Editor’s Note

It has been a month since I have taken over as Chief Editor of Antonym Magazine. It has been a role that I have taken up with a little trepidation. I suppose assuming any new role comes with some. I need to thank my predecessor, Rituparna Mukherjee, for wonderfully helming things at Antonym Magazine on her young shoulders. The last month has brought me into contact with several works of translation and several authors and translators and has been a learning experience for me as I negotiate my way through words and languages.

It has been a good time for translation this year with news of Han Kang winning the Nobel Prize for literature in 2024. Kang writes in Korean and my initiation to her work happened some years ago when I bought a copy of her novel The Vegetarian. Kang, who began her career writing poetry, went on to write novels and short stories. Also of interest is the fact that this year’s JCB Prize short list had several translations – of the five nominees on the short list, three were works of translations, Sharankumar Limbale’s Sanatan (Marathi) translated by Paromita Sengupta, Satyajit Bhattacharyya’s The One Legged (Bengali) translated by Rituparna Mukherjee and Sandhya Mary’s Maria, Just Maria (Malayalam) translated by Jayashree Kalathil.

Antonym Magazine November 2024 edition began with a translated story from Malayalam, followed by an interview with an Italian poet, a poetry translation from Turkish, a Bengali short story and an interview with a Kashmiri poet. Each weekend sees a new work being published, in a different language. Each published piece, we hope, brings in a new vista, a new experience of literary and cultural experience.

Nishi Pulugurtha