In my debut novel The Trouble with Rose, Rilla Kumar ditches her fiancé Simon Langton at the altar to ask her Great Indian Family the very important question: what happened to her missing sister Rose. The story follows Rilla in her search for her sister, but is peppered liberally with her noisy, interfering family, her …
Mona Dash
When did you know you had a story in you that you wanted to share? Many years ago, when my baby boy became ill, and the word SCID entered my life, I thought, one day, I would write about it to increase awareness about this rare and fatal condition. I was however conscious that I …
Hanif Kureishi’s film My Beautiful Laundrette to be made into play
Curve, Belgrade Theatre Coventry, Everyman Theatre Cheltenham and Leeds Playhouse are joining forces to co-produce a new stage production of Hanif Kureishi’s screenplay My Beautiful Laundrette. This bold new production of Hanif Kureishi‘s ground-breaking 1985 Oscar-nominated film of the same name will be directed by Curve’s Artistic Director Nikolai Foster (Memoirs of an Asian Football Casual and Joe Orton’s What the Butler Saw, both at …
Asian writers shortlisted in Saboteur Awards
Talented Asian writers have been shortlisted in this year’s Saboteur Awards. Short story writer, Susmita Bhattacharya has been shortlisted in the ‘Best Short Story Collection’ for her debut, Table Manners while London-based collective, The Whole Kahani – which includes writers Mona Dash and CG Menon, have been shortlisted for ‘Best Anthology’ for their second collection, …
Why we set up a book club for South Asian women
South Asian Sisters Speak (SASS) was borne out of a frustration of the lack of safe spaces for South Asian women to share their experiences. Growing up in the UK, the mainstream feminist dialogue was often non-inclusive of the varying experiences of ethnic minorities. As a result, as co-founders we (Sheetal Mistry and Shirin Shah), …
Nikesh Shukla & Mahsuda Snaith
Earlier this year, Cultural eXchanges Festival welcomed authors Nikesh Shukla and Mahsuda Snaith for an in conversation event. Held in association with The Asian Writer, the evening took place at De Montfort University Leicester and explored Nikesh’s phenomenal rise, from early life as an amateur rapper to editor of best-selling collection of essays, The Good …
Student review: In Conversation with Nikesh Shukla
Last month highly acclaimed writer Nikesh Shukla addressed an audience at De Montfort University Leicester as part of their annual student-led Cultural Exchanges festival (27 February 2019). Held in association with The Asian Writer, the evening led by fellow writer Mahsuda Snaith (author of The Things We Thought We Knew) saw Nikesh discuss writing, rapping, …
It’s Not About the Burqa
It’s Not About the Burqa is presented as a collection of essays on ‘faith, feminism, sexuality and race’ and it is a lot more than that too. Mariam Khan has created a space for Muslim women to unapologetically share their first hand experiences of life under labels and misconceptions created by non-Muslims – and unfortunately …
Books to read in 2019
2019 seems to be the year we’ve all been waiting for. And dare I say, with its generous mix of books by emerging writers alongside established voices, might well be the golden year for fiction by Asian writers. We kick off the year with fiction, which seems unusual but Rajeev Balasubramanyam’s latest novel, Professor …
Copyright: the basics for writers
What is copyright? Copyright protects your creative work and prevents others from using it without your permission. Copyright protection applies to: Original literary, dramatic, musical and artistic work, including photography and illustration. Sound and music recordings Film and TV recordings Broadcasts The layout of published editions of written, dramatic and musical works. Copyright stops people …









