Raising the profile of South Asian writers since 2007
A new festival celebrating South Asian children’s authors and illustrators will take place in the autumn. SAIL FEST, a one-day event, held at the British Library in September will bring together creatives working in the children’s book market for the first time in the hope of connecting them with the wider literary community made up …
Congratulations on the publication of your debut novel, Northern Boy. Tell me more about where the journey began for this story? What inspired you to tell it? Northern Boy has, literally, been years in the making. I first had the idea for it a decade ago, when I began jotting down various incidents from my childhood. I’d …
Q. Let’s start with your Discoveries win. Tell me more about your writing journey up until that point and what shifted for you when you found out you’d won? It’s been a long old journey and when I reflect on the twists and turns it has taken, I am both humbled and hugely grateful to …
Set in 1887, the year of Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee, Tanika Gupta’s The Empress tells the story of the sixteen-year-old Rani Das, ayah (nursemaid) to an English family, who arrives at Tilbury docks after a long voyage from India, to start a new life in Britain. On the boat, Rani befriends a lascar (sailor), an …
A new festival is putting Panjabi and Pahari-Pothwari voices centre stage. JAAG: Panjabi and Pahari-Pothwari Language and Literature Festival takes place in Birmingham next week (Saturday 13 May). The event, organised by the Jaag Collective, will see nearly 40 artists coming together for a jam-packed day of events featuring talks, workshops, discussions and performances. Artists taking …
Norman Erikson Pasaribu can light up a room. I remember first meeting him in my hometown of Leicesster where he was – at the time – on tour with the British Council, having been touted as a young Indonesian writer to watch. I was sad not to be able to attend the session he delivered …
Asma Khan’s latest cookery book, Ammu is a delightful collection of childhood recipes that celebrates the power of home cooking and the inextricable link between food and love. Published by Ebury, the book features more than 100 recipes alongside a wonderful memoir which captures Khan’s childhood and the woman who taught her how to cook, …
The characters in your short story collection Mrs Pinto Drives to Happiness come from widely ranging backgrounds and ethnicities. Was it difficult to make this leap of imagination or do you engage in research? The characters in Mrs Pinto Drives to Happiness reflect the world we live in- in all its fractured yet glorious technicolour …
Why did you enter the Creative Future Writers’ Awards? I have been on a strange journey with writing and life up until this moment… After ten years of working on a novel, I decided I needed to start sending my work out… I didn’t know any writer people, and wasn’t part of a writer group, …
The Mismatch by Sara Jafari is relatable, honest and romantic. One family, two women and a secret that threatens to ruin them both. Don’t be deceived by the premise, Jafari’s debut delivers much more than simple romance. Soraya is a twenty-one-year-old graduate trying to navigate between her conservative Iranian upbringing and the western freedoms she …