It was the idea of writing and literature slowly taking a digital turn that led to the Rough Note Children’s Literature Festival in the city which is all set to commence on August 6 at the DakshinaChitra Museum this year.
As a part of the fest, children belonging to the age group of seven to 16 are invited to send their poems and short stories (both fictional and non-fictional). Every student sending their entry will receive a participation certificate and the best ones are to be curated as a book and published by Notion Press. The entries can be either in Tamil or English.
The Fest, organised by Droplets Creation and Quriosity, will also see literary workshops, talks, panel discussions and storytelling sessions that will be taking place from August 6 to September 3 at the museum.
The literary workshops involve significant book publishers like Amar Chitra Katha, Tulika Books and Tara Books who will be closely working with and reaching out to children, said Lakshmi Thyagarajan, Senior Education Coordinator at DakshinaChitra Museum. Illustrators and authors of various books will also be interacting with the children who will attend the fest.
“We want to give them an experience of understanding what is behind a book,” she said.
The idea for this fest had taken seed two years back but Covid-19 had different plans. When asked about the challenges that they faced while organising the event after a pandemic, Arjun Madhavan from Quriosity said that the biggest challenge was the financial aspect. However, he said that they were fortunate to find people later who could support their vision and bring the event to fruition.
Sunantha Sugendran, from Droplets Creation, said that one of the ideas behind the event was to encourage school children to write. The competition is open to both government and public schools, she said.
The interested can submit their entries by August 1 and it has no registration fee. “Everyone can write, and we wanted to give this opportunity to all,” said Suren M from Droplets Creation.
Nawabzada Mohammed Asif Ali, a social and cultural activist as well as the brand ambassador for the children’s literature festival, said the event is a huge opportunity for children to come out and express themselves through the medium of literature.
