Raising the profile of South Asian writers since 2007
Debut novelist Emma Smith-Barton and Costa winner Jasbinder Bilan have been shortlisted for the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize. Emma’s novel The Million Pieces of Neena Gill has been placed in the Older Readers category, while Asha and the Spirit Bird by Jasbinder Bilan is listed in the Younger Readers category. Now in its sixteenth year, …
by Leela Soma Set in South India, in the tiny cantonment of Nandagiri The Tainted by Cauvery Madhavan traces the lives of the Anglo-Indian community. They belong nowhere, not to the ruling Raj, or the local community, tainted by their mixed blood. The love story between Private Michael Flaherty of the Royal Irish Kildare Rangers …
by Jude Higgins Flash fiction is a form of short short fiction that, in recent years, has been growing in popularity worldwide. To qualify as a ‘flash’, stories must be 1000 words or less and many writers write to a 500 or 300 word limit. The skill in writing these tiny tales is to successfully …
Brace yourselves, 2020 sees Asian authors returning to what they know and love: literary fiction. I don’t remember a time quite like it. Reminiscent of my mother’s Eid dinners, 2020 promises us abundance, from poetry collections to short stories, crime to children’s fiction. The year has already gifted us with some literary gems but there’s …
With falling author earnings it is common for writers to supplement their income with teaching or part time work. But the portfolio career or ‘slashie’ – juggling two or three entirely different careers at the same time – is a new way of working and it’s on the rise. Crime writer Vaseem Khan tells us …
Meena Kandasamy’s latest novel, Exquisite Cadavers began as a response to her second novel, When I Hit You. It follows the story of a young married couple as they navigate life and love in London and is an experimental project where Kandasamy attempts to write a story as far removed from her own as possible. …
In her breath-taking new novel, Exquisite Cadavers Meena Kandasamy raises the curtain and invites the reader into what is often seen as a mysterious process. Sitting neatly in the margins Kandasamy dissects her creative process revealing how her ideas are worked into fiction. I begin by asking Kandasamy whether writing Exquisite Cadavers made her feel …
Indian writers once again dominate the shortlist for the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature 2019, which was announced earlier this month (November 6 2019). Now in its ninth year, the DSC Prize is one of the most prestigious international literary awards specifically focused on South Asian fiction writing, and celebrates the very best writing …
Rehearsal Room 1 of Leicester’s Curve Theatre has mirrored walls, free-standing doors, and a staircase to nowhere. An appropriate setting for the inaugural Crossroads Festival, which aimed “to support writers by offering advice and inspiration through a series of talks and workshops”. However, it did more than that. Like its base room, the festival was …
‘Imagine building an observatory over St. Paul’s Cathedral?’ A provocative question posed by Amitav Ghosh at the National Book Festival, in D.C. Ghosh was replying to a question posed by Bilal Quershi, a reporter with the National Public Radio at an event in Washington D.C. on his new and fascinating book Gun Island. He also referred to Mauna Kea in Hawaii …