Traveling South Asian Literary Festival
TRASAL Talks
A monthly virtual book talk series featuring renowned and emerging writers in conversation on South Asian histories, politics, culture, identity, and diaspora.
E5: "The Whispering Mountains and Voices in the Wind: A Conversation with Namita Gokhale and Malashri Lal"
Namita Gokhale, award-winning author of twenty-four works of fiction and non-fiction, and co-founder of the iconic Jaipur Literature Festival, and Malashri Lal, a distinguished scholar, author, and Professor Emerita at the University of Delhi, in conversation about their co-edited anthologies that gather mystical storytelling traditions of the Himalayas, bringing together writers who might not otherwise share a page.
E4: "Sing Me a Circle: Love, Loss, and a Home in Time"
Samina Najmi, author of the acclaimed memoir-in-essays Sing Me a Circle and named one of Poets & Writers’ Top Five Nonfiction Debuts of 2025, discusses her book reflecting on memory, migration, grief, and the search for home across generations.
E2: "Sing, Slivered Tongue: An Anthology of South Asian Women's Poetry of Trauma"
A conversation with Lopamudra Basu, Professor of English, University of Wisconsin-Stout, and Feroza Jussawalla, Professor of English, University of New Mexico, on this striking anthology of South Asian women's poetry exploring trauma, memory, resistance, and survival, where language becomes a site of witness and healing.
E3: "Ethical Encounters: Transnational Feminism, Human Rights, and War Cinema in Bangladesh"
Elora Chowdhury, Professor of Gender Studies at UMass Boston, in conversation about her book Ethical Encounters. The discussion explores the intersections of feminism, human rights, and memory, focusing on how Bangladeshi cinema visually recollects violent legacies and helps imagine a more humane global cinematic future.
E1: "Tamil Dalit Feminist Poetics: Resistance, Power, and Solidarity"
A conversation with Pramila Venkateswaran, award-winning poet, former Suffolk County poet laureate, and a leading voice in Dalit feminist poetry, in dialogue with Poornima Janakiraman, entrepreneur and former tech leader with deep ties to arts and community work. This conversation explores voice, poetry, and social justice through the lens of Tamil Dalit feminist poetics.