Zubaan Books

: The Semiotics of R**e by Author Rupal Oza

About the Book 📖 : In Semiotics of R**e, Rupal Oza follows the social life of r**e in rural northwest India to reveal how r**e is not only a violation of the body but a language through which a range of issues—including caste and gender hierarchies, control over land and labor, and the shape of justice—are contested. Rather than focus on the laws governing r**e, Oza closely examines r**e charges to show how the victims and survivors of r**e reclaim their autonomy by refusing to see themselves as defined entirely by the act of violation. Oza also shows how r**e cases become arenas where bureaucrats, village council members, caste communities, and the police debate women’s sexual subjectivities and how those varied understandings impact the status and reputations of individuals and groups.

In this way, r**e gains meaning beyond the level of the survivor and victim to create a social category. By tracing the shifting meanings of sexual violence and justice, Oza offers insights into the social significance of r**e in India and beyond.

About the Author ✒️ : Rupal Oza is Professor of Women and Gender Studies at Hunter College, City University of New York, and author of The Making of Neoliberal India: Nationalism, Gender, and the Paradoxes of Globalization.
Get your copies of our latest release. Link is in our linktree bio. 📖🔗

Zubaan is honoured and thrilled to have been a part of the fourth edition of Ananke’s Women in Literature Festival. The three-day event serves as an incredible collective space where voices from the Global South come together to share their thoughts, vision, and lived experiences with agency.

Zubaan curated three insightful sessions including one on Dalit-Bahujan Writing aligned with April being Dalit History Month. The session is titled Truth to Power: Challenging Structures of Oppression Through Feminist Writings hosted by Divya Kandukuri ( ), a journalist by training and founder of a Phule-Ambedkarite mental health collective, The Blue Dawn. Divya was in conversation with authors Gogu Shyamala and Akkai Padmashali ( ). The panel looked at erasures in terms of experience and particularly marginal experiences.

The other Zubaan session titled Friendships in Frontiers: Building and Nurturing Feminist Writing Communities in Northeast India is helmed by Bidisha Mahanta, who heads programmes for , in conversation with Anugula Zoe, our very own Anjulika Thangam ( ) and Banamalika Choudhury ( )

For those who wish to watch these panels - you can watch these panels on 's Youtube channel. We have shared the link to the YouTube channel in the bio.

Congratulations ! We are so stoked that one of the our book covers, from the Northeast series, 'The Keepers of Knowledge: Writings from Mizoram' won the Best Cover of the Year (English) Award by ! Designed by Nori Norbhu, who has worked on the magnificent covers of our books from the North-east. Follow Nori's amazing work ! We are so proud 🙌🏽

Happy Dalit History Month!
Let's learn together, read some incredible Dalit literature and meet their authors. We will also be meeting some super talented artists who are pushing the boundaries of the anti-caste movement in India and elsewhere. It's an exciting month, so stay tuned 👋🏽⚡🫂

Illustrations by :

Exciting News Alert⚡️ We're thrilled to announce the selected recipients of the Zubaan Publishers Research Grants for Young Researchers from the Northeast, 2023-2024! Stay tuned as we unveil the talented individuals whose innovative projects promise to make a lasting impact. Join us in celebrating their achievements and the beginning of an inspiring journey ahead!

As part of the Fragrance of Peace project, we opened the applications in late December 2023. We received almost 200 applications, from artists, reserachers, filmmakers, etc. with diverse topics ranging from oral histories, women's sports, q***rness in conflict and so much more. We extend our sincere gratitude to everyone who submitted their applications and thank everyone for sharing their proposals with us. Shortlisting the grantees was a challenging task, but we appreciate the effort and dedication demonstrated by all applicants.

Thank you for your participation and enthusiasm throughout this process, and we hope you continue to engage with us in the future!

: We are pleased to welcome all to the Prabha Khaitan Foundation - Zubaan Translation Conclave : Feminist Pollinations Across Our Cultural Landscape.

A one-day event that commemorates a partnership between the Prabha Khaitan Foundation and Zubaan Publishers to bring feminist literature published in English into the Indian languages through a series of translation grants. This partnership has enabled,
over a three-year period, the publication of 44 feminist texts in 11 Indian languages.

Translation is today the new frontier in literary explorations. For many years literary journeys have been uni-directional – with works in Indian languages being translated mostly into English, and English being seen in some ways as a ‘master’ language. Recent years have seen a change as languages have begun to crisscross and our literary landscape has become rich with offerings from across different contexts, cultures and genres. This one-day event celebrates the vibrant world of translation, specifically of women’s work, in India and brings together translators, writers, publishers and performers, many of whom have been part of this partnership.

