all of this becomes easier when you have a team you can trust and build on. Over the years we have improvised, added elements that we felt would draw in more readers, become more conscious of the integrity that literature guides us into, and build conversations with other magazines in trying to bring together a community that understands the work that literary magazines do. My pride in the magazine stems from the fact that, we have been able to remain both democratic and experimental as a platform.

• Sayan: When The Bangalore Review started its journey, what was the scene in the Indian Literary and Magazine forums? I mean, there were always some very famous names with enviable readership– but how was it for The Bangalore Review to find a foothold and carve a niche for yourself?

Maitreyee: Well, the country has always had a rich tradition of literary magazines, but most of them were offline, most magazines in different Indian languages still are. While as online magazines we take pride in certain number of views, one must understand that the kind of engagement and ardent readership that offline magazines in different Indian languages have is spectacular really. And many of us have grown up with these wonderful magazines that would be part of our Sunday reading, giving us a template of sorts in presenting good literature. The tradition of online literary magazines is still fairly new in that sense, though many of them are doing such wonderful work.

In retrospect it would be rather smug to say we did several things right, because how a magazine becomes successful or not isn’t really that predictable. It might sound clichéd, but in our case, it was consistency, hard work from the team and the willingness to innovate with time that helped us, I think. TBR doesn’t advertise, we don’t even have a social media team, so it really is just word of mouth, and good literature that has helped us gain both viewership and earn a reputation.

• Sayan: The literary and the publication scene has changed in the last decade or so. Intolerance, Islamophobia have been more pronounced and out in the open. As editor of a magazine, have you experienced these changes? Have they, in any way impacted or affected the way you have curated the submissions that have come in?

Maitreyee: I think the more things change, the more they remain the same. History is full of examples where free and fearless voices have tried to be censored. We have seen it during the emergency, as we are seeing it now.

As a literary magazine, we publish pure literature, and choose not to publish political pieces or comment on it- it is not our place as a literary magazine to do so. But we do not publish pieces that are insensitive or propagate hate in any form, and towards anyone. I have not personally experienced any problems as an editor till now in that sense. But insensitivity isn’t really restricted to politics really, and one often forgets that these aspects of the literary life need to be spoken about as much. Literary gate keeping, giving preference to well-known names, and not standing up to bullying- these are all problem areas that need to be realised. In that sense, I have tried to promote a kind of literary activism, both in my capacity as a writer and editor, whereby we become more conscious of not only what we write, but why we write, who we are as writers and what our vision for publishing as an industry really is.

• Sayan: How do you see the literary and publication scene in this part of the world– the Calcutta circle to be precise as opposed to that of Bangalore and Bombay. If you could enumerate on the points of commonality and difference.

Maitreyee: The English writing world is more or less the same everywhere in India I think, though one gets a sense that there’s a close-knit community feeling in Bombay especially, that is more pronounced than in other places. In comparison to other Bhasha writers, who I think have a much stronger community feeling, the English writers mostly work solo. Yes, there are organisations like IPPL(Intercultural Poetry and Performance Library) in Kolkata, or the likes of Anjuman (Hindi & Urdu writers’ community) in Bangalore, yet these are few and far in between.

Most Hindi, Bengali or Malayali writers know each other, or keep track of who is writing what. In English, this feeling though has been somewhat propagated through social media, yet there are lesser inter personal relations than in other languages I feel.

• Sayan: As a part of a growing community of publishers and editors, what would you like to see both more and less of in the literary magazines that are coming up or have already been in existence for a while.

Maitreyee: PrimarilyI would like to see literary magazines become more than mere platforms of publishing good literature. I strongly believe that good literature, good readers and good writers need to be nurtured, and in that literary magazines have a role to play. Helping connect a community of readers and writers, highlighting the role of reading, bringing back reading as a life habit instead of only looking at it as a stepping stone to publishing, inculcating reading in different languages instead of only one- all of these are areas that literary magazines can help in building.

• Sayan: In the last few years, the trend has been that the number of authors far outnumber the number of readers. We seem to have been less intent on reading, listening to others’ stories and more eager to get ours across. How do you address this as an author, editor and reader yourself?

Maitreyee: I agree with you. I realised this myself a few years ago, when talking to a few writer friends I realised that every time we met, we would only discuss each other’s work, instead of what we were reading. The celebrityhood of a writer seems to have increasingly come in the way of the reader-writer, surely there must be ways of being a writer other than the great compulsion to publish a book every now and then?

In this great rush to be published, and be seen and perceived of as a writer, do we pause to ask ourselves whether we have devoted enough time to improve our craft, to revisit the best writers in the world in different languages, and most importantly have we turned to thinking as much as we have turned to literary fests? These are important questions that every writer must ask of oneself, I think.

In the past two years, other than going back to reading voraciously really, I have been reaching out to many poets/writers from the Hindi and Bangla world (since I am familiar with both the languages), especially those who stay outside the big cities. I realised that writers who come from two/three tier cities and towns, often use different styles, subject matter, and also have a thought process very different from those who stay in the metros, which made me curious. In India we have always had a tradition of junior writers visiting the homes of senior writers, engaging with them in discussions, learning from them, or creating reading groups in coffee houses where book enthusiasts can meet and discuss books they love. In my own small ways, I have tried to replicate this old tradition and most often been welcomed with open arms especially from the elderly writers. This has been the most refreshing experiment for me really, and in many senses has helped me grow as a writer/editor, I think.

• Sayan: Your book on the Hungry generation poets has been a significant contribution and addition to the critical canon of Indian poetry. What project are you currently involved in?

Maitreyee: Thank you.Writing The Hungryalists was a not only a great experience, it also connected me to readers worldwide, and to a host of writers from other languages who fondly look back on the movement as something that spurred them on to different things. Now with its translation into French, I hope that it will take the stories of Indian poetry to distant shores.

It took almost six years to write my forthcoming book on Binoy Majumdar- a literary fiction, that will be published by mid-2026. I also have a poetry book coming out around the same time next year.

• Sayan: What advice or pointers would you like to pass on to the new generation of editors/writers who want to or have started their own literary and cultural magazines?

Maitreyee: I would hope that they do some homework before launching a magazine, this will help them sustain themselves over the years. One must also remember that it is not enough to publish good writing for a while, a magazine needs to be innovative in its approach, keep doing new things to attract new viewership and to raise the bar. The editors also need to have a clear idea of what works best for them- originality is everything. Also, having a good idea about the finances for both the present and future, as well as a provision for an archive, should things go wrong, are important aspects that need to be kept in mind too.