This is the first time that his publishing house representing the queer community has put up a stall at the prestigious event, which has over 1,000 stalls. photo credit: special arrangement
A revolution is brewing at stall number 1. 46th Chennai Book Fair on 28th. Passers-by stop curiously, and some other stall owners stop to chat with those working the place. A standee nearby reads Queer Publishing House. It feels a little wrinkled around the edges, because it’s been pushed around. But trans activist and author Grace Banu and her team of transmen and transwomen continue to hold the fort. She recently took to social media alleging transphobic and racist behavior at the fair.
This is the first time that his publishing house, which represents the queer community, has put up a stall at the prestigious event, which has over 1,000 stalls. At the entrance is a statue of Buddha holding the publishing house’s logo in his hand, a symbol of acceptance in society. There are macrame wall hangings representing the Pride Flag and the ceiling is decorated with a fabric depicting an updated version of the Queer Flag titled Progress Pride Flag.
Grace spoke to us over a period of two days, our interview punctuated by various phone calls and inquiries from people who were checking up on her. Discrimination is nothing new to Grace, who runs the Trans Rights Now collective, which has over 70 trans men and women from across India.
“When I wrote my first book Talks Of Grace Banu, I went from one publisher to another, only to get the same kind of treatment,” she says. He eventually self-published it in 2019. During a discussion with the arts and culture wing of her organization last year, she learned that some members of her community hope to write someday.
Ajitha, a transwoman from Kovilpatti, wanted to bring a book of her poems Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
“Ajitha, a transwoman from Kovilpatti, told us she wanted to bring a book of her poems,” Grace recalls. It was then that Grace thought why not start her own publishing house? She says, “I didn’t want my people to go through the same discrimination I faced while looking for a publisher for my book.” Around the same time, the Booksellers and Publishers Association of South India (BAPASI) held its annual Sent a notification for the book fair, and it all went well.
“But securing a stall wasn’t easy,” she says. In this his team was going back and forth to the organizers’ office. The queer publishing house was launched in Tamil with three titles: one each for Ajitha, the transman Arun Karthik, and Neha, a transwoman and actor who won the Kerala State Film Award last year for her role in the Malayalam film Collection of poems. Interam.
At the stall, Grace has curated 50 titles in Tamil, Malayalam and English by the LGBTQ community. “When I started talking to publishers for sourcing titles, I realized that many works in our community were out of print,” says Grace. “It was a shocking revelation. They had lost our database; our history.”
Grace then realized she had a lot of work ahead of her. “Now I’m bringing those works back through Queer Publishing House,” she says, adding, “We expected 100 titles to be at the fair, but we only managed to buy 50.” These include Kalki Subramaniam we are not other, kuri aruthen, Vellai Mozhi by A Revathi, i am vidya by Living Smile Vidya. She adds, “We have only secured a stall at the 46th Book Fair. That’s almost half a century of denial.
With inputs from Srilakshmi S Nair
At the stall, Grace has curated 50 titles in Tamil, Malayalam and English by and on the LGBTQ community. photo credit: special arrangement