Panel explores different modes of storytelling

Different modes of storytelling, other than a novel, that writers employ to express themselves, and how and why they do so were explored in a panel discussion on Wednesday at Jaipur BookMark, the South Asian publishing conclave that runs parallel to Jaipur Literature Festival (JLF). The discussion opened with the story of Canadian-Tamil poet Cheran, who wrote in Tamil both at home in Sri Lanka, and in exile in the Netherlands and Canada.

The poet recounted the story of his first poetry collection, "A Second Sunrise", which was written after the burning of the Jaffna Public Library in 1981. He shared how writing to counter censorship turned his poetry into a form of resistance. He noted that his poems have been narrated through dance recitals, plays and art exhibitions -- thereby highlighting more forms of conveying a story.

For Paul McVeigh, who comes from a working class background in Northern Ireland, short stories were a giant leap into the unknown from the safety of plays. "An entire novel's worth of thinking often goes into a short story," he said.

The co-founder of the London Short Story Festival further stressed that short stories allow one to sustain the kind of emotional intensity that would be impossible to maintain over the entire course of a novel, which has to have both "light and shade". "I like to take the reader to these very dark places, and leave them there," he quipped.

Editor and graphic designer Sunandini Banerjee stumbled into the art of book cover design, not by artful design but by mere accident. "I think, for me, the starting point and ending point for book covers is the book, not the market," she said.

She referred to herself as being "foolish enough to attack" every book that lands on her table with "the same degree of gusto". She also threw light on how "the entire universe of imagery and colour" that the book talks about is open to her, once she has chosen which part of the story to interpret in the cover.

"I am giving the book its first shout-out in the universe. Once it makes someone pick the book up, the second story begins," she said. The informative session drew to its close with the panel reading out instances of their own work.