The Home of British Asian Writing
by Adrienne Loftus Parkins Publishing catalogues for the last half of the year are out, so it’s time to take a look at what Asian books will be coming our way between now and Christmas. Here are my top picks – what I’ll be rushing to read as the year goes on. In August, Harvill …
The Asia House Bagri Foundation Literature Festival 2015 has announced its programme. In its ninth year, it is the only UK Festival dedicated to pan-Asian writing and will include talks from some of the most exciting names in literature including British-Chinese author Xinran, Turkey’s bestselling author Elif Shafak, award-winning Indian novelist Anuradha Roy and one of …
by Adrienne Loftus Parkins To paraphrase George Santayana, those who do not learn about history are doomed to repeat its mistakes. This phrase kept coming to mind when reading two novels recently. Damon Galgut’s Arctic Summer and A Season for Martyrs by Bina Shah both take past events as their themes. Both are fascinating character …
On arriving at HeHo, the nearest airport to Inle, we were met by Major who took us straight to their pier and our boat for the journey to the monastery. A sense of calm befell me. I felt I was back where I belonged. The hustle and bustle of Yangon and the trials and tribulations felt a …
by Adrienne Loftus Parkins Every few years, the question of stereotyping in Asian literature comes up for discussion. Many British Asian writers feel that publishers try to push them to write about post colonial stereotypes of their community – arranged marriages, conflict between traditional and modern values, the search for identity. Cultural stereotyping is a …
by David Parker In March 2013 I stood up as Executive Director of the Man Asian Literary Prize (MALP) to introduce the Prize-giving Ceremony at what had become our usual venue in the Peninsula, Hong Kong, one of Asia’s most famous and historic hotels. At that moment there was a lot to reflect on. The …
by Adrienne Loftus Parkins After a many years of living in India, Singapore and China, I feel in a way like I ‘grew up’ reading books by Asian authors. I read a lot of books with Asian themes; I’ve been doing this for as long as I can remember, first for fun, then as part …
by Adrienne Loftus Parkins This is shaping up to be a big year for Asian literature with new books from big name authors Rushdie, Ishiguro and Ghosh publishing new novels and volume of poetry coming from Vikram Seth. But what about the rest? Here are my top 3 picks for the year. Sandip Roy has already …
Indian writers score hat trick win for $50k prize The DSC Prize for South Asian Literature 2015 has been awarded to Jhumpa Lahiri for her novel, The Lowland at this year’s ZEE Jaipur Literature Festival. Jury chair Keki N. Daruwalla said, “The Lowland by Jhumpa Lahiri is a superb novel written in restrained prose with moments of …
Zafar Anjum A lot of my reading this year and the last has been around two totally unrelated themes—poet Muhammad Iqbal and start up ecosystems. I was reading books on these two themes as research for the two books that I had been working on. Among the few others that …