The Long Night of Literature is a European festival held annually in New Delhi where one can interact with authors from participating countries. This year it will be held on September 27th at the Instituto Cervantes facilities and 12 countries will participate, including Spain.
The author selected by the Instituto Cervantes to represent Spain is Sameer Rawal, a Hispanist, writer and translator whose work is available in four languages: Hindi, English, Spanish and Catalan. He has translated two works by Mercè Rodoreda into Hindi: the novel, La plaza de Diamant and the anthology of stories, Todos los cuentos. In addition, he has taught Hindi and has imparted translation courses at Casa Asia in Barcelona and Catalan at the Jamia Millia Islamia University in New Delhi.
The evening itself would be as follows: each author is assigned a classroom and the audience, divided into small groups, takes turns attending individual reading sessions of about 25 minutes. These readings are done both in the author's native language and in English. The total duration is about four hours (a total of five authors can be visited).
In addition, the different participating countries carry out various activities focused on the authors in the days prior to the event, such as: presentations at various universities in New Delhi, meetings with local publishers, guided tours of tourist sites in the city, etc.
This event aims to bring European literature closer to the Indian public, since, on many occasions, the public has not had the opportunity to read these authors.
