Have women always been a force to reckon with throughout the literary canon?

This event is part of the opening weekend series of events at Rich Mix.

To view all events on Sunday 9 October and purchase an all day ticket (£12), click here. Also available: an all day pass for events on Saturday 8 October (£12) and a weekend pass for both days (£20).*

Women characters have arguably undergone a large transformation in recent decades; away from the boilerplate notion of suffering, womanly virtue to portraying more complex, real characters. But to what extent is this true?

This event brings together powerful novels with women at their core. Dipika Rai’s Someone Else’s Garden is the story of Mamta, born low-caste in rural India, fleeing her violent husband in search of a new life in the city. And in Kishwar Desai’s Witness the Night we meet social worker Simran, an independent, single woman in her mid-40s assigned to the case of 14 year-old Durga, the only suspect in the brutal murder of her 13 family members.

As the traditional customs and expectations of women in countries like Afghanistan, India and Pakistan are challenged in a modern world, what impact is this having in the stories about them? And are women the only writers qualified to tell such tales? Join Dipika Rai and Kishwar Desai as they discuss the impact of the real world in today’s women in fiction.

*NOTE: tickets for festival workshops purchased separately