Meet The Class of 2024
Two books, one contest win, and nineteen emerging literary voices from South Asia
Hello everyone, and welcome to the South Asia Speaks newsletter. In this issue, we’ll be introducing you to two stunning SAS debuts, sharing news of a Toto Funds the Arts Award win, and introducing you to the 2024 SAS cohort, which, we are delighted to say, is our most diverse yet.
Zeyad Masroor Khan’s (SAS 2021) wildly anticipated memoir, City on Fire: A Boyhood in Aligarh was published by HarperCollins India and launched to rave reviews late last year. It is available for purchase on Amazon and at bookstores near you. Zeyad’s devastating debut was described by The Hindu as a biography of a people grappling with everyday communalism. In his review, Saleem Rashid applauded Zeyad’s “lucid storytelling and immersive narrative style, [with which he] skilfully navigates the highs and lows of life in a place where communal tensions frequently escalate into devastating conflicts.” Zeyad