Time : 10AM - 6PM
Venue : Goethe Zentrum, Hyderabad
27th of March 2024

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March Book Release #2 : The Life And Work Of Moovalur Ramamirtham Ammaiyar
Author : B Jeevansundari
Translated by : V Bharathi Harishankar

About the book 📖 Moovalur Ramamirtham Ammaiyar spent almost her entire life fighting against the devadasi system in Tamil Nadu, a practice that dedicated young girls to temples, where they were meant to be available for the sexual needs of priests and landowners. Sold off by her parents, and brought up to dedicate herself as a dasi, she managed to escape this fate and make a life for herself. Her battle against the devadasi system was met with considerable resistance, not only by those with vested interests in keeping the devadasis inside temples, but often by the devadasis themselves. But Moovalur persisted, taking her cause, and its wider ramifications into the broader politics of the Congress party, and later the Self-Respect Movement. Despite this, in the annals of recent Tamil history, she was hardly known, until the publication, in 2006 of Moovalur Ramamirtham: Vazhvum Paniyum (translated here as The Life and Work of Moovalur Ramamirtham Ammaiyar). Put together through interviews with her surviving relatives and fragments garnered from a handwritten manuscript, this is the first book to document the ‘braveheart’ of Dravidian history, Moovalur Ramamirtham Ammaiyar.

Get your copy now from the Zubaan website. The link for the book is included in our linktree bio. 🔗
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🚨 Zubaan Sale Alert 🚨 As per tradition, we are with our Zubaan Book Sale 2024 : Women's Day Edition. Get Flat 30-40% OFF on all your favourite titles on our website 👉🏽 www.zubaanbooks.com (Also linked on our bio).

🎁 Swipe to the second slide to find your coupon codes and have them ready as soon as our sale goes live on 9th of March, Saturday, 12:00 AM. The sale will be on and you can use these coupons only till 11th of March, Monday, 11:59 PM.

❓Where to enter the coupon code ?
Enter the codes given in yellow at the checkout page where it says "Have a Coupon"? You can enter your coupon code there.

🫂 DM us at for any queries or doubts or if you need help. We shall be on standby.

🎁 All orders will be shipped starting Monday, 11th of March 2024

So get ready, share this with your friends and family, and get your hands on some incredible books at amazing discounts.
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Books For a Valentine 📚🫂 #2
Off the Beaten Road by Saeeda Bano, Translated by Shahana Raza. A beautiful, impossible, courageous love story set against the backdrop of India's independence and partition. A man - a high profile public figure - with a wife and a family, a woman with two children and a broken marriage, and a passionate, moving relationship.

Blurb 📝 : Saeeda Bano was the first woman in India to work as a radio newsreader, and she is still known as the doyenne of Urdu broadcasting. Over her unconventional and courageous life, Bano walked out of a suffocating marriage, witnessed the violence of Partition, lost her son for a night in a refugee camp, ate toast with Nehru, and fell in love with a married man who would, in the course of their twenty-five year-relationship, become the Mayor of Delhi. Though she was born into privilege in Bhopal—the only Indian state to be ruled by women for four successive generations—her determination, independence, and frankness provide a unique and crucial disruption in India’s understanding of the past.

Translated from Urdu by Bano’s granddaughter, Off the Beaten Track is a frank and brave memoir about the remarkable life of a single woman in mid-twentieth-century India
Get a copy of this incredibly moving book from the Zubaan website and DM us your order number to get a special free surprise 🎁

To be honest, we have been indifferent to the word 'Valentine' for it's normative history and the rhetoric of 'romance' being central to whom we call a Valentine. It's time this word covers the ambit of relationships that support our lives and also hold us, nourish us.
So whoever this Valentine is, they deserve to be celebrated! 👏🏽 This week we are going to post our top recommendations from themes of love of all kinds, intimacy, desire, longing, relationships and more. At least we all agree that books make for the best gifts!

⭐Surprise⭐ - If you order any 2 books between 14th-17th of February, DM us your order numbers and we will pack a free surprise with your order 🎁⭐🎈

Today's Recommendation : Suki
Written by : Suniti Namjoshi
About the Book 📚

In Suki, fabulist Suniti Namjoshi weaves a delightful tapestry from threads of longing, loss, memory, metaphor, and contemplation. The whole picture is a stunning evocation of the love and friendship shared between S and her Super Cat, Suki, a lilac Burmese. Suki suggests that she could be a goddess, and S her high priestess. S declines, but as they discuss the merits of vegetarianism, or the meaning of happiness, or morality, or just daily life, it soon becomes clear that the bond between them is a deep and complex one. The days of Suki’s life are figured as leaves, which fall vividly but irrevocably into time’s stream and are recollected with a wild tenderness by the grieving S, who learns through the disciplines of meditation how to lose what is most loved.

