TN queer publishing house allotted stall at Chennai Book Fair after protest

A day after activists voiced their concerns over alleged denial of a stall at the Chennai Book Fair  to a LGBTQIA+ publishing house, Booksellers and Publishers Association of South India (BAPASI) has given them the nod. The permission for setting up a stall at the 46th Chennai book fair was given on December 26.

Even before the beginning of the book fair, which is scheduled to begin on January 6, the BAPASI drew flak from the activists for alleged discrimination against Dalit publications while allocating stalls. The rejection of a stall for the publication called ‘Queer Publishing House’ led the activists to seek the intervention of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin.

Read Denied stalls, membership: Dalit publishers allege discrimination in Chennai Book Fair

The publication is an initiative of the arts and culture wing of Trans Rights Now Collective. Trans Rights Activist Grace Banu, while explaining the reason for launching their own publication, posed a question: “Why do we need to approach the publications run by cisgender persons to get our books published?”. According to her, books by select authors from the community will usually be placed on racks of publications in the stalls. “To bring a change, for the first time in Tamil Nadu, we registered a publication in November 2022, to give a chance to queer writers,” she said. According to Grace, in this book fair, the Queer Publishing House is launching three poetry books. While two of them are written by transwomen, one is by a transman.

The publishing house is planning to display works of hundreds of LGBTQIA+ writers this year. “This initiative is the first of its kind in the state and the organisers themselves should have invited us and given a stall to us. They have said our stall allotment is confirmed but don’t know where it will be. We would not like our stall to be put up in the corner of the hall. Hereafter, we want to participate in all the book fairs that BAPASI conducts district-wise,” said Grace Banu, adding that it would help the LGBTQIA+ community learn about their presence.

The difficulties they had in availing a stall at the book fair became known after Pulianthope Mohan, who tried to contact BAPASI officials revealed the hurdles they faced even to get a formal application form in a social media post. According to the post by Mohan, they submitted a formal request for an application form on December 21 and tried to meet the officials in person. “On December 23, when we tried to meet them at the BAPASI office, we were told that the organisers went to Kancheepuram and were asked to return on Monday morning,” the post said. They finally received the application form on December 24, which was the last date to send the application.

Pulinathope Mohan told TNM that members from the ‘Queer Publishing House’ met the organisers of the bookfair and highlighted their concerns and the importance of the stall that is run by LGBTQIA+ community members on Monday, December 26. “Initially, organisers were ready to give as a rack only instead of a stall since this time many non-members of BAPASI approached them for the stall and the organisers planned to put around 850 stalls only. After our discussion, BAPASI understood our concerns and gave us permission to set up our stall.

BAPASI Secretary SK Murugan told TNM that in the initial days BAPASI was not in the situation to give a stall to anyone as the applications for stall exceeded 1500 while only 800 stalls are planned to be put up.  “But after our conversation with Queer Publications House, we alloted a stall for the publication. For the book fair and stalls, we are receiving hundreds of calls daily, and due to some misunderstanding, we were unable to distinguish the application from Queer Publication House”, he further said. We hope this opportunity will bring more space for the writers from the LGBTQIA+ community to contribute their work to the literature,” Murugan said.