Bookstrapping: Damsels, distress and literary prowess

Women's voices in literature have not only created new categories, but also maintained a balanced narrative of the world we live in. On the one hand, translations from global languages to English are commanding their place in the sun.

In this category, several authors have done this convincingly. Let's mention the artistic Koreans! There's the famous Han Kang who wrote the sensitive ' Vegetarian' and the evocative Kim Ji Yoon who wrote the empathetic, humane 'Yeonnam-dong's Smiley Laundromat.'

The Italian writer of historical fiction - the elusive Elena Ferrante- Time magazines' pick of 100 influencers of 2016 is an important contributor to this genre. Ferrante is believed to be a pseudonym for Rome based Anita Raja and her four-book series called the Neapolitan Quartet has warmed hearts all over the world.

Closer home, India's Gitanjali Shree blazed a new trail with her Booker prize winning 'Tomb of Sand' originally written in Hindi. Much before her was Indira Goswami, one of the pre-eminent contemporary Assamese writers. Her eminently famous and thought provoking 'The Moth-Eaten Howdah of the Tusker' remains a placeholder for an entire generations' attitudes and limitations.

Read More: Bookstrapping: A tribute to a Nobel Laureate

Another school of contemporary women's literature is a STEM- based backdrop . For eg. author Ali Hazelwood, who has a PhD in neuroscience! Her latest book 'Deep End' features ' power exchanges' between its ambitious, romantic protagonists and is set in Stanford University.

There's also the idealistic fervour of Alexene Farol Follmouth- also known as Olivie Blake, who believes that fiction must have a purpose. M 'To allow yourself to be known is to allow yourself to be wounded," she writes in 'Januaries', a book which features 14 short fantasy based stories. One is about a magical bridge that appears every now and then and has its own caretaker who grants wishes. There is also a deliberation about marriage, which the author defines as 'taking a residency in an unfinished house with a very, very long hallway, such that you cannot see the end from where you stand, and you are only allowed to progress through one room at a time.'

Write to us about more thought-provoking women's voices in contemporary literature on reeta@reetaramamurthygupta.in

Reeta Ramamurthy Gupta is a columnist and bestselling biographer. She is credited with the internationally acclaimed Red Dot Experiment, a decadal six-nation study on how ‘culture impacts communication.’ A reading coach, you can find her on Instagram @OfficialReetaGupta