The Home of British Asian Writing
There are reported to be over 13,000 slaves in Britain, and over 40 million worldwide, so why are they missing from contemporary fiction? A few years ago, I came across an online article about modern day slavery, and I was shocked by what I discovered. The more I read about it, the more aggrieved I …
Q. Where did the inspiration for Home Fire, and to write a contemporary version of Sophocles Antigone, come from? The inspiration came entirely from Jatinder Verma who runs the Tara Arts theatre in London. He suggested that I might adapt Antigone in a contemporary context as a play. Once I started to think about it though, I realised …
Hijabi Monologues started life more than a decade ago when university friends Sahar Ullah, Dan Morrison and Zeenat Rahman were socialising following a concert they had organised. Morrison made a quip that he wouldn’t have otherwise chosen to be friends with women who wear a hijab. Ullah told him a story about going to a …
“I’m in the department till twelve. You can come by eleven.” When I had texted Dr Verma the previous night, I knew this was my only chance if I wanted to meet her. I had chosen a Thursday for my meeting. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, the social work department had fewer people than usual; students …
The long-list for the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature 2017 has been announced. The long-list of 13 novels was unveiled at the Oxford Bookstore in New Delhi and represents a diverse mix of established writers and debut novelists. This year the list includes seven Indian writers, three Pakistani writers, one Sri Lankan writers and …
Q. Where did the inspiration for The Stolen Child come from? A friend of a friend wanted to adopt a child. She’d heard of a woman who was being forced to give up her baby because the mother was a drug addict. I thought, what if that child was adopted and went to a lovely …
Vaseem Khan wrote his first novel at seventeen. As a bright young man on the cusp of adulthood he printed out his work, read through it and thought it was amazing. Publishers didn’t agree, and after receiving his first rejection letter, Khan decided to listen to his parents’ advice and went off to university to …
One of my stories had been selected for BareLit anthology, but that’s not the reason I packed a jam sandwich and caught a morning train to attend its festival last April. Only a month before, the government had announced that it was initiating an official EU withdrawal process. Like so many people I was feeling …
Once upon a time there was Woodstock and Glastonbury. For those literary minded there was the Hay Festival of Literature & Arts and the Edinburgh Book Festival. Now there isn’t a continent across the globe that doesn’t host a festival of one sort or another. Ranked third in the world by The Writers Academy is The Zee Jaipur …
The first Karachi Literature Festival held at Southbank (May 20) brought together Pakistan’s finest writers, old and new, and a passionate audience eager to discover new voices. When I first heard that KLF was coming to the Southbank Centre this year, I was filled with excitement. The programme included a mixture of familiar names, Mohammed …