Southbank Centre’s third annual Alchemy festival returns with another potent mix of music, dance, literature, film, fashion and design that will cast an illuminating light on the fast-changing economic and cultural landscape of the Indian subcontinent. In a first for Alchemy, 2012 sees Southbank Centre’s riverside venues and spaces become a film set, complete with a Taste of India food market, and festival-goers can enrol as dancing and singing extras in a Bollywood-style movie to be made throughout the festival and screened as a finale.
With a particular focus on Pakistan, …

Kyung-sook Shin  become the first woman to win the Man Asian Literary Prize, Asia’s most prestigious award for writers, for her novel ‘Please Look After Mom’. (15th March, 2012)
The South Korean novelist attended the black tie Prize Dinner at The Conrad Hotel in Hong Kong to receive the award of US$30,000. The translator of the novel, Chi-Young Kim also received US$5,000.
The win is the first for a South Korean writer, and ‘Please Look After Mom’ is the first novel by a South Korean to make it to the Man Asian …

Hardeep Singh Kohli, writer, broadcaster and Celebrity Masterchef finalist, is planing a cookery book with a difference on crowd-funded publisher Unbound.co.uk

A Month of Sundays will chart his journeys over the next nine months as he answers culinary call outs from people around the country. Readers can makes suggestions to Hardeep through the Unbound.co.uk website. Each week he’ll make the journey to cook up a feast for the most interesting ones, serving up delicious food in homes, workplaces, village halls and sports grounds across the UK.

Romantic dinners for two, village feasts, boardroom lunches, street parties, post-match curries, family reunions and birthday suppers, all suggestions will be considered - the more …

As we’re approaching our fifth anniversary I’m pleased to announce a new short story competition to showcase the best of Asian writing. We’re looking for short stories of up to 3,000 words in length on any theme but which include the word five. Winning entries will be presented in a published collection. £15 per entry, max three. All submitted entries must be new and original fiction.
By submitting your entry to us you agree to our terms and conditions and the right for us to publish your entry in our collection. Short …

On the 14th and 15th of April the Writing East Midlands genre fiction festival Alt.Fiction is coming to Leicester Phoenix.

As part of this event Fruit Bruise Press have teamed up with WEM to offer the first in a series of workshops working with emergent and excluded writers to develop them and create an anthology.

The workshop ‘Jumping Boundaries and Breaking Rules’ is exactly the sort of project we want to expand on in future years. We are delighted to also be able to offer, thanks to Leicester Libraries, two weekend tickets …

To celebrate one of my favourite writers joining Twitter I’ve succumbed to one of life’s simplest pleasures, making a list. If you’re not familiar with the micro blogging site, Twitter is a way of communicating in under a 140 characters, in real time. Its a great space for writers to connect with a wider audience, fellow writers and to follow agents and publishers.
Here’s the start of our Twitter list with inside info on their Twitter style. We hope to add to this list so please get in touch in the …

Poet and fiction writer Kavita Jindal has won this year’s  Haruki Murakami short story competition. Organised by Foyles, and judged by Haruki Murakami’s publisher, Liz Foley of Harvill Secker. Haruki picked a line from his latest work, 1Q84 and writers were invited to write a short story of no more than 1500 words with the opening line “Carrying a single bag, the young man is travelling alone at his whim with no particular destination in mind.”
Kavita Jindal’s entry was picked as the winner. You can read it here.
 

 
The DSC Prize for South Asian Literature 2012 was awarded to Singapore based Sri Lankan author Shehan Karunatilaka for his debut Chinaman (Johnathon Cape).
The $50,000 (around £32k) DSC Prize 2012 was awarded to Shehan Karunatilaka at a ceremony attended by eminent literary figures, renowned authors and a diverse literary audience at this year’s Jaipur Literature Festival.
Ira Pande, Jury chairperson said “The winning title is a brilliant narration of all that is both great and sad about South Asia and in that sense it brings a world to the reader that needs to be seen …

A River of Smoke by Amitav Ghosh is just one of the titles shortlisted
An unprecedented seven novels have been shortlisted for the 2011 Man Asian Literary Prize, Chair Judge Razia Iqbal announced today.
Speaking at a press conference at Man Group offices in London, Ms. Iqbal revealed that because of the strength of contemporary fiction coming out of Asia, the decision had been made to increase the number of writers on the shortlist from the usual five to seven.
The shortlisted titles are as follows:
· JAMIL AHMAD, Pakistan – The Wandering Falcon …

“a gripping, enlightening read”