
So today, for me, I can access what was written a thousand years ago. It means that the language has gone through so many rulers, so many religious movements, so many social movements, and absorbed all this. And what I mean by unbroken is that we have literature which is from the last thousand years and all along. See, Kannada is a language which has over a thousand years of unbroken literary history. Shanbhag: Thanks, Chris, for your generous introduction. How did you go about making the decision to write in one language and not another, and how do those – the three languages – for you, also English, of course, shape your work and in your thinking? Merrill: You recently said about the Kannada language, “It’s a language that has so many memories.” Can you share some of your thoughts in the ways in which memory is built into language? And also in the region of India that you come from, most people speak at least three languages, your own mother tongue being Konkani, yet you write in Kannada. We are recording this conversation from the University of Iowa on Thursday, Septemwhen we have the chance to sit down with Vivek, who is here as a participant in the International Writing Program’s Fall Residency. He writes in Kannada, and is the founder of the literary magazine, Desha Kaala, which means ‘Space’ and ‘Time’. His writing has appeared in Granta, Seminar, and Indian Literature his most recent novel, Ghachar Ghochar appeared in English in 2016. Merrill: Vivek SHANBHAG, a fiction writer and playwright from India, an engineer by training, is the author of two plays, five short story collections and three novels.

Welcome to the very first Origins episode featuring Indian writer Vivek Shanbhag.


Visit the International Writing Program online at. Since 1967, over 1,400 writers from more than 150 nations have taken part in the Fall Residency here at the University of Iowa, where writers participate in literary and cultural exchange. The International Writing Program is the oldest and largest multinational writing residency in the world.
#Vivek shanbhag kannada books series
Origins: The International Writing Program Podcast is an interview series with writers from around the world addressing the origins of their creative works, the literary and social cultures in which they write, and the art of language. I’m Christopher Merrill, and you’re listening to Origins.

2019 Colombia Reading Tour & and Women’s Creative Mentorship Colombia Summit.
