Literary journal

[Jose Lourenco]

I see a lot of monthly English magazines being published in Goa: Goa Today, Viva Goa, Planet Goa, Business Goa, Timeline Goa,etc. Then there are the weeklies: Goan Observer and Goa Streets.We now also have many English dailies, with the Goan being recently added. All of them appear to be healthily funded by advertising. But there isn't a single literary magazine in English in Goa. If one wants to send in a story, poem or play, none of the existing magazines have place for such literary pieces. At one time Institute Menezes Braganza published Govapuri, a fine little mag. And there was Parmal, published by Goa Heritage Action Group, in which one could see some fiction. We have also had Tambdi Mati, an online magazine with fine content, but it has fallen dormant now.  

Why is this so? We have no dearth of writers and readers of literature in Goa. The Konkani publishing industry showcases a lot of creative writing, though sometimes of indifferent quality. A lot of the Konkani writing, both old and new, could be translated and be published in an English literary journal. Besides there is a lot of original writing by Goans in English, in the past and present. So why do we not have such a journal? We have fine writers, translators and editors, who could easily keep the fires burning for such a publication.

Is it lack of financial feasibility? If such a journal has a subscriber base of say a thousand members, they would certainly be drawn from a well-to-do segment of Goan society, which would make them attractive for advertisers. Such a journal could even afford to pay contributors well. 

At Broadway, I see copies of a little bimonthly magazine called The Reading Hour (priced at 50 rupees), published from Bangalore. It has an all-India circulation, and seems to be quite healthy. Their website says: "A while ago, we realised that it isn't easy to find a short fiction English magazine on our bookshelves and news-stands. There are several such magazines in regional languages, whose content is denied to many of us who have (for various reasons) become 'single language' people, the language being English. Thus, the idea of Reading Hour was born. We have mainly Indian writers telling Indian stories, across a variety of genres so that the magazine is both entertaining and informative. We publish translations from regional languages, as well as of non-Indian languages."

    

Why not have our equivalent of such a magazine in Goa? It could also be a vehicle to get our Konkani writing out into the English-reading world in regular installments. What are your opinions on this, friends?

[Selma C]

Jose,

I have brought up this topic many times and there was no interest. I have seriously considered scrapping some of my own money and starting something however humble, maybe an annual. What keeps me from pursuing it is the thought that serious writers may not contribute given their disdain for local endeavours and also distribution and having a point person in Goa. A subscription of 1000 is unrealistic for Goa but a print run of 300 could work.

Best,

Selma

Sent from my iPad

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[Basil Sylvester Pinto]

Hi .... At Goenkar, I have been encouraging fiction and we had these college going girl, Monica Malik writing short stories. Also a school girl, Kryselle Baretto contributes thought-provoking short pieces. We encourage youngsters. Know of any upcoming literary talent looking for a platform in English, contact me. Rico, pls do the needful. Cheers.   Basil

[augusto pinto]

Dear JL:

Your views are excellent. Like most excellent ideas they have been tried before. I remember FN, VM, Prava Rai, Fr Delio, and I meeting at XCHR some years ago, to initiate an idea that is exactly the same as what you suggest, after Parmal had folded up and there was an acute need felt for a literary journal.

The idea fell through. Basically economics was the problem, and if you ask FN then he will give you a breakup of how much print and ink costs and how much cash should come in to cover the cost of the Journal; and why e-journals are not too popular. Money is a huge issue.

But then FN did not factor in one thing: that is, love for what one wants to achieve. To try to start a literary journal one needs cash. FULL STOP. Or FOOLISHNESS to want something like this to succeed.

But then again, there is another way to go about it: if we all LOVE the idea, IT CAN HAPPEN for LOVE can light flames which cash cannot imagine.

Jose Lourenco, I think that YOU are the right person to ignite such flames.

How?

I'll lay out some possible scenarios starting from the most cash-effective. Govapuri is one. When Manohar Shetty was the editor, Govaputi was excellent. It was useless as a commercial journal because fools in the Institute Menezes Braganza had no idea how to go about selling a journal, and I guess, although Shetty was an excellent LITERARY editor he didn't want to dirty his hands trying to sell Govapuri.

