The catalogue for Fall 2024 and Spring 2025 by Seagull Books was different this time, in terms of conceptualisation, approach and messaging. Naveen Kishore, the founder of Seagull Books, sent poems to authors around the world, who selected one and responded to it. The responses came in various languages, which were then translated into English, forming a compilation of thoughts on literature and the world by voices from various cultures.
Naveen Kishore’s reflections
Naveen Kishore, the founder of Seagull Books, took a different approach to the catalogue this year Naveen Kishore
The catalogue opens with a written correspondence between Naveen Kishore and Palestinian author Ghassan Zaqtan, who was in the running for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2013. Naveen starts the correspondence with two of his poems, titled Letters and A Dream for Our Times to Zaqtan that are lyrical, but also shocking. The first poem talks about a five-year-old from a war-torn place trying to find a field of rainbows, but steps on landmines. The poet paints a picture of the futurelessness of young lives, who are victims of social and political turmoil. In the second poem, where a film reel plays a crucial role as the poet looks into the world through an old projector — the reader enters not just the arena of geopolitics, but also of the vulnerability of lives in difficult times. Zaqtan has responded to the second poem with two of his own — Time and Forgetting and The Statues where memories play a predominant role, becoming a bridge between illusion and reality.
Kishore’s poems in the book intrigue the readers in three ways. The primary reaction is responding to the titles of the poems, like There Is a River In Me, States of War, Unreal Times, and Freedom Song. Second is the immediate response to the writings, reacting to the palpable vulnerability. The third reaction is feeling and fathoming the discomfort that the brutal honesty in the poems stir within.
The creative force behind designing the catalogue
For Sunandini Banerjee, immersing herself in the writings of the authors is where the inspiration for the artwork comes from My Kolkata
“The Seagull Books catalogue is an annual celebration of literature, of difference, of design, writing and reading and our unwavering faith in the power of stories to bring people closer, to open hearts and minds to other lives,” Sunandini Banerjee shared with My Kolkata. Sunandini is the creative force behind designing the catalogue. She is also a translator and senior editor at the publishing house.
Sunandini’s approach towards amalgamating art and literature is spontaneous. The artist has a method, something that she had applied while designing the catalogue. Sunandini did not conceptualise the artworks beforehand. Instead, she went through every text from each author, and responded according to her artistic instinct. “I don’t plan. In retrospect, a pattern may emerge to another eye. I only knew I wanted no flowers this year. No bright colours. No prettiness in that sense. I wanted the tribute. But without the festivity”, said the artist, who paid homage to the RG Kar victim with a powerful front cover of the catalogue.
Voices from India
Romila Thapar penned a write-up on angels and ‘farishtas’ Naveen Kishore
Academic Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, penning a personal experience in Ripeness Is All, gives an insight into class politics in current times and also makes one question the personal understanding of “ownership”. When Spivak writes “Ownership is a made-up thing, we cannot own the whole world, or each one of us already ‘owns’ it..”, one almost inadvertently reassesses society.
Historian Romila Thapar responded to Kishore’s poem Soul He Said with an article titled Angels in the catalogue. The historian’s use of the word ‘farishta’ in the write-up creates a metaphysical world in the imagination of the reader that is largely different from most of Thapar’s writings. Angels is a fascinating read in magic realism, but is also a masterclass on belief and rationality.
Voices from around the world
The catalogue has not only brought together strong voices from around the world, but is also an art lover’s delight Seagull Books
Austrian writer Christoph Ransmayr’s poem Odysseus, translated by Simon Pare, paints a seemingly simple picture of the sinking resolve of a doctor and a patient. But it also makes one wonder about the mention of “Polyphemus” in the poem. Polyphemus, son of Poseidon and Thoosa from Greek mythology, was one-eyed. In the literary piece, Polyphemus has travelled from Homer’s Odyssey to the present times and has taken the role of prying. Is it a subtle comment on snooping and stalking — new-age commonplace habits? It is open for interpretation.
Some of the other authors who have written are Sevnja Leiber, Alice Attie, Pascal Quignard, Eva Luka, Martin Rowson, among others.
Art as a medium of expression
A painting by German artist Max Neumann in the catalogue gives a prelude to the series featured in the catalogue Seagull Books
The cover of the catalogue makes you take pause. The grey cover with ‘Abhaya’ (fearless) written on it creates an unshakable melancholia and discomfort. It reminds one of Cesar A. Cruz’s immortal quote: “Art should comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable”.
The artworks by Sunandini in the catalogue are unnerving. A gazing eye, bold black strokes, human figures, strokes of nature cohabit in seamless asymmetry.
The Max Neumann section in the catalogue is visual storytelling, which questions identity. It makes one delve into “being and nothingness”, but it also reminds of the War Diaries by French philosopher Jean Paul Sartre, not as a chronicle of a shell-shocked soldier, but as the pages from the journal of a philosopher.
The book also features artworks of Martin Rawson under the title The Harsh Sun.
Upcoming titles of Seagull Books
The book cover of ‘At the Jincheng Hotel’ by K.G. Subramanyan is an original painting by the artist Seagull Books
December has books like The Unrealizable by Giorgio Agamben, Nevermore by Cecile Wajsbrot, Old World by Fabienne Kanor, the second volume of Critical Essays by Georges Bataille, Thomas Mann’s Overcoat by Istvan Voros, As I Please by Martin Rowson gearing up to be published.
The cover photo of ‘The Absence Trilogy’ by Mrinal Sen gives a sneak peek into the cinematic universe of the movie maestro Seagull Books
The new year is all set to bring new titles like A History of Light by Jan Nemec, Name and Image by Gianni Carchia, Kazimira by Svenja Leiber, At the Jincheng Hotel by K.G. Subramanyan, Thinking Aloud by Jerry Pinto, The Music of Stones by Sohail Hashmi, The Absence Trilogy by Mrinal Sen, Lifespan Narratives by Alexander Kluge, The Iron Grasshopper by Salim Barakat.
