PASIGHAT, Nov 6: Arunachal Pradesh University (APU) hosted the curtain raiser programme of the 8th Arunachal Literature Festival on Thursday, setting the stage for the main festival scheduled from 20 to 22 November 2026 here at APU.
Organised in collaboration with the Department of Information and Public Relations, GoAP, the programme brought together more than 25 students, research scholars, faculty members and members of the Arunachal Pradesh Literary Society (APLS), East Siang Unit, to celebrate literary creativity and promote multilingual expression.
Addressing the gathering, Narmi Darang, Registrar APU, said the University was honoured to host the festival despite its relatively young status and limited infrastructure. Darang credited the cooperation of University authorities and staff for taking up the responsibility and underlined the crucial role of student volunteers in welcoming guests from across the country and abroad as ambassadors of the University and of the cultural heritage of Pasighat and Arunachal Pradesh.
Dr Ing Perme, Chairperson of the ALF Core Committee (APU), said the curtain raiser was conceived as a first step to take literature beyond the festival stage and into classrooms and communities. Perme said the programme was meant to give young writers a platform to share their work, listen to experienced voices and understand how festivals, publishing and cinema together build a living literary culture in Arunachal Pradesh.
The programme featured four sessions covering poetry, publishing, short story reading and cinema.
The opening poetry session saw participants presenting original compositions in Adi, Galo, Hindi and English. Teacher and APLS member Obat Boko opened the session with Raindrop on a Taro Leaf, originally written in Adi and translated into English. Other recitations explored themes such as the first drop of rain, motherhood, confession, personal feelings and reunion, reflecting the linguistic diversity of the region.
In the second session, titled “The Literary Ecosystem: Festivals, Creative Writing and Publishing,” Jummi Yomcha, Research Scholar, Department of English, APU and Founder of Indigenous Publishing House, gave an overview of the festival and shared a publisher’s perspective on creative writing and publishing. She said there is no single path to getting published, and stressed the need for professional guidance, confidence among local writers and a dedicated creative space in Arunachal Pradesh to nurture literary talent. She also spoke about her publishing house, established in 2024 to provide a platform for budding writers.
The third session featured a reading of The Journey, a short story by Padma Shri Yeshe Dorjee Thongchi, presented by Henky Ete, Research Scholar, Department of English (APU). Through the journey of a father carrying his son’s luggage along a difficult hilly road, the story explored generational differences, dignity, sacrifice and the unspoken bond between a father and his son.
The final session, “Literature and Cinema,” featured the screening of ‘In the Land of Poison Women’ (Bishkanyar Deshot), based on the novel by Thongchi and presented by the Department of Mass Communication.