MAYBE if MS had financial control of Govapuri, maybe he would have tried to sell it, but the IMB members which controlled Govapuri, didn't want to give him control, probably the question didn't even arise as MS didn't bring it up, but the fact is that nobody was interested in putting in the energy required for promoting the journal to readers, although from the point of view of quality of the journal was very good.

(I would recommend those who want to collect Goa books to pick up the copies of Goapuri that are still available.)

Finally either Manohar Shetty was resigned or he was thrown out.

Then Govapuri was taken over by the Konkanivadis and other languages now had to take a backseat.

The problem with this was that Govapuri no doubt showcased the work of prominent Konkani writers, but there again, the journal did not sell. Again I would recommend those who want to collect Goa books in the Devanagari script to pick up the copies of Devanagari Goapuri that are still available.

In the meanwhile Konkani Akademi have started an excellent journal called A.... (can't remember - maybe Ananya) which takes over all the functions of Govapuri but which reaches more people.

 

JL, now that you are in a fairly influential position, what is it, Vice-President of the Konkani Akademi, (?), I suggest that you put the idea across that you propose to have a Journal of Goan writing in English where Goan writing in Marathi in English translation (I deliberately put this first for if you get Marathwadi support, then the idea will sail through effortlessly); Goan writing in Konkani in both Devanagai and Roman script in English translation; Goan writing in any language including Urdu, Malayalam, Kannada, Russian in English translation; and Goan writing in English - be brought together on one platform then it would help writers on all these different languages.

This solution, which involves a wide variety of languages agreeing to come together on a common platform would be excellent. The thing is that it will work if and only if the Editor is someone who is like you yourself, someone who is sympathetic to the problems of different languages, someone who knows how to make things work, someone who doesn't have too many enemies can unite these disparate forces ...

But the problem with this suggestion is politics... There are politicians who will see the excellence of the idea except that they do not understand that an individual of the caliber of a Jose Lourenco is required to implement it. And they will appoint an idiot who is ideologically committed to kiss the ass of the boss - and that effectively destroys the idea before it begins..

Hence other avenues must be looked at ...

I'll continue this topic later, exploring other avenues...

Augusto

[Jose Lourenco]

Dear Augusto

Thanks for the information and thought that has gone into your reply. I am on the executive board of the Goa Konkani Akademi. We have Madhav Borkar as Head, he is an excellent man for the job. We outlined a lot of ideas to take Konkani forward at a recent press conference, and now have to get to work once the working committee is formed later this month. One of the things that was talked of was taking Konkani translations to a broader audience. For this, in my opinion, a magazine is needed - not exclusively for Konkani translations - but a general English literary magazine that has a wide variety and genres of literature conveyed in English. 

A year back, at a Konkani literary event, I was seated next to an elderly gentleman who gifted me a copy of a Marathi magazine he was carrying. He was the editor, publisher and distributor of this slim little mag. As I browsed through it, I found there were a good many short stories that had been translated from European, Asian and other Indian languages, into Marathi. I was impressed. He said it cost him 8 to 10 thousand rupees to print, which he recovered via three colour advertisements (front inner, back, back inner), so he could  keep his black and white internal pages free of ads. His delivery was by bookpost, which didn't cost much. Last week, as I lunched with a Malayalam writers' group that had visited the GKA, one of those writers told me a similar story, he had been publishing a Malayalam literary journal for many years.

You are right, if one is passionate about such a magazine, it can be done. At a recent visit to a friend's house in Curtorim, I spotted an issue of Luz de Oriente in his archive. This little journal was edited by Dada Vaidya back in the old days. What passion and zeal!

Ironically, the institution that in recent years has brought English, Konkani, Marathi and Portuguese writing within the pages of one (actually two, so far) book, is not a Konkani or Marathi or government institution. It is the Fundaçao Oriente, with their Short Story Contest initiated by the delegado Eduardo Kol Carvalho and supported by Maria Aurora Couto, which has resulted in two anthologies - 'Shell Windows' and 'Coconut Fronds'. But you know this, being the chairman of the jury for the Contest this year. Looking forward to a great anthology from under your gimlet eye!   

Let us take this lit journal discussion further. Would readers pay Rs 50 for a monthly issue of such a magazine? Can 500 subscribers be raised over a year's time? Can three colour ads costing 5000 rupees each be raised per issue? 

