By Dr. R. Balasubramaniam
Ah, the literature festival circuit — where authors go to be celebrated, debated, occasionally mistaken for someone else, and ultimately left questioning their life choices. When you first get an invitation, the excitement is real. You imagine engaging conversations, adoring readers and intellectual stimulation. You now feel like you’ve ‘officially’ arrived. Surely, this is the moment when your best-selling books, published by renowned houses, and that one dense academic tome from a famous University Press will finally be discussed and dissected. Dare you hope, they might even be ‘admired.’ You polish your biography, rehearse witty one-liners and tell yourself that this is the moment you’ve worked for.
