Jeet Thayil

  Q. Narcopolis is an intoxicating read but a very different depiction of India than we are used to. Whose India, or which India were you hoping to reveal to readers? I was interested in revealing an India I rarely get to see in fiction. The kind of India I usually see is a place …

Bidisha

The Asian Writer caught up with Bidisha to talk about her recent book, Beyond the Wall: Writing a path through Palestine

Asit Maitra

Q. What do you think your poetry says about you? I think my poetry says, broadly speaking, two things about me: a) on the wider canvas, I am an angry introvert who desires the world to be just and fair but not a crusader. b) On an individual human level my poems echo the cries …

Anita Sivakumaran

  Q. Firstly congratulations on winning the Grassroutes commission. How did you go about producing a winning brief for the commission. What inspired you to create fiction based on conversations with strangers? Thank you. Having recently moved to Leicester, I would chat to the locals about the city. It was while walking home after buying …

Farhad Sorabjee

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 …

Irfan Master

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, …