Nachom-ia Kumpasar, the recently made highly acclaimed musical film, was made using a crowdsourcing model, with a 100 co-producers funding the three crore movie. If we are sure of 500 subscribers paying 600 rupees per year, it could work. I feel contributors should be paid at least a thousand rupees each for their writings.   

The problem of an individual running a magazine is that with the passing of the individual the magazine also falters. Jaag, a good Konkani magazine, was edited by Ravindra Kelekar. On his passing Madhavi Sardesai, his able protege took over its reins. But sadly she passed away recently, and now Jaag's continuation looks hazy.

But let's not worry about that. Onward ho!  

Regards

Jose

[Selma C]

Dear FN,

If you do have the ballpark finances of just such a literary journal, can you share it with us. I am curious.

With reference to languages, ignore everything Augusto has said and stick to English. 

I do believe we can make it happen, so let's start with the most important aspect, finances.

Best,

Selma

Sent from my iPad

[Frederick FN Noronha * फ्रेड्रिक नोरोन्या * فريدريك نورونيا‎]

Two laws of volunteering (don't ask me who framed them!):

* Don't say it can't be done. Ever.

* But also: don't dream up some grand dream and expect someone else to implement.

FN

P +91-832-2409490 M 9822122436 Twitter: @fn Facebook: fredericknoronha

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[Frederick FN Noronha * फ्रेड्रिक नोरोन्या * فريدريك نورونيا‎]

If I recall right, the figure being mentioned was Rs 200,000 or 300,000 per year, for a couple of issues (or quarterly, can't recall).

The problem with us writers/journalists is that we think like governments: first plan the budget, and then search around from where to get the money from.

To my mind, what works is to see what resources are available (including volunteering), and then see how our plans can fit this.

But I better keep quiet here, before someone goes ahead and "volunteers" me.

FN

PS: Thankfully the 35-kmph (and worse) winds seem to have lessened, and it has been nicely dry today in Goa.

[Leonard Fernandes]

​I would rather be very selective of people who write for this journal. It is one thing to encourage new talent, quite another to do so at the expense of quality. If the English in the newspapers is anything to go by, we need to be apprehensive of students who say they top their class and then turn out utter rubbish. I have made that mistake. Twice.

I also think that the idea is very good but that perhaps we should proceed only if there are enough subscriptions to sustain it. I don't think searching for readers (buyers) after investments have been made is wise.​

On 21 June 2015 at 21:03, Basil Sylvester Pinto <hello...@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi .... At Goenkar, I have been encouraging fiction and we had these college going girl, Monica Malik writing short stories. Also a school girl, Kryselle Baretto contributes thought-provoking short pieces. We encourage youngsters. Know of any upcoming literary talent looking for a platform in English, contact me. Rico, pls do the needful. Cheers.   Basil

Warm Regards,

Leonard Fernandes
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the conference on "the future of publishing"

http://www.publishingnext.in

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Panaji, Goa, India

[V M]

tambdimati.com exists and has demonstrated a working + high-quality
framework. The site is indeed dormant at the moment due to a variety
of reasons. If Jose + a few others are willing to apply their efforts
to revive, that can happen immediately. For the record, the site
attracts thousands of individual viewers every month despite the lack
of new content, and when it puts up new content that number goes up
tenfold. Lots of national and international attention. Please consider
this option, and advise.

VM

> the conference on "the future of publishing"
>
> http://www.publishingnext.in
> 11-12 September 2015
> Panaji, Goa, India
>

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[Leonard Fernandes]

​That might be a good idea. A couple of years back, we used to work with Pratilipi (pratilipi.in) which is basically a multi-lingual literary journal. It was purely online but readers could ask for printed copies (which they accumulated orders for and then printed 10 at a time to save on shipping costs). It seems like they have stopped that model because the covers out there are the old ones but that (print+web) might be a model worth considering.​

On 22 June 2015 at 11:54, V M <vmi...@gmail.com> wrote:

tambdimati.com exists and has demonstrated a working + high-quality
framework. The site is indeed dormant at the moment due to a variety
of reasons. If Jose + a few others are willing to apply their efforts
to revive, that can happen immediately. For the record, the site
attracts thousands of individual viewers every month despite the lack
of new content, and when it puts up new content that number goes up
tenfold. Lots of national and international attention. Please consider
this option, and advise.

VM

Warm Regards,

Leonard Fernandes
-----------------------------------------------------------------
+91 98503 98530

the conference on "the future of publishing"