‘At the risk of sounding contemptuous, one has to observe that the English writing-publishing space in Assam and India is particularly occupied by a privileged lot from the urban elites. Many factors such as diction, connections and access to family wealth to have time to write, determine whose stories will get told and heard. This anthology hopes to disrupt some of that comfortable status quo’, says Banamallika, the editor.
Editor Banamallika has selected women and trans people from Assam as the storytellers. Several factors such as gender, ethnicity, race, religion, language, etc., govern this category of people where they are denied their own control. The traditional system assumes that their stories are not worth telling or that their stories are worthless. Therefore, they stay away from publishing. But they also have many stories and the medium in which they choose to tell the stories is varied. It can sometimes be a literary form based on words or language or a visual text of colour, thread and words. The editor has randomly placed such diverse stories in the anthology without including them in any particular category. Again, not all of these stories are full of new and old experiments, rich in advanced artistic qualities. It moves from very personal experiences to stories, illustrated stories, prose, poetry, colour lines, thread; and their expression is simple. Riverside Stories: Writings from Assamis a unique combination of poetry, prose, graphic stories, and visual arts and crafts. This is an expression of different feelings about life because of one’s identity and position.