Raising the profile of South Asian writers since 2007
Congratulations on the publication of your debut novel, Northern Boy. Tell me more about where the journey began for this story? What inspired you to tell it? Northern Boy has, literally, been years in the making. I first had the idea for it a decade ago, when I began jotting down various incidents from my childhood. I’d …
Q. Let’s start with your Discoveries win. Tell me more about your writing journey up until that point and what shifted for you when you found out you’d won? It’s been a long old journey and when I reflect on the twists and turns it has taken, I am both humbled and hugely grateful to …
Set in 1887, the year of Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee, Tanika Gupta’s The Empress tells the story of the sixteen-year-old Rani Das, ayah (nursemaid) to an English family, who arrives at Tilbury docks after a long voyage from India, to start a new life in Britain. On the boat, Rani befriends a lascar (sailor), an …
Norman Erikson Pasaribu can light up a room. I remember first meeting him in my hometown of Leicesster where he was – at the time – on tour with the British Council, having been touted as a young Indonesian writer to watch. I was sad not to be able to attend the session he delivered …
Asma Khan’s latest cookery book, Ammu is a delightful collection of childhood recipes that celebrates the power of home cooking and the inextricable link between food and love. Published by Ebury, the book features more than 100 recipes alongside a wonderful memoir which captures Khan’s childhood and the woman who taught her how to cook, …
The characters in your short story collection Mrs Pinto Drives to Happiness come from widely ranging backgrounds and ethnicities. Was it difficult to make this leap of imagination or do you engage in research? The characters in Mrs Pinto Drives to Happiness reflect the world we live in- in all its fractured yet glorious technicolour …
Why did you enter the Creative Future Writers’ Awards? I have been on a strange journey with writing and life up until this moment… After ten years of working on a novel, I decided I needed to start sending my work out… I didn’t know any writer people, and wasn’t part of a writer group, …
Every year we host students from the University of Leicester for a 10-week placement. The scheme run by the university provides students with an opportunity to gain work experience in a small press to enhance their learning. Students often work remotely and are supported by editor Farhana Shaikh to pursue a personal project – something …
Tell us about your novel, Beautiful Place and what inspired you to write it? Beautiful Place is set in a villa by a remote beach on the southern coast of Sri Lanka, and follows the lives of its owners, their friends and the guests who arrive to stay as the villa opens as a guesthouse. …
When did you have the initial idea for Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line? When I was working as a reporter in India, I came across stories of real-life disappearances of children; that was the initial spark for the novel. I was writing on education and human rights, as part of which I often interviewed …