The Asian Writer New Writing Competition is for: poems of up to 40 lines, max of three; fiction of up to 2,500 words, max of three. It is particularly aimed at encouraging British Asian writers. All short listed entries will be published on our blog, with the winning entries published on our website and in …
Hanif tops Guardian First Book Award
Mohammed Hanif, author of The Case of the Exploding Mangoes has been longlisted for the Guardian First Book Award 2008. In total, four novels, four non-fiction books, a collection of short stories and a book of poetry have made the cut from a selection of 170 books. The award is unique for rewarding new writing …
Two Asian Authors make Man Booker Prize Shortlist
First time novelist, Aravind Adiga and Amitav Ghosh have been shortlisted for The Man Booker Prize. Aravind Adiga’s The White Tiger, is the story of Balram Halwai who dreams of escaping his life as a teashop worker turned chauffeur. Yet when his chance finally arrives and his eyes are opened to the revelatory city of …
The Road from Damascus
ROBBIN YASSIN-KASSAB the road from Damascus published by Penguin June 2008 It is summer 2001 and Sami Traifi has escaped his fraying marriage and minimal job prospects to Damascus. In search of his roots and himself, he insteads find a forgotten uncle in a gloomy back room, and an ugly secret about his beloved father… …
The End of the road? Surely not! The Asian Writer talks exclusively to Robbin Yassin-Kassab
Q. Could you tell me more about your writing journey…how did the idea for The road from Damascus come about? What lead you to write this story? A. Well, I just started writing. For many years I’d failed to write because I couldn’t find a story. What I didn’t know was that the story is …
10 Things you should know about a Literary Agent
Answers by Lorella Belli from The Lorella Belli Literary Agency 1. Agents sell third parties (for example book publishers) the right to produce market and publish books, not the books themselves. To put it more simply, they sell various types of rights in the intellectual property created by writers, and manage their career. 2. Most …
Ambition brings Sukhraj success
1) What made you enter the competition? Talk me through the day you found out about the competition and what your thoughts were? The Easter holiday was extremely rainy; excellent motivation to do some writing. I entered the competition just to test my nerve. I sent it off, and thought that was an achievement in …
Sukhraj Kaur Randhawa wins Orange /Harper's Bazaar Short Story Competition 2008
Midlands based writer Sukhraj Kaur Randhawa has triumphed over 200 aspiring writers to win the seventh Orange/Harper’s Bazaar Short Story Competition 2008. Judge and Editor of Harper’s Bazaar, Lucy Yeomans, presented a cheque for £1,000 to Sukhraj Kaur Randhawa at the Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction awards ceremony at the Royal Festival Hall, Southbank Centre …
Nikita Lalwani's Gifted Glitters at the Desmond Elliot Prize 2008
Nikita Lalwani was tonight (Thursday, 26th June) named the winner of the £10,000 Desmond Elliott Prize for Gifted, a story about a maths prodigy growing up in 1980s Cardiff, published by Penguin Books. Penny Vincenzi, Chair of the Judges, said: “Gifted is a book of extraordinary range; it is touching, tender, funny and at the …
Tahmima Anam’s Golden Age starts here?
Tahmima Anam has become the first Bangladeshi writer to win the Overall First Book Award at The Commonwealth Writers Prize 2008. The winners were announced at the Franschhoek Literary Festival in South Africa on May 18. The Commonwealth Writers’ Prize, an increasingly valued and sought-after award for fiction, is presented annually by the Commonwealth Foundation. …