The Way The White Owl Flies: A Lit Fest In Nagaland Celebrates Stories

Nagaland, home to 17 major tribes, celebrates a rich calendar of traditional festivals throughout the year. Come February, the Land of Festivals turns the spotlight on literature.

The White Owl Literature Festival & Book Fair, organised by literary institute The White Owl in collaboration with Penguin Random House India, will be held at Zone Niathu by The Park, Chümoukedima, Dimapur, from February 5–7. Now in its third edition, the festival has steadily grown into a key fixture on the region’s cultural calendar.

This year’s line-up features a diverse mix of voices, including author and civil servant Daribha Lyndem, popular musician Alobo Naga, and renowned Japanese manga and animation artist Toshiyuki Honda.

Festival director and proprietor of The White Owl, Viketuno Rio, notes that while Nagaland boasts an impressive pool of writers and a strong reading culture, literary festivals are still relatively new to the state. Alongside the White Owl festival, the Nagaland Literature Festival—held in Kohima—marked its fifth edition in December 2025.

While the White Owl Fest invites writers and creative practitioners from Nagaland and other Indian states as well as a few global figures, the Nagaland Literature Fest, organised by the Writers Collective Kohima, focuses on local writers. Though the focuses are different, both festivals are committed to celebrating the rich storytelling traditions of Nagaland and amplifying local voices. Both festivals share the spirit of collaboration. Members of the Writers Collective Kohima helped curate the closing session of the 2025 White Owl Fest and joint initiatives are already in the pipeline for this edition of the festival too.

“Nagaland’s roots are firmly embedded in our stories and traditions,” says Viketuno. “But literature thrives on conversations and a lively exchange of ideas.” It is this dialogue and exchange of lived experiences the White Owl Fest facilitates. “When writers from across India come here to speak to our authors and audiences, it enriches the writing culture and builds a more informed community of readers,” she says, sharing her reasons for conceiving the festival.

In 2023, she decided to set up the White Owl book lounge to provide readers a comfortable space to indulge in their favourite activity: reading. As book launches, author-reader interactions and fireside chats about books and writing went on at the lounge, the idea of launching a literary festival sprouted. Viketuno, who was a sociology student in her university days, had never imagined that she would run a bookstore and a library, let alone launch a lit fest. “The footfall at the White Owl library and at our book fairs encouraged me to take on the challenge of launching a lit fest,” she says, sharing that the search for sponsors was a major challenge.

She has a clear vision for the festival: to resist the pull of scale and keep it “simple but profound”; to offer personal attention to every invited speaker; to seek out new voices while giving seasoned writers space to inform and guide emerging ones; to nurture a reading culture in the state; and to curate sessions that reflect the interests and concerns of the audience. In the run-up to this year’s edition, a public poll was conducted to shape the festival’s conversations. Popular themes included culture and identity, mental health, politics, publishing, artificial intelligence, and the growing influence of K-pop in the Northeast.

“Readers here seldom get a chance to meet writers from different parts of the country,” says poet and author Mmhonlumo Kikon. “The festival gives them an opportunity to do that on their home ground so there’s a lot of excitement. Writers from across the Northeast get a chance to meet at the fest, too.” He notes that unlike in the past, more writers from Nagaland are attracting the attention of national and international publishing houses now. There are three or four local publishers who welcome manuscripts from debut writers and poets as well. In this context, lit fests function as excellent catalysts of community building for writers, publishers, agents and readers.

Vizovono Elizabeth, independent researcher and General Secretary of the Writers Collective Kohima, points out that traditionally all stories were passed on orally in Nagaland and there was no written script. “Lit fests are a wonderful thing because written literature is very new for us,” she says. “There was a break in the oral tradition [because of the long years of conflict and our tryst with modernity] but I see a renewed interest in learning our own stories today. People are finding bridges between the oral tradition and written literature,” she says, adding that the White Owl Fest, organised in association with a big publisher, gives many talented writers in Nagaland who struggle to gain recognition beyond the local market, a platform to make their voices heard and address a larger readership.

“Nagaland is still in the early stages of nurturing and sustaining our writers,” says Viketuno who is an avid reader. When she was growing up, there were no dedicated bookstores around and she would buy her beloved Enid Blytons and Carolyne Keenes from stationery shops which stocked them. Later, when she spent a year at Oxford University in the UK as a researcher, she was delighted to see many libraries and well-stocked bookstores dotting the landscape.

In the pandemic years, when she had had too much of the digital world, she decided to recreate the magic of those libraries and bookstores in her hometown. She felt it was something she owed her children and the younger generation. Since bookstores, libraries and lit fests are all integral parts of the literary ecosystem, she is determined to devote her time and energy to them.

“Lit fests achieve a special kind of connection between people through books,” says Mmhonlumo who has been actively involved with the White Owl Fest since the beginning. He was an invited speaker at the last two editions of the fest and was delighted to engage with the audience there.

“No government programme can forge this kind of connection,” he adds, reflecting on the possibility of leading a workshop on writing history at this year’s festival. “This is an especially promising moment for literature festivals in the Northeast,” says Vizovono. “Publishers, both large and independent, are paying attention to the region. We find ourselves at a fortunate moment, with growing platforms for our voices.”