Last week a new imprint appeared on Melbourne’s busy publishing scene, Brass Monkey Books, aiming to build closer ties between Australia and India.
Publisher Kabita Dhara has published two fiction titles by Indian author Anjum Hasan. She told the Wheeler Centre: “My aim is to introduce Australians to writing from India, in the hope that having this direct connection of words will foster a better cultural understanding… I’m hoping that, in the future, I can also take Australian writing to India.”
During the recent reports of violence against Indian students in Melbourne, Dhara was in India answering difficult questions about her hometown. “As an Australian of Indian heritage, this divide saddens me, and I think that trying to forge a better relationship through words and stories (directly, and not through a third country like the UK or the US) is my way of fighting what I see as a current weakening in the Australia-India relationship.”
Dhara has brought her author Hasan out as part of the Melbourne Writers Festival and Brisbane Writers Festival, and plans to release non-fiction books in the future.