The Beginning

Aainanagar began as a bilingual (English and Bangla) journal in 2013. We have also worked as a small, independent publishing venture, in both English and Bangla, brief descriptions of which you can find in this website.

We have also published an annual print issue in Bangla since 2015, keeping in mind the annual Kolkata Book Fair.

In April 2021, we decided to separate our English and Bangla editions. Partly because we recognized, the literatures in these two languages, have witnessed very different histories, which, cannot always be clubbed together. And, partly because, working within separate spaces, demarcated by language, gave us more autonomy and organizational advantage to experiment, innovate and converse in more complex and variegated ways.

In other words, we remain as committed to bilinguality (multilinguality, to be precise) now, as when we started out. But would like to work with it in slightly modified and transformed forms, as the times and our own changed selves demand.

The Journey

The journey has been long, and hard in its own way. Especially since, we work keeping alive amidst us a certain kind of suspicion about institutions, including the institution called the market. Apart from working together initially from two different continents, and now from several different cities in India, we have been plagued by the question, why publish another literary journal in an age when, everyone keeps telling us, no one reads anything anyway? Yet, we persisted, partly because, we believe – almost in a dogged and foolhardy fashion – on the power of narratives. We stubbornly believe, literature does certain kinds of cultural and political work that nothing else does. And, last of all, literary narratives continue to provide three things for both the reader and the writer. A space to reflect and diagnose, a space to heal, and last but not the least, weapons to speak back to power.

What We Are Looking At

In this space, our priority is to publish work that doesn’t shrink from the deep political contradictions of our times. To that end, we want to showcase work here, that deals with conflicts, reflects upon resistances and is not afraid to be political.

At the same time, we do believe, “politics” is a complicated word, and can lend itself to multiple meanings. Our contributors are welcome to interpret the word in their own ways. Simultaneously, we also do not think, political art should not be, or cannot be, serious about craft. In fact, we do think, the very idea of craft, possesses its own politics, and need to be engaged as such. Neither do we think, political art necessarily precludes the writing or exploration of the personal.

Submission

We welcome poems, short stories, non-fiction pieces, interviews and translations. All contributions are to be emailed at nandinidhar2112@gmail.com and aainanagar@gmail.com. If you have something,  that does not quite fit under any of these categories, please drop us an email too. We also have a running call for visual art, and short video clips. . We usually responded to within two months from the date of submission. If we haven’t responded within two months, please feel free to send us an email.

Being a practically no-profit little magazine, funded solely on the monetary and technical support provided by our friends and ourselves, we do not pay for the contributions that we publish. However,  if the submission is for a print issue, we do provide a free author’s copy.

Please visit our Submission Guideline page for further details.

The Team

Publisher: Pramod Gupta, 2, Deshbandhu Road (W), Kolkata 700035
Editors: Nandini, Pramod
Contact: nandinidhar2112@gmail.com, aainanagar@gmail.com; +919830411525, +918930105444
Aainanagar lettering: Saswata Dasgupta, Radha Sunder
Logo: Radha Sunder