A literary festival – in addition to being a platform for authors to showcase their work to appreciative readers – is also where literary agents go shopping for fresh talent.
For the first time this year, the Hay Festival drew agents from the UK.
“Bangladesh is an under-represented area, and I have met some really fantastic people during this festival,” said Rachel Mills, agent and international rights director at Peters Fraser & Dunlop in London.
Mills scours the world for new voices to bring to British and American audiences, and said she was flying home with a large stack of promising work. “I have a lot of reading to do!”
Hay Festival co-producer Sadaf Siddiqui said: “It’s a huge thing that agencies – and I’m talking about top UK literary agencies – have expressed interest in Bangladeshi literature.”
“Good stories transcend borders,” Mills said. “Books that can translate and can appeal globally are the best books, because it means they found something universal.”
London-based Nicholas Chapman produces literary programs with Speaking Volumes. He said Bangladeshi authors could find a broad audience internationally if their work was marketed the right way, “not dumbed-down,” but programmed intelligently to match people’s growing interest in under-explored parts of the world.
“It’s a very interesting time for Bangladesh. We’ve been watching Pakistan and India for a long time, but Bangladeshi writers haven’t had the same platform. That’s why a festival like the Hay in Dhaka is important. For readership in the rest of the English-speaking world, it’s a way in.”
Mills added: “Once you’ve read a novel from a country, you’ll want to visit that country. Tourism, interest in the culture and literature all tie together. So many British people travel to India, and far fewer travel to Bangladesh. But I’m sure that will change in the coming years.”
Chapman and Mills, veterans of the worldwide literary festival circuit, were both impressed with this festival’s quality of organisation and programming. They said the thoughtfully curated panel discussions allowed them to “stumble across so much that is fascinating and special and new.”
This was also the second year the festival had attracted buyers from the Indian-based offices of Harper Collins, Penguin, and Bloomsbury.
“They provide the scope for worldwide distribution,” Sadaf said. “That’s another big step for us. And we look forward to even more coming next year.”
