Raising the profile of South Asian writers since 2007
The novel Jasmine by Bharati Mukherjee, first published in 1989, is one that is primarily interested in the discussion of immigration experience in the United States. Though utilising fantasy elements in the narrative, the story tells a harrowing tale of the protagonist Jyoti and the challenges she faces in assimilating into American society. The novel …
American author Akhil Sharma has won the 2016 International DUBLIN Literary Award for his novelFamily Life. The Award is organised and sponsored by Dublin City Council and at €100,000 is the world’s largest prize for a single novel published in English. Uniquely, the Award receives its nominations from public libraries in cities around the globe …
The second novel in the much-loved Baby Ganesh Detective Agency series is out now (May 5, 2016). Following the success of The Unexpected Inheritance of Inspector Chopra Vaseem Khan’s second adventure sees retired Inspector Ashwin Chopra swept up in a maelstrom of trouble and danger in Mumbai. When the Koh-i-Noor diamond is stolen from an exhibition of …
As a qualified accountant you came into writing later in life. Tell us more about how and why you decided to become a writer? My journey from accountant to writer began back in the autumn of 2013. I was thirty-nine at the time, hurtling towards forty and I had the hope that maybe there might …
How important was it for you to set your series in Bradford? It was important to set the series in Bradford, my home town. It is a city with amazing history – a hundred years ago the richest city in Europe. It is a city steeped in glory from the industrial boom days but over …
Tell us more about the inspiration behind your short story in Love across a broken map? Reshma: I am fascinated by the cult of celebrity and the extent to which one can identify with and pine for the gilded life of such a celebrity. My story, ‘Soul Sisters’, takes this obsession to its extreme end. …
Tell us about your debut novel, Where the River Parts? Where the River Parts follows a Hindu Muslim couple caught up in the traumatic Partition of India and Pakistan. They are separated during the process, and don’t see each other for the next fifty years. It is only half a decade later, as both India …
Following a stellar reception at the biennial Shubbak festival, politically provocative play Love, Bombs & Apples embarks on a tour of the UK this summer. Comic and poignant, Love, Bombs & Apples is the latest play from award winning playwright Hassan Abdulrazzak (Baghdad Wedding, The Prophet). Using comedy as a vehicle to bravely tackle problems …
Alchemy, Southbank Centre’s festival celebrating the cultural connections between South Asia and the UK, returns for a seventh year (20-30 May 2016), exploring the region’s art, artists, politics and society as a whole. Over the last six years, Alchemy has grown to become the largest festival of South Asian culture outside the subcontinent and presents …
‘Clocks 1888: the greener’ is a ground-breaking new opera set inside a magical world of Clocks in the year 1888. At the heart of the story is ‘the greener’ – a term that was used at the time for a newly arrived foreign immigrant. This is a powerful love story featuring a critically acclaimed cast including …