Autobiographical genres and online literary conferences in 2020.

• Position: Conference news

ALTHOUGH it seemed that Covid-19 would affect literary activities badly as lockdown had forced bookshops and publishing houses to cease their normal working, during the year 2020 many writers somehow managed to get their works published.

In fact, the number of new titles that appeared during the year is quite heartening and the number of autobiographies that were published is quite surprising. Another trend that really picked up, though caused mainly by the pandemic, was organising literary conferences online. These online conferences mostly follow a hybrid system wherein many of the participants deliberate online. The International Urdu Conference organised by Arts Council of Pakistan, Karachi, was an example of how to manage a gathering in the time of pandemic while following the SOPs. Similarly, Pakistan Academy of Letters and Idara-e-Farogh-e-Qaumi Zaban, Islamabad - and some other organisations - held a number of online literary conferences. This compensated, at least to some extent, for the lack of literary gatherings and 'musaheras'.

Another trend that resurfaced was reprinting the golden oldies. Reprinting the works by maestros is a welcome trend and it took off a couple of decades ago. It had slowed down, but this year a few publishers, especially Majlis-e-Taraqqi-e-Adab, Lahore, reprinted many titles that were sought after for many years, especially by students and scholars.

Here is a brief survey of what Pakistani Urdu literature offered to the readers during the year 2020. As for fiction, luckily, Mustansar Hussain Tarar was quite active, though he has turned 80. His novella Shehr Khaali, Koocha Khaali appeared. It is written against the backdrop of pandemic. His novella Roop Behroop, too, was published. Muhammad Ilyas's Maya Ko Maya Mile, a novella, and Surkh Gulaab, a collection of short stories and novella, appeared. Nasir Abbas Nayyar's Aik Zamana Khatm Huwa Hai is a collection of his short stories.

But what really stole the show was an incessant flow of autobiographies, some of them quite readable and informative. For instance, Raagni Ki Khoj Mein, Najeeba Arif's autobiography describing a spiritual journey in search of a 'murshid', is an absorbing read. Her mother Hadiya Zafar penned her autobiography Jeevan Dhaara at the age of 85. It is a story of a woman's resilience and patience in a male-dominated society and how she successfully manoeuvred her teaching career against all odds. Muhammad Shams-ul-Haq, a scholar who has...