Queer Literature is finally coming out of the closet in India, but it's still very difficult to access books in 'mainstream' shops, more so in small town India.
A decade or so ago, one of my short stories appeared in 'Yaarana' - a Penguin Anthology, and the first time I got to read it was when journalist Vikram Doctor graciously presented me a copy [via courier]. The book was unavailable in bookstores in Patna, at the time.
A recent assignment for me - a talk on Queer Literature in India at Patna University - evidently meant a certain amount of research and reading, and that is where I discovered Queer Ink - a repository, a storehouse .. of excellent material: academic discourses, novels, poetry collections. Queer Ink is an e-store that specialises in Queer Literature.
I recently acquired Mahesh Natrajan's The Pink Sheep, and other books that I wanted to own, just by excercising the mouse and a few clicks - and delivery was fantastically fast.
Service is efficient, personalised, and professional.
Shobna S Kumar, whose photograph appears here, runs Queer Ink.
She said in an interview,"There are younger, newer writers coming on the scene, and publishers too are taking a chance. More queer fiction has come out in the last two years than ever before. It shows society is changing and that there is a market for such books."
Amen to That!
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