Wales Arts Review presents the British Council podcast from the Hay Festival exploring the ideas and conversations behind the Valley, City, Village project.
In this British Council podcast recorded at the Hay Festival Wales 2017 with host Georgina Godwin writers from West Bengal and Wales talk about their cross cultural collaboration through the project Village, City and Valley. The authors and poets talk about the connections they forged and how their experiences in each others’ countries have informed and inspired their work. The poets reflect on their shared experiences of multi-lingualism, interest in folklore and draw inspiration from extraordinary landscapes including the Welsh Valleys and the Sundarbans in West Bengal. They also read extracts of their work in Bengali, Welsh and English.
The Valley, The City, The Village project involved six writers – three Welsh and three Indian – and is part of the UK-India Year of Culture 2017. Welsh writers Natalie Ann Holborow, Siôn Tomos Owen and Sophie McKeand were joined by Indian writers Aniesha Brahma, Srijato Bandyopadhyay and Arunava Sinha to take part in events and to experience each other’s countries. The writers have been brought together by Welsh publisher Parthian Books, Kolkata-based Bee Books, Literature Wales and Wales Arts Review.
The project is supported by India Wales, a new funding scheme by the British Council and Wales Arts International: the scheme supports artistic collaboration and exchange between creative professionals and arts organisations in Wales and India to build sustainable, creative relationships and networks between the two countries. The project incorporates prose, poetry, art and reportage from Bengal and Wales and a special 48-page full colour magazine celebrating The Valley, The City, The Village also launched from Wales Art Review.
Find out more about the UK-India Year of Culture 2017.
You can read more about this project, this podcast, and the British Council here.
