Habitt City, a quaint space for community gatherings nestled inside the sprawling Habitt Home store in Karachi, hosted the launch of Story Circle: Letters on Creativity and Friendship on Saturday.
The book, co-authored by Taha Kehar and Fatima Ijaz, is a collection of letters exchanged between the two writers over five weeks via email.
Moderated by Kulsoom Aftab, the event gave a rare opportunity to potential readers and book lovers to understand the creative thought process of the writers.
While Kehar attended the event in person, Ijaz joined virtually from the United States. Her face on the giant LED screen served as a reminder of how technology has bridged distances, even if only digitally.
The conversation began with justified curiosity: how could two writers, who would normally compete with each other, collaborate. “Friendship,” Kehar added and explained that it was the bond that two shared that encouraged them to have a book of letters.
Kehar is a journalist, literary critic and novelist. He is a law graduate and has authored three novels, No Funeral for Nazia (2023), Typically Tanya (2018) and Of Rift and Rivalry (2014).
In his comments to The News, he said: “Indoctrination would have us believe that writers are in stiff competition with each other. The letters featured in ‘Story Circle: Letters on Creativity and Friendship’ sidestep the unpleasantness associated with petty professional rivalries, and create a space for two writers to share their views and concerns about the creative process. At its core, the book explores what it means to be a writer.”
Beyond being a book of letters, ‘Story Circle’ is also a creative experiment that incorporates elements of fiction, autobiography as well as non-fiction. “The aim is to challenge the image people hold of us as fiction writer and poet, respectively, and unearth some of our hitherto unknown avatars,” Kehar said.
“It is not a burn book,” he said as the audience erupted in laughter and admitted that the book did raise people’s eyebrows when they learned about the project, afraid that the writer might reveal something about them.
For Ijaz, who is a Karachi-based poet and educator, the book is “the embodiment of life in the intensity of a five-week time frame, where two writers explore the present moment with utter honesty and a desire for truth.”
Throughout the event, the writers took daring questions from the audience, not shying away from acknowledging their fears and happily took feedback from those present. All in all, the exercise kept the audience glued to their screens and attentive to the words of wisdom shared by the writers.
One of the attendees, Huma Sheikh, shared her experience with The News, “It was heartening to attend a literary event that was carried out so gracefully and peacefully in the heart of the bustling city. It was such a joy to see a good turnout of people of all ages, invested in what the authors had to say. I enjoyed myself and look forward to seeing similar events carried out more frequently in the future.”
In an era that is slowly being dominated by artificial intelligence (AI), the writer cannot escape the entry of this tech for long. The News asked the two what they thought of the technology.
Ijaz said that she believed writing should embody some kind of naked vulnerability, which is the very human element that remains beyond AI’s reach.
Kehar added, “[AI] has given writers a run for their money, but it hasn’t extinguished their desire to express themselves. Even in an age where large language models are gaining prominence, many writers find solace in the language of their own souls instead of relying on the dull, repetitive texts churned out by chatbots. The art of writing will endure as long as we continue to prioritise the soul of a written piece over its mechanical elements.”
The book was released in October this year and published by Liberty Publishing.