The Home of British Asian Writing
Mohammad Hanif’s third novel, Red Birds, opens on familiar ground; as we explore the wreckage of a smouldering plane, 10 years after General Zia met his end in one, Major Ellie emerges. A man on a mission (if only to avoid the monotony of housework), he finds himself in the very ‘enemy camp’ he had …
It’s that time of year when self-help books promising to help us get fit, get healthy, be happy dominate the bestseller lists and we’re bombarded by ‘New Year, New You’ slogans leaving us feeling short changed; pondering a life that might have been if only we’d been brave enough to take a leap. The truth …
This is a great collection filled with moments of real tenderness and surprise. A servant eavesdrops on her mistress’s unfolding affair with a cousin. A parrot speaks the words of a wife’s dead husband like he named her loss. A grandmother comes to terms with her granddaughter’s pregnancy. Bhattacharya’s characters span the globe, from Venice …
We’re book-ending our tenth birthday with an all-day festival on Saturday October 20th 2018 at The Wesley in London. The Asian Writer will once again bring together the contents of its website – interviews, masterclasses and features on literary trends – in a live format. The festival aims to support and encourage writers, by offering advice and inspiration …
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 …
I’ve wanted to write a novel since I was 16. Even though teachers and lecturers knew I could write well, none ever suggested writing as a possible career. Perhaps being Asian, from a single parent, working class background, they thought the possibility of me being a writer was a bit far fetched? There weren’t any …
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 …
Early on in my writing career I attempted to write a police procedural featuring a lead character that was British Asian. Scouring the shelves of bookshops, I thought I had discovered a gap in the market. What hadn’t occurred to me at the time was that the reason I saw no such characters on the …
It is universally acknowledged that it is important for children to see themselves reflected in the books they read. It is also important for children to read about other cultures, backgrounds, and communities. It promotes understanding, tolerance, acceptance and empathy. We all know this. Dr. Melanie Ramdarshan Bold’s study, reported by Alison Flood in the …
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 …