Raising the profile of South Asian writers since 2007
I was lucky enough to be on the The Asian Writer’s ‘Becoming a writer’ course early last year, at a time when I had realised I wanted to write, but didn’t know how to be a writer. The course was perfect for me, 12 very structured and comprehensive weeks that took me through recognising what …
Toni Morrison said that if the book you want to read isn’t out there, write it yourself. So I did. I wrote it over a year-and-a-half and called it Strange. Growing up, I read voraciously, and short stories were a particular favourite. I especially enjoyed the ones with cleverly constructed plots that culminated in deliciously …
Last October, I attended the Asian Writer’s Festival for the second year running. A uniquely nurturing space, I particularly loved hearing wonderful poets like Khairani Barokka and Shivanee Ramlochan. A week later, I was thrilled to receive Farhana’s email to tell me I’d won the raffle prize of mentoring from poet Rishi Dastidar. Rishi is …
In 2011 I had travelled to Jaipur Literary Festival, THE JLF in Jaipur. It was a gigantic affair with all the glamour that the beautiful pink city could muster. Held in the Diggi Palace, and in shamianas that are so very colourful, the ‘greatest literary show on Earth’ which is patronised by a million booklovers …
South Asian Sisters Speak (SASS) was borne out of a frustration of the lack of safe spaces for South Asian women to share their experiences. Growing up in the UK, the mainstream feminist dialogue was often non-inclusive of the varying experiences of ethnic minorities. As a result, as co-founders we (Sheetal Mistry and Shirin Shah), …
Last month highly acclaimed writer Nikesh Shukla addressed an audience at De Montfort University Leicester as part of their annual student-led Cultural Exchanges festival (27 February 2019). Held in association with The Asian Writer, the evening led by fellow writer Mahsuda Snaith (author of The Things We Thought We Knew) saw Nikesh discuss writing, rapping, …
It’s Not About the Burqa is presented as a collection of essays on ‘faith, feminism, sexuality and race’ and it is a lot more than that too. Mariam Khan has created a space for Muslim women to unapologetically share their first hand experiences of life under labels and misconceptions created by non-Muslims – and unfortunately …
Q. Can you start by telling us a bit about Things my Mother Told Me? What is the main story line? And what inspired the novel? A decade ago, I broke up with a boyfriend who had an affair with a burlesque dancer, and I started to write this story. Except I realised there was …
Mohammad Hanif’s third novel, Red Birds, opens on familiar ground; as we explore the wreckage of a smouldering plane, 10 years after General Zia met his end in one, Major Ellie emerges. A man on a mission (if only to avoid the monotony of housework), he finds himself in the very ‘enemy camp’ he had …
This is a great collection filled with moments of real tenderness and surprise. A servant eavesdrops on her mistress’s unfolding affair with a cousin. A parrot speaks the words of a wife’s dead husband like he named her loss. A grandmother comes to terms with her granddaughter’s pregnancy. Bhattacharya’s characters span the globe, from Venice …