Avinuo Kire is a prominent author within the nascent yet rapidly flourishing Naga literary canon. Her works are widely acknowledged as Naga ethnographic fiction, as they revolve around the present-day sociopolitical lived realities, historical consciousness, and cultural folklore of the Naga people. In this interview, Kire discusses the resonance of Naga spiritualism in her storytelling, the linguistic and cultural particularities of her writing, and the contentions surrounding authentic literary representation of Indigenous Naga culture within a modernized Naga–Christian society. The conversation highlights her call to recognize Naga writings in their own right rather than subsuming them under homogenized categories and stereotypes, and to preserve and perpetuate Naga oral stories for their wisdom amidst the sweeping modernization of Naga communities. The interview reflects on the challenges and potential of Naga literature in English and concludes with Avinuo Kire's hope that this literary identity will thrive in creative autonomy, free from imposed preconceptions.
Swaraj et al. (Mon,) studied this question.