World Book Day: And the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize 2011 goes to…

The Regional Commonwealth Writers’ Prize 2011 was celebrated by many at IVSAA on World Book Day.

RIDA SAKINA:

The Regional Commonwealth Writers’ Prize 2011 was celebrated by writers, students, actors, lawyers and literary and art aficionados at the Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture on World Book Day on Thursday.

Outdoors, vines of pink and purple tulips encircled the pillars of the ancient architectural structure that towered above the audience who meekly took their seats at the court, waiting for the programme to start.

Moderator Ayesha Tammy Haq introduced the panelists, who were visual and literary artists. The seat on the extreme right was left empty for HM Naqvi, who snuck in a few minutes after he was introduced. Author Muhammad Hanif was introduced as the first Pakistani to receive the Commonwealth Writers prize in 2010. Commonwealth’s southeast representative and author Muneeza Shamsie sat in between Hanif and Haq.

At the other end of the segregated set sat the two female representatives of the arts, The Rising Tide’s curator Naiza Khan and Canvas Gallery’s curator Sameera Raja. Mohatta Palace Museum director Nasreen Askari was the chief guest while actor and closet-writer Nimra Bucha was invited to recite excerpts from the awarded books.

A moment of silence was shared for Shahbaz Bhatti. HM Naqvi said he was still reeling from the assassination but he managed to contribute a few words to the panel discussion which was based on the connection between art and literature. “There’s a tenuous connection for me. I’ve been writing since the age of five and it all begins with an image,” said Naqvi. “I put this image down on paper and from here, I get a sense of where the story will go.”

Hanif claimed that writers were poor cousins of artists. “I was a hopeless young man with no artistic talent but simply a way with words. I began rearranging words to imitate the ‘real artist’ and I consider writing to be the more accessible, lonely form of art.”

“Politics is the only real art, the rest is propaganda,” he said while referring to a quote. “We [artists] speak in a language that no one understands any more and the other kind of politics has survived because it’s rooted. It speaks the language of the people.”

The audience was invited to question the panelists. An elderly man in a bright yellow polo with a silk scarf to match, pounced on them. “I think the panel has digressed. This is not about politics and to trivialise the link between art and literature and to simply speak about politics shows they came unprepared,” he said.

His outburst was followed by a few seconds of pin-drop silence only to be broken by the announcement of winners. “The best first book of 2011 is Sabra Zoo by Misha Hiller,” announced Askari. The Best book was awarded to The Thousand Autumns of Jacob Dezoet by David Mitchell. Nimra Bucha took the stage to present a dramatic recitation of excerpts from both books, which was the highlight of the evening for most of the young audience members.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 4^th, 2011.