Welcome to the Southasia Review of Books Podcast from Himal Southasian, where we speak to celebrated authors and emerging literary voices from across Southasia. In this episode, Shwetha Srikanthan, assistant editor at Himal Southasian, speaks to the Siliguri-based poet, writer and essayist Sumana Roy about her latest book 'Provincials: Postcards from the Peripheries'.

In Southasian literature, it seems that there might not be any other way to see the province except in contrast to the city. So much has been said about cosmopolitanism, but what of provincialism?

Growing up in Siliguri, a sub-Himalayan town in Bengal, Sumana Roy’s experiences have marked her understanding of the provincial reader’s life: including the sense of belatedness, and the desire for pleasure in language. There’s a constant search for writings that bring other worlds to the provincial readers’ lives but also for glimpses of lives similar to theirs.

In a series of “postcards” from the peripheries of Southasia and beyond, with writings ranging from Rabindranath Tagore to William Shakespeare, Bhakti poets to the Brontës, Sumana introduces us to the imaginative world of those who have celebrated provinciality. She challenges the dominance of the metropolis to reclaim the dignity of provincial life and challenges the imaginary barriers we tend to put between the rural and urban.

Sumana Roy is a poet, writer, essayist and editor based in Siliguri. She is the author of several published texts, including her latest 'Provincials' (2024), 'How I Became a Tree' (2017), 'Missing' (2018), 'My Mother’s Lover and Other Stories' (2019), and two poetry collections, 'Out of Syllabus' (2019) and 'VIP: Very Important Plant' (2022).

Episode notes: https://www.himalmag.com/podcast/sumana-roy-provincials-postcards-southasian-peripheries-tagore-bengal-siliguri-literature

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Southasia Review of Books is a podcast and a monthly newsletter that threads together our latest reviews and literary essays, with curated reading lists and all things books-related from Himal’s extensive archive. A special reading list curated by Sumana Roy will be featured in this month’s Southasia Review of Books Newsletter. You can subscribe to the newsletter here:bit.ly/sign-up-southasia-review-of-books-newsletter. A new episode of the Southasia Review of Books Podcast will be available once every four weeks. If you like this episode, please share widely, rate, review, subscribe and download the show on your favourite podcast apps.