The Home of British Asian Writing
In June this year, the Authors’ Licensing and Collecting Society (ALCS)* published the initial findings of a new survey into UK author earnings. The study, commissioned by ALCS, and carried out by CREATe found that author earnings are in sharp decline. It’s main findings reveal that the median earnings of professional writers – that is …
A new mentoring scheme for Black, Asian, Minority Ethnic writers based in the Midlands is open for applications. The Middle Way Mentoring project is a two year professional development scheme, funded by Arts Council England, and led by editor of The Asian Writer, Farhana Shaikh. Writers will have an opportunity to develop their writing, receive …
Short stories are meant to be read as just that – a solitary, self-contained story. Something one can pick up without much commitment, a quick rendezvous in the backseat of a cab, a snack between meals. Which is why, when reading the selection of tales featured in The Best Asian Short Stories, it was a …
CG Menon’s debut collection Subjunctive Moods, is published by Dahlia Press and the predominant mood of it could be what the last story “Rock pools,” poetically describes as ‘our throbbing darkness and our gleeful knowledge of what we lack.’ The characters in this collection have been analysed with almost mathematical precision, to pinpoint and expose …
The short story has traditionally been an American love affair. Hemingway, Carver and Vonnegut are often cited among the ‘greatest’ of all time. Across the Atlantic, hundreds of new short stories are published each week through independent small presses, the New Yorker publishes one each issue, which is unpicked and put back together again during …
I remember when I first wanted to become a novelist aged eight I was aware of two things: the first was that there were no people like me writing ‘genre’ fiction and the second was that I didn’t care that’s exactly what I wanted to do. I wasn’t aware of just how big a task …
It’s been an interesting few years for British crime fiction. The market for crime novels has been growing steadily, and last year it became the most popular fiction genre in the UK with sales of almost nineteen million books. And yet, as recently as 2015, you’d be hard pressed to find one crime novel written …
Preti Taneja has won the eleventh annual Desmond Elliott Prize, the UK’s most prestigious award for first-time novelists, (20th June). Taneja takes home the £10,000 Prize for her “awe-inspiring” debut novel, We That Are Young, beating fellow shortlisted authors, Gail Honeyman (Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine) and Paula Cocozza (How to Be Human). A retelling of …
I first had the pleasure of reading Priya Sharma’s work when I was a judge for the British Fantasy Awards in 2016, where she won Best short story for her tale “Fabulous Beasts” and I’ve been hooked ever since. So it was with bated breath that I waited for my copy of her debut collection …
British Pakistani writer, Kamila Shamsie has won the 2018 Women’s Prize for Fiction for her seventh novel, Home Fire. (June 6, 2018) At an awards ceremony hosted in Bedford Square Gardens, central London – hosted by novelist and Women’s Prize Founder Director, Kate Mosse – the 2018 Chair of Judges, Sarah Sands presented the author …