Subscribe

Enter your email address to get updates of new postings: Delivered byFeedBurner

Thursday, December 27, 2012

* Shoptodina


Call-for-contributions for the inaugural issue
(Coming Soon - Hurry!)

Shoptodina Magazine (English)

Vision: Shoptodina is a magazine of creative writing and literature with focus on Bengal. Its main objective is to channelize creative talent to showcase Bengal. In order to do so the magazine will explore and exploit the creative talent in Bengal as well as encourage people living outside Bengal to give creative output to their experiences of Bengal. The magazine will have sections on poetry, drama, fiction, essays, memoir, travelogue, interviews and translations from Bengali to English apart from regular columns and features. The magazine intends to have bi-monthly publication that is six issues every year. The language of the magazine will be English. There will also be a sister magazine in Bengali of the same name, though not twins since the content will be different. Both the magazines will be published online as webzines on the website http://www.shoptodina.org and will have print avatars if and when adequate funding is available.

Nomenclature: Shoptodina refers to a grand fleet of merchant ships from ancient and early medieval Bengal. “Shopto” means seven in Bengali. There are also reasons to believe that Shoptodina could have been named after Shoptogram, the ancient harbour of Bengal. “Dina”, as in Shoptodina, is an Austric word, and it refers to the most ancient group of native inhabitants of Bengal. All we know is that we really don’t know how far “dina” goes back in history. Shoptodina thus stands as a symbol for the Bengali identity as well as the global reach and spread of the Bengalis and their culture.
Submission guidelines: We solicit contributions from everyone and our only eligibility criterion is that the piece submitted has to be related in some way to Bengal and its people, history, geography, culture, literature, art, etc. Since the magazine is in English, the contributions must be in English. All contributions must be original and must not have been previously published in any form. The contributions will be subject to editorial approval for maintaining literary quality and focus of the magazine but the views expressed in them will be solely that of the writers themselves. The copyright of every contribution will remain with the writer but the writer will grant Shoptodina the first publication, archiving and subsequent non-exclusive publication rights. If later on the same piece is to be published elsewhere then Shoptodina has to be acknowledged as its first publisher. Though no prior permission is needed it is courteous for the writer to inform Shoptodina of it. Shoptodina is unable to pay contributors any monetary compensation but will always be grateful for their patronage.