About Us

The Women in Literature Foundation is a collective launched by Ananke – a new media and development platform creating inclusive conversations in the digital realm. Under the umbrella of Ananke Labs, the Women in Literature Foundation is an acknowledgment of the literary genius, creative journeys, and diverse lived experiences of women and girls in the majority world.

 

The organization aims to spark conversations at the cusp of gender equality, intersectional feminism, women’s rights, migration, politics, and society in literature. Ananke WLF envisions initiating thought-provoking conversations about how literature produced by women can be highlighted, promoted, and celebrated globally via digital documentation, dialogue, and more.

 

AnankeWLF strives to celebrate the creativity of female fiction and non-fiction writers as well as small and independent publishers, it is to highlight female literary history and showcase invisibilized women writers across the literary landscape.

Core Values

The common thread in all our current, as well as future endeavors, would be an attempt to provide a balanced and unbiased platform that welcomes and celebrates diverse opinions and voices, heterodoxy in pursuit of a common truth, and freedom of speech for all those who want to engage in nuanced and meaningful conversation. While striving to be a safe space for the marginalized who need it, we will do our best to not become silos that further factionalize the world and alienate one another. We believe that the best solutions to the problems our world faces would come from truly open and inclusive platforms that afford a latitude for all ranges and levels of opinions, as long as the objective of the discussion infrastructure is met – which is finding balanced and practical solutions and answers.

 

Ananke’s Women in Literature Foundation serves as a vehicle to celebrate, nurture, and amplify voices that may otherwise not find safety and security to be brave, and that our fundamental value system is driven by principles of inclusion, non-violence, intersectionality and dismantling systemic violence.

Mission

We aim to create an inclusive space that aspires to democratize the publishing and literary landscapes – digitally and otherwise. Celebrating small and independent publishers, our aim is also to strengthen women’s creative voices, through an array of initiatives, events, and engagements and encourage them to avail all learning opportunities presented.

Ananke’s Women in Literature Festival

One of the foundation’s flagship events is the Women in Literature Festival (WLF) – a first its kind digital celebration focusing the Global South, gender and the written word. The first edition took place in 2021, taking a deep dive into patrilineal cultures and their impact on the diversity and creativity of women writers.

The second edition of the celebrated WLF, with the theme Rethinking Paper, Ink & Gender, took place on March 31-April 1st, 2022 and opened up dialogue on publishing and the written word at the intersections of gender, feminist literary activism, innovation, biases, disabilities and sustainability.

Board of Advisors

Amina Yaqin, Dr. was born and grew up in Lahore and now lives in London. She is Associate Professor of World Literatures and Publishing at the University of Exeter. Her major brainchild.

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Ameena Hussein Ameena Hussein is an author and co-founder of the Perera-Hussein Publishing House, the frontrunner for cutting edge literature from emerging and established regional authors.

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Archna Sharma Archna relaunched Neem Tree Press in late 2018 after returning to the UK from many years living in the US and the Middle East. The press is a vibrant, independent publishing

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Arpita Das Arpita Das is the Founder-Publisher of the award-winning indie publishing house based in New Delhi, India, Yoda Press. She is also Senior Writing Fellow and Visiting.

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Council

Sabin Muzaffar is the Founder & Executive Editor of Anankemag.com – a globally respected, new media and development platform creating inclusive conversations in the digital realm focusing brainchild.

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Radhika Maira Tabrez is an East-Indian writer, editor, L&D specialist, and motivational speaker. Her debut novel ‘In The Light Of Darkness’ won the much-coveted Muse India – Satish Verma Young Writer

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Kirthi Jayakumar is a lawyer, feminist researcher, and WPS practitioner. She founded and runs The Gender Security Project, which works on the WPS Agenda and Feminist Foreign Policy through

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Lakshana Palat is an aspiring author, journalist and history graduate, who has written stories for three anthologies ‘When They Spoke’, ‘Mocktales’ and ‘Readomania’s Book Of Romance’.

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Saba Karim Khan is a mother, an author, award-winning filmmaker and educator at NYU Abu Dhabi. Her writing has appeared in The Guardian, The Independent, Huff Post, DAWN, etc.

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Partners & Allies

Reviews

Presenting thoughts and feedback about Ananke’s Women In Literature Festival by
stakeholders including speakers and partners.

Shalini Mullick

Speaker

Beautifully planned and wonderfully executed. Many congratulations to Ananke for organizing an event of this scope successfully. The Ananke Women in Literature Festival has made its place in the world of literature and women’s writing in a short span of time…

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4.5/5
Rated 4/5

Chetna Keer

Speaker

The well-curated format imbued our writerly voices a global resonance and allowed for meaningful engagement. Looking forward to frequent dialogues from #WomenInLiterature, with more and more diversity of narratives. Kudos to Sabin Muzaffar and Team…

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4.5/5
Rated 4/5

Anam Zakaria

Speaker

I loved the thoughtfulness with which the session was curated; the questions and conversation were deeply engaging and meaningful. The agenda on the whole looked stellar and I can’t wait to catch the recordings of the other sessions. Big kudos to you and the entire team. 

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4.5/5
Rated 4/5

Tarun Saint

Speaker

The session was well planned. Maybe fewer panelists might ensure more time for discussion of complex issues. The theme was pertinent to our moment. Maybe you could prepare a collage of specific titles as an introduction to the theme.

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4.5/5
Rated 4/5