We are ready to take off: Kire on emerging Naga writers and literature
Morung Express News
Dimapur/Kohima | January 16
Nagaland’s own - Easterine Kire- poet, story teller and novelist has won one of India’s most prestigious awards on Literature - The Hindu Literary Prize 2015 for her novel ‘When the River Sleeps.’
“We are ready to take off. We are assembling to take off,” were the animated words of Kire during a telephonic interview with The Morung Express hours after receiving The Hindu Prize, 2015. She said this when asked about her view on the current Naga writers and literature in Nagaland.
Believing that young Naga writers are writing boldly and confidently now, Kire further encouraged, “write from the heart-that is the most important.”
The award was given away by British writer Alexander McCall Smith at the ongoing literature festival, ‘Lit for Life’ initiated by The Hindu at Sri Mutha Venkatasubba Rao Concert Hall, Chetpet, Chennai on Saturday.
Easterine Kire was nominated alongside Amitav Ghosh’s Flood of Fire, Amit Chaudhuri’s Odysseus Abroad, Janice Pariat’s Seahorse, Anuradha Roy’s Sleeping on Jupiter, and Siddharth Chowdhury’s The Patna Manual Style.
Kire’s winning novel When the River Sleeps is about a lone hunter seeking a ‘heart stone’ in a faraway sleeping river and fighting all odds to get it. The book was described by K. Satchidanandan, one of the judges, as “a sample of how the mythopaeic imagination can work in our times”. He said Nagaland was almost unexplored in Indian fiction and the book, with its profound symbolism offered an alternative way of life.
Susie Tharu, another juror, spoke about the judging process and how they enjoyed reading more than 40 books to come to a conclusion about the winner. “It was a very tight run,” she said. Smith joked about how “This literary festival is a delightful cake that we feast on over the weekend. The cake has icing, and the icing is the literary prize.”
Earlier at the award giving ceremony, Kire read out an excerpt from her novel, describing a scene in which the protagonist and another man escape from a river with the spirits of widow women chasing after them with spears and curses. She described the book as an exploration of the Naga spirit universe.
“This is not my book, but our book, because of the number of people that embrace it,” said Kire. She thanked all her readers who believed in the book. “Some of them were even praying,” Kire added.
‘When The River Sleeps’ is by far the author’s favourite book. She said it took her 2 months to write and almost five months of research.
In 2012, Kire was nominated for The Hindu Literary Prize for ‘Bitter Wormwood.’ Published by Zubaan books, ‘Bitter Wormwood’ is a stirring insight on the Indo-Naga conflict, a 70 years’ long freedom struggle that had altogether changed the lives of the common people in Nagaland.
Her first novel ‘A Naga Village Remembered’ was released in the year 2003. Her second novel, A Terrible Matriarchy (2007), was selected by Indian Literature Abroad for translation into the UN languages.
‘Mari’, (Harper Collins, 2010) narrates the true story of a young mother who, after losing her fiancé in the World War II, bravely makes the decision to live on for her child and discovers happiness once again. It also portrays some unknown aspects of the World War II, like a lesser known but ferocious battle fought against the Japanese troops in Nagaland.
She has also written several children’s books, articles and essays. Kelhoukevira, Kire’s first book of poetry (1982), was the first book of English poetry in Nagaland.
According to Women’s Panorama, Kire’s works reflect the unpleasant realities of life in Nagaland and the complexities around the colonial atrocities and discrimination. It also highlights the in-house rivalry and ideological differences that existed among the Naga brethren who fought for freedom.
She brings out poignantly the fascinating and vibrant Naga culture for the rest of the world to see, through her prolific writings that arouse a charm for its age old traditions and scintillating folklores from the deepest corners of the mystic state that Nagaland is.
