ANANKE WLF

Ananke Women in Literature Foundation (AnankeWLF)

The Women in Literature Foundation is a collective launched by Ananke ? a new media and development platform creating inclusive conversations in the digital realm.Under theumbrellaof AnankeLabs,theWomen in Literature Foundation is an acknowledgment of the literary genius, creative journeys, and diverse lived experiencesof womenandgirlsinthemajority world. The organization aims to spark conversations at the cusp of gender equality, intersectional feminism, women?s rights, migration, politics, and society in literature. Ananke WLF envisions initiating thought-provoking conversations about how literature produced by women can be highlighted,promoted,and celebrated globally viadigital documentation,dialogue, andmore

AnankeWLF strives to celebrate the creativity of female fiction and non-fiction writers as well as small and independent publishers, it is to highlight female literary history and showcase invisibilized women writers across the literary landscape.

The common thread in all our current,aswell asfuture endeavors, would be an attempt to provide a balanced and unbiased platform that welcomes and celebrates diverse opinionsand voices,heterodoxy in pursuit of a common truth,and freedomof speech for all thosewho want to engage in nuanced and meaningful conversation While striving to be a safe space for the marginalized who need it, we will do our best to not become silos that further factionalize the world and alienate one another We believe that the best solutions to the problems our world faces would come from truly open and inclusive platforms that afford a latitude for all rangesand levels of opinions,as long as the objective of the discussion infrastructure is met ? which is finding balanced and practical solutions and answers

Ananke?s Women in Literature Foundation serves as a vehicle to celebrate, nurture, and amplify voices that may otherwisenot find safety and security to bebrave, and that our fundamental value system is driven by principles of inclusion, non-violence, intersectionality anddismantlingsystemicviolence.

We aim to create an inclusive space that aspires to democratize the publishing and literary landscapes ? digitally and otherwise Celebrating small and independent publishers, our aim is also to strengthen women?s creative voices, through an array of initiatives, events, and engagements and encourage themtoavail all learningopportunitiespresented.

Ananke Women in Literature Festival

One of the foundation?s flagship events is the Women in Literature Festival (WLF) ? a first its kind digital celebration focusing the Global South, gender and the written word. The first edition took place in 2021, taking a deep dive into patrilineal cultures and their impact on the diversity and creativity of women writers.

The second edition of the celebrated WLF, with the theme Rethinking Paper, Ink & Gender, took place on March 31-April 1st, 2022 and opened up dialogue on publishingand thewritten word at theintersectionsof gender, feminist literary activism, innovation, biases, disabilitiesandsustainability

Moving Beyond Borders

The WLF2023 envisioned to cultivate the art of enunciation by stripping away the complexities of semantics Removingall formsof oppression infused in linguisticsthrough thevectorsof race,nationhood and ethnicity,the event sought to unearth the universality of thelanguageof grief andmelancholy

AsJoao GuimarãesRosaexpositsthat ?every word has itsshadow,?theWomen inLiteraturefestival set out to explore that migratory experience of language; its journey of losing and regaining, of seeking refuge, for shelter against the notions of banishment, expulsion, ostracism and intersecting the prospects of victimhoodandhyper-nationalist fascism

Braving A New World ? A Multiplicity of Realities

Many believe the act of creating is more than often linked with the desire to achieve that which has been denied, take for example the Guttenberg printing press to even the Internet These creations saw the light of day all due to the need for the freedom to communicate, thereby giving birth to ?new configurations? of life, nature, power, hegemony, legitimacy and ideology.Focusingon themultiplicity of realities, the festival also sought to uncover, consequently deconstructingthecrisisof humanism in a post-humanist society and expounding, contemplating ? perhaps ? the end of the era of the Vitruvianmandefiningthemeasureof things