This beautiful narrative, both memoir and elegy, offers solace and celebration to everyone who has felt the trust that passes between a person and a beloved creature.

Get your copy now 🎁 from the Zubaan website.
Link in our bio.

✨Pre-Launch Surprise ✨
Zubaan is honoured and excited to be launching a new title tomorrow - 'The Feminisms of our Mothers'. Edited by Daanika Kamal ( ), this book is an incredible anthology of essays written by some exceptionally brave and inspiring feminists from Pakistan who explore the many meanings of feminism and its varying interpretations through generations.

One such author is the incredible Sadia Khatri () who wrote a moving and powerful essay called 'What is Behind You', which was originally censored in Pakistan. Zubaan has extracted this chapter, along with editor Daanika Kamal, and although it couldn't be a part of the book to be released, we made sure that this chapter was available for everyone to read, being an essential part of the book.

📝 You can find this essay linked in our bio on the Zubaan website. Read it and share ahead.

'The Feminisms of Our Mothers' is set to release tomorrow on the Zubaan website. So stay tuned and watch this space.

Zubaan warmly welcomes you to the book Launch of 'We from the Mist : Writings from Meghalaya'. To celebrate the collective journey of writings from Meghalaya', Editor will be in conversation with the contributors to the anthology: Reeju, Daiarisa, Fileona, Karen, Amanda Tongper, Careen. 

We welcome you all to come and be a part of this beautiful afternoon where we share our worlds through our stories, poems, and songs.✨🫖

About the Book 📖
This book is an offering—of prose, poetry, musical lyrics, and visual art—by the women of Meghalaya in Northeast India. One of the smallest states in the country, but also, one of the most beautiful, Meghalaya is blessed with landscapes that mesmerize and inspire song and story. 

In the not-so-distant past, though, it has also seen political turbulence and civil unrest, and many of the works here capture that quiet unease—in homes and kitchens, in market-places and public taxis. Yet this anthology is also a celebration. Of wisdom and joy, of q***rness and sisterhood, of mothers and feminine bodies, of home and hearths. Of voices new and established. 

Brought together in one volume by Janice Pariat , a novelist and poet from these hills. Here, we sit together around a fire, and sing, and weep, and dance, and tell stories. We dream of where we came from, the hills, the mist, and dream of what else we are still yet to discover.

Venue & Time
‘We Come from Mist: Writings from Meghalaya.’”
2-5pm, 16th January 2024,
Rynsan, 36 Boyce Road, College, near Shillong,
Laitumkhrah, Shillong, Meghalaya 793003

We look forward to having you all with us!

Mark your dates Guwahati! 🎊📚👇🏽

is hosting a book discussion on one of our most loved titles from 2023 - Food Journeys: Stories from the Heart' edited by and Joel Rodrigues. Dolly will be in conversation with the brilliant authors who have generously contributed to the realisation of this powerful anthology of food, personal experiences, politics, emotions and community.

About the book 📖 Food Journeys is a powerful collection that draws on personal experiences, and the meaning of grief, rage, solidarity, and life. Feminist anthropologist and peace researcher Joel Rodrigues present a wide-ranging set of stories and essays accompanied by recipes. They bring together poets, activists, artists, writers, and researchers who explore how food and eating allow us to find joy and strength while navigating a violent history of militarization in Northeast India. 

Mark your dates and be there for the book discussion ✒️🫖📚 Get a copy of Food Journeys and you could get it signed by the editors and authors there!

🔔 DEADLINE EXTENDED❗️

We have extended the application deadline for the Zubaan Publishers Research Grants for Young Researchers from the Northeast, 2023-24!

📝 ⭐️ The new extended application deadline is Wednesday, 17 January 2024, at midnight.

Shortlisted candidates will be informed by the second week of February 2024 🎊

All other details, including the application criteria, remain unchanged.

