The Home of British Asian Writing
Aunty Safia was Uncle Safdar’s wife and she talked to people in the air. This is how my mind sketched her first portrait in my childhood. Uncle Safdar was my father’s elder brother and lived with my grandparents. He was a tall thin man with one of the kindest faces I have ever seen, and …
“I…love…you”, and I loved you too. Your sound, a sweet voice, excited, so happy I’ve come around. Moans, groans and changing tones through a day, later arguing, shouting, swearing, the good times didn’t stay. Your Chanel perfume, I think that I can still smell, And the over-cooked lasagne, you thought I couldn’t tell. Left the …
Q. How come we’ve not heard of you before? Tell us more about yourself and how you found yourself writing? A: Well, quite simply, you haven’t heard of me because you didn’t need to have till now! I’ve been writing since university, but have practised as a lawyer ever since. Still do. I did in …
The Grassroutes Commission is now ready. Click on this link to read the commission, a poetry sequence called Five Voices Leicester by Anita Sivakumaran. Grassroutes promotes public knowledge of Leicestershire’s diverse literary cultures. The project surveys high-quality transcultural writing by Leicestershire-based writers from 1980 to the present. It fosters local, national and international appreciation – …
The Asian Writer catches up with Kishwar Desai, author of Origins of Love
Irfan Master and I have arranged to meet at The Curve, a recent addition to Leicester’s regeneration in the Cultural Quarter. We’re in Master’s hometown. This is where he grew up, worked as a librarian, before moving to London to take up a post at the National Literacy Trust. He’s returned home, a decade later, …
Writer, comedian and TV personality, Meera Syal stars opposite Paul Bhattacharjee in the RSC’s vibrant and new production set in modern day India. Audiences will step into India as soon as they enter through the doors of the Courtyard Theatre – with awnings and stalls, Indian music, and a large tree dominating the stage. Tom Piper, …
The Asian Writer interviews debut novelist, Rosie Dastgir
Fifty Shades of Grey, a work of erotic fiction has become the fastest selling book of all time. With Fifty Shades of Grey sweeping the nation, we cross borders over to India, where not one, but two anthologies of Erotic fiction are due to be published this year. We’re caught up with Sheba Karim …
Q. Tell us a little bit more about your second novel, Another Country? The novel opens when Leela, aged twenty-one, is in Paris at the end of the last millennium. It’s her first job after university, and begins a journey that the book follows, through her twenties in Paris, London, and then Bombay. Q. …