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Frankfurt (dpa) - More than 30 Indian writers who hope to be published in the West are set to attend the Frankfurt Book Fair this October to woo world publishers, organizers said in Germany Wednesday.
US-based authors Amitav Ghosh and Anita Desai are internationally famed exceptions on the list, with many of the authors little known outside their home regions in India. Desai wrote the 1984 novel, In Custody, which was turned into a feature film in 1993.
India is to be guest of honour at the October 4-8 fair and is mounting a special show, entitled "Today's India", to emphasize its modern achievements rather than its ancient traditions.
Kolkata-based Amit Chaudhuri, author of the 1998 novel Freedom Song, is set to attend the fair to meet publishers and give interviews, but so will two Bengali-language writers, Joy Goswami and Mahasweta Devi.
Two writers in the Kannada language, U R Ananthmurthyand Girish Karnad, will attend.
Gujarati is to be represented by Sitanshu Yashaschandra and Tamil by Salma. Writers in Maithili, Malayalam, Marathi, Punjabi and Urdu are also on the 33-author list issued by the Book Fair organizing agency, along with the Kashmiri writer Shafi Shauq.
Six writers who use India's national language Hindi are to attend the fair, along with 10 who write in English.
The annual fair is the world's biggest marketplace for translation rights to novels and non-fiction. About 7,000 exhibitors from 100 nations have booked stand space.
Copyright 2006 dpa Deutsche Presse-Agentur GmbH
