India, Oct. 31 -- Huthuka Sumi is the latest addition to the growing group of voices from Nagaland. For a long time, the place was written about by British anthropologists, American missionaries and political officers who mostly offered academic work which didn't capture the essence of the people or the land. Nagaland has a rich oral storytelling history that has only recently, since the 1970s, been transposed to print in English by indigenous voices.

The author and poet Easterine Kire believes her work, as an insider presenting historical narratives of the state, challenges colonial voices. Nzanmongi Jasmine Patton describes her writing as an effort to preserve the oral storytelling tradition and folklore now mostly lost on Naga youth. ...