Writing at a tangent to market forces

For nearly 20 years, Sharmistha Mohanty has offered a platform to writers who occupy the space between literary forms

In 2013, when I was in charge of the Books pages of Lounge, I received a review copy of Sharmistha Mohanty's latest work, Five Movements In Praise, published by Almost Island, an independent imprint she had founded. The book looked like nothing I had seen before, let alone read, as part of my day job.

The blue-black cover, textured and grainy, had the feel of tree bark, which, as I read on, felt apposite. Landscapes and nature dominate the narrative of Five Movements. On its pages is a peculiar amalgam of texts and images, linked by affinities rather than logic or teleology. The blurb described the book as "a fictional work where the landscape and the human have equal presence, and whose pleasures are not in the fulfillment of narrative expectations, but in the creation of new pathways of desire in storytelling". This remark set the tone for a work that refused to play by any rule, freely challenged boundary, and yet, left the reader exhilarated by its sinuous, hypnotic every energy.

Over the last decade, I have had a chance to know Mohanty as a friend, fellow believer in the power of words, and a cherished guide to little-known but brilliant writers and writing that blossom on the fringes of commercial publishing, like wild flowers in the thicket that remain unseen by our distracted eyes.