Significant topics on various issues like motherhood, how romance novels are changing as are their protagonists, life experiences from women who travel, female narratives on gender, militancy, religion and much more was highlighted in the latest edition of Women Writers’ Festival.

The second edition of the festival concluded with many memories and influential thoughts on various topics. The festival was organized by Shethepeople.TV at Instituto Cervantes Nueva, Connaught Place, Delhi.

This year the festival included both fiction and non-fiction writing, from parenting, women at work, women in politics, non-fiction narratives and popular fiction with romance, business writing, publishing, gender issues, travel writing and much more.

Speaking on the occasion, founder Shaili Chopra said, “The Women Writers’ Festival pushed boundaries with the subjects it picked, the debates it fostered and the sheer diversity of authors and writers it brought together. I am highly delighted to see the support of all the speakers and audience owing to which the festival is a great success.”

This year the event witnessed the presence of various speakers, including Adite Banerjie, Shuchi Singh Kalra, Vaishali Mathur, Bhaavna Arora, Kiran Manral, Kanchana Banerjee, Aneela Zeb Babar, Gurmehar Kaur, Sunetra Choudhary, Kota Neelima, Shaili Chopra, Rituparna Chatterjee, Arpita Das, Aditi Maheshwari Goyal, Rashmi Menon, Aarti David, Jaya Bhattacharji Rose, Kiranjeet Chaturvedi, Natasha Badhwar and Dr Shelja Sen.

The festival started with the session, The changing face of love: Contemporary romantic fiction, where Adite Banerjie, Shuchi Singh Kalra, Vaishali Mathur, Bhaavna Arora and Kiran Manral shared their views on the topic. The session was moderated by Kanchana Banerjee. Author Bhaavna Arora spoke about dark love and the turn of love to danger.

“The foundation of love never changes. Today, the case is that women should be very clear about what their priorities are even in love. In literature, we should bring out what women do for themselves and not to satiate a man,” said Arora. “In my writing, I do make an effort to tell women that you matter and not anybody else.”

Adding to that, Aditi Banerjee said, “The way contemporary fiction has portrayed love has changed. So there are darker aspects of love but the meaning of love is still same.”

Suchi Singh Kalra, however, was of a different opinion and said expectations with love are very lofty now. “In terms of writing, there are romantic comedies but in a protagonist’s life, romance is not the only thing in life. There are other friendships and a career not taking off. The boy is not the be all and end all,” she pointed out.

There were different sessions on various topics during the day-long event, such as The stories we tell, the stories we hear: Nonfiction narratives by women; The Business of Books: Is there a Gender Gap in publishing?; Motherhood as the definitive female experience in women’s writing and Travel in my veins: Travelogues.

Also, 19-year-old Gurmehar Kaur, author of Small Acts of Freedom, spoke at the panel on The stories we tell, the stories we hear: Non-fiction narratives by women. She mentioned how her mother was apprehensive about her writing the book, but she wanted to write to address her emotions.

Arpita Das, Aditi Maheshwari Goyal, Rashmi Menon and Aarti David shared their views on The Business of Books: Is there a Gender Gap in publishing? Jaya Bhattacharji Rose was the moderator of this session. There was also a workshop on Writers in Making, conducted by Kiranjeet Chaturvedi.

The session on Motherhood as the definitive female experience in women’s writing was also appreciated by the audience where speakers Natasha Badhwar, Dr Shelja Sen, Nazia Erum and Amee Misra shared their experiences.

Devapriya Roy, Mariellen Ward, Aditi Mathur Kumar and Mridula Dwivedi were the key speakers on session Travel in my veins: Travelogues by women moderated by Swati Rai.