Click here to apply + know more: http://tinyurl.com/2tzk8c8h

Illustration and design by Yoši Zaua

GRANT CALL ALERT 🚨🌹

We are excited to invite applications for research, documentation, archiving and publishing grants for 2023-2024 for young researchers from the eight northeastern states and the eastern Himalayan region 🤓

The grants will provide a modest fund to prepare written, multimedia, visual and other creative content focusing on the themes detailed in the call + FAQs here:https://zubaanprojects.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/ZUBAAN-PUBLISHERS-RESEARCH-GRANTS-FOR-YOUNG-RESEARCHERS-FROM-THE-NORTHEAST-2023-24-.pdf

Read on for important information. 👇

We strongly encourage applications from young women, q***r, trans and non-binary people within the region.

✍️ Eligibility criteria

If you are from Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim and Tripura and are less than 45 years of age, you are eligible to apply. The research grant is also open for applicants from hill regions of districts Darjeeling, Kalimpong and Kurseong.

Commitment to attending the Writing Methodology Workshop organised by Zubaan Publishers during the grant period (detailed in the call herehttps://zubaanprojects.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/ZUBAAN-PUBLISHERS-RESEARCH-GRANTS-FOR-YOUNG-RESEARCHERS-FROM-THE-NORTHEAST-2023-24-.pdf

You must be fluent in reading and writing English.

🗓 Application deadline:

Wednesday, 03 January 2024 at midnight.

📝 To apply

👉 Submit grant proposal. Grant proposals may be creative & do not need to be in academic language!
👉 Submit a writing sample of roughly 500 words, or a two-page spread of a graphic story, or an extract from previous work similar to the form of your proposed work.
👉 Submit your CV and any other relevant information about yourself that you think is necessary, including proof of age.
👉 Two names of referees, ideally people you have worked with.
📧 Email your application to [email protected] with the subject line Application for Fragrance of Peace Grants 2023.

Shortlisted candidates will be informed by late January 2024 🎊

Illustration and design by Yoši Zaua

🔖 P.S. We will be on a year-end break from December 26 2023, and back in the office from January 02 2024. We will answer any application-related queries after our break!

Finally the third and the last book in our series of - We are reading, remembering, and recommending .amb 's 'A Life in Trans Activism'. A powerful book of a life in trans activism, Revathi's memoir is an unforgettable book. Considered to be vital reading on anyone's feminist reading list, this is our third book of the series.

About the Book 📚
When Revathi’s powerful memoir, The Truth About Me, first appeared in 2011, it caused a sensation. Readers learned of Revathi’s childhood unease with her male body; her escape from her birth family to a house of hijras (the South Asian generic term for transgender people), and her eventual transition to being the woman she always she knew was. This new book charts her remarkable journey from relative obscurity to becoming India’s leading spokesperson for transgender rights and an inspiration to thousands.

In the second part of the book, Revathi offers the reader insight into one of the least talked about experiences on the gender trajectory, that of being trans men. Calling several female-to-male trans persons her sons, Revathi puts before us their moving, passionate and sometimes tragic stories of marginalisation, courage, resistance and triumph.

About the Author ✒️

Revathi describes her life, her work in the NGO Sangama, which works with people across a spectrum of gender identities and sexual orientations, and how she rose from office assistant to director in the organization. Today she is an independent activist, theatre person, actor and writer, and works for the rights of transgender persons.

We will be opening the giveaway for the week tomorrow and one of you could win the entire set of these incredible books.

It's the Transgender Day of Remembrance today. While we mourn the many precious trans lives that the world has lost, it's imperative that we work towards building a radically different world where trans lives are celebrated, read about, and are not always about survival.

This week, Zubaan will be remembering and recommending some phenomenal books written by trans authors that have have stayed with us.

Today, we remember this incredible book - Fierce Femmes And Notorious Liars, written by (link in the bio) 📖

A haunted young girl (who happens to be a Kung-fu expert and pathological liar) runs away from an oppressive city, where the sky is always grey; in search of love and sisterhood, she finds herself in a magical place known only as the Street of Miracles.

There, she is quickly adopted into the vigilante gang of glamorous warrior femmes called the Lipstick Lacerators, whose mission is to scour the Street of violent men and avenge murdered trans women everywhere. But when disaster strikes, can our intrepid heroine find the truth within herself in order to protect her new family and heal her broken heart?

is a writer, performer, lasagna lover, and wicked witch based in Toronto, unceded Indigenous territory. She is the author of several award-winning works including the poetry collection a place called No Homeland, the children’s book From the Stars in the Sky to the Fish in the Sea, and the essay collection I HOPE WE CHOOSE LOVE: A Trans Girl’s Notes from the End of the World. Fierce Femmes and Notorious Liars: A Dangerous Trans Girl’s Confabulous Memoir is her first novel.

