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Literary magazines woo readers and writers alike

KORAPUT: With the arrival of literary magazines on Dusherra in the news stands in Koraput district, one can see a long queue of poets and writers along with that of the readers, just to see their articles, stories and poems which have published in those magazines. It has been a long wait for many of the contributors, who want to see their names published in these Oriya literary magazines during Dussehra celebrations in the State.

Nowadays, the number of writers has increased and hence the publishing houses asked us to send our articles and poems, at least three months before the publishing date of the magazine, said a poet as he was busy in selecting magazine.

The practice of publishing special issues dates back to 1955 when there were only a handful of magazines publishing in the State. During the period magazines like Jhankar, Samabesho and Galpo started bringing out special editions, said Narayan Panda, an eminent short story writer.

The trend of publishing special editions during the festival season was originated in West Bengal where Asantakali, a Kolkata-based literary magazine started it. Readers also liked the issues and kept them in their shelves as literary treasure. Observing the positive trend and growing readership, publishers here also started bringing out special issues taking it. Some 70 magazines have been publishing such issues, which hit the the stands in the festive season, he said.

Though more writers got the opportunity of taking their views to a wide range of writers, every writer might not be able to reach the common reader as the publishing houses receive a huge number of items for a single issue, said Pritidhara Samal, a poet, who has been writing for many prominent literary magazines for the last 15 years.

Most of the literary magazines are published once in a year, except a few which are published on a regular basis, hence the quality of contributions was also compromised, Jayant Mishra, another writer from Koraput added.

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