Our editors share their thoughts as The Bangalore Review completes ten years.
Maitreyee B. Chowdhury, Managing Editor
We cross another milestone today, as The Bangalore Review completes ten years of its existence. It is a moment of joy, of quiet pride, but more importantly of reflection for the team. The struggles to sustain a small literary magazine are many, as such everyone who comes forward to help this dream succeed in any which way, is a contributor in this journey. The world of literature is as uncertain as it is beautiful, every other day one hears of magazines closing down. The fact that TBR has been able to survive without compromising on its standards, and its editorial policies is in itself an achievement of sorts. I thank the entire team that runs this show with so much dedication, but most of all it is time to thank our writers and our readers who sustain us through their constant support. In the near future, we might do new things or not, but hopefully what will remain a constant is the beautiful literature that we have showcased so far. We take this opportunity to welcome all of you in being part of our joy and celebrating fine literature together.
Thank you all
Fehmida Zakeer, Essays Editor
In my part of the world in southern India, June is the month of celebrations—there are weddings, festivities and many occasions for family and friends to gather together. It is the month when the people who live away from home come for their annual vacation. June is also the monsoon month when dark grey clouds take over the sky, pregnant with moisture, keeping the promise of rain over the land baking under the harsh heat of summer. Since schools reopen and the new academic year also begins in this month, the chatter of children as they walk beneath colourful umbrellas infuses cheer and hope. For us at The Bangalore Review, June is even more special because it is also our anniversary month. As we celebrate the completion of one more year and look back at the wonderful work that came our way, we feel immense gratitude to the writers who trusted us with their work and the readers who visit our journal to read the beautiful pieces entrusted to us. Year after year, the journal has received work from writers across the world, whose perspectives, opinions and thoughts, have enriched our experience of reading, humbling us with the depth of words and thoughts shared with us through various genres. As we celebrate the tenth anniversary of The Bangalore Review, heartfelt thanks to our readers and writers for sharing this journey with us.
Sucharita Dutta-Asane, Fiction Editor
A decade of stories, poems, reviews, and essays, of TBR Recommends. Of the vision, the voice, the name, the team. The resilience.
What’s not to celebrate about a literary magazine turning, as my younger daughter said when she turned 10, “two-digits old”. Hope we reach many more such milestones and arrive at a point in the future when the literary world, in referring to us, will say “one of the oldest literary magazines,” or “one of those that have outlasted resource crunches of all sorts.”
The epithets may pour in some day. For now, it is enough to say that the submissions have continued to overwhelm us, that the faith of hundreds of writers have kept us going, and that the submissions have to be sometimes stopped in order to read through the queues.
But what is most important is that we have continued to offer a platform to not just those who have established themselves, whose names in the bylines of a magazine’s pages draw eyeballs and accolades, but to those who have taken their first hesitant steps towards a worthy byline or those who have just started out and are only a few bylines old. It is a measure of the platform’s worth that we have not actively sought work from only stalwarts but given space, over and over again, to those who have held out the promise of being stalwarts one day. We hope that many a writer will be able to say that TBR gave us our first break, held our hands, walked with us.Towards that goal, not singular but important nonetheless, I hope The Bangalore Review continues to walk the talk, to provide the pages through which literature continues to speak in many voices, tongues and moods.
Fayesal Siddiqui, Associate Editor
The Bangalore Review has been a buoy in the turbulent waters of my life for the past 3 years. The pandemic disrupted multiple lives, but ironically, gave me a helping hand. I have always had unadulterated affection for literature and by being part of an equally, if not more, passionate team I live the part for a few days every month. A new door has been opened and the experience of walking through that door and among the melange of top-notch prose and evocative poetry, is indescribable.