For those who wish to read Kai's book, we have attached a link in our bio to her book listed on the Zubaan bookstore. We absolutely recommend reading her stellar work!

Posted • Our Warscapes anthology, "Insurgent Feminisms: Writing War" was reviewed by sociologist Kalpana Kannabiran in .magazine At this urgent moment where we are experiencing a crisis of humanity, we grateful to provide the compass for a new feminist understanding of war. Link to review is in our bio. Book is available in South Asia via

We were thrilled by the exceptional response to our call for applications for the Zine Making: Adventures in Feminist Publishing workshop to be facilitated by Ankha Millo and Saviya Lopes in Guwahati, Assam, as part of our Fragrance of Peace project 💛

The applicants were young students and professionals with promising ideas and commitment to the social justice movement and feminist work. We thank you for the effort and thought you put into your applications. This made selecting the final participants challenging.

However, we were lucky to have the help of a strong and informed jury, and this final selection is the result of their evaluation. We’re delighted to announce the final list of applicants selected for the Workshop! In the coming weeks, we will introduce our workshop participants and tell you more about them, so stay tuned! ✨

Congratulations! We look forward to your participation in the Workshop 🌹🌹

We thank all applicants once again and wish you the best of luck! We hope you will continue engaging with Zubaan’s work and keep an eye out for future workshops and other opportunities from us.

Illustration by Kaushik Tadvi

We have extended the applications for our upcoming free zine-making workshop!

The workshop is open to women, q***r, trans and non-binary persons from (i) Northeast India and (ii) Dalit, Adivasi, and other Bahujan communities from mainland India. No prior zine-making experience or graphic design knowledge is necessary.

Zine Making: Adventures in Feminist Publishing will equip participants with the essential skills, resources, and knowledge to incorporate this format into their daily feminist and liberatory pursuits. Artists Millo Ankha (.ankha) and Saviya Lopes () will design and facilitate the workshop.

🗓 Important dates to note:

Application deadline:
Sunday, 5 November 2023 at midnight.
Workshop dates:
Friday, 8 December to Sunday, 10 December 2023.

📍 Workshop location:
Guwahati, Assam

📝 How to apply:
Submit a Statement of Motivation. This could be a written letter not exceeding 500 words or a video presentation lasting up to three minutes. Please fill out the application form here https://tinyurl.com/zubaanzine and upload the Statement of Motivation there by midnight on 5 November 2023.

Why Zines? What role have self-publishing and zines played in empowering marginalised groups to tell their own stories in their own words, and how can an independent feminist publishing house like Zubaan take this legacy forward?

Zine Making: Adventures in Feminist Publishing is a free zine-making workshop for women, q***r, trans and non-binary persons from (i) Northeast India and (ii) Dalit, Adivasi, and other Bahujan communities from mainland India. No prior zine-making experience or graphic design knowledge is necessary.

🗓 Important dates to note:

Application deadline:

Sunday, 29 October 2023 at midnight.

Workshop dates:

Friday, 8 December to Sunday, 10 December 2023.

📍 Workshop location:

Guwahati, Assam

📝 How to apply:

Submit a Statement of Motivation. This could be a written letter not exceeding 500 words or a video presentation lasting up to three minutes. Please submit your application here: https://tinyurl.com/zubaanzine

Art by Stuti Mamen Lowang

We invite applications for a free zine-making workshop for women, q***r, trans and non-binary persons from (i) Northeast India and (ii) Dalit, Adivasi, and other Bahujan communities from mainland India. No prior zine-making experience or graphic design knowledge is necessary.

Zine Making: Adventures in Feminist Publishing will equip participants with the essential skills, resources, and knowledge to incorporate this format into their daily feminist and liberatory pursuits. Artists Millo Ankha and Saviya Lopes will design and facilitate the workshop.

🗓 Important dates to note:

Application deadline:
Sunday, 29 October 2023 at midnight.
Workshop dates:
Friday, 8 December to Sunday, 10 December 2023.

📍 Workshop location:
Guwahati, Assam

📝 How to apply:
Submit a Statement of Motivation. This could be a written letter not exceeding 500 words or a video presentation lasting up to three minutes. Please fill out the application form here: https://tinyurl.com/zubaanzine
Please upload the Statement of Motivation through the form itself.

Art by Kaushik Tadvi

_________________

Alt text:
The image shows a smiling person with purple hair and a green sleeveless top holding a magazine in their right hand and drawing green flowers and a fist in it with a pencil in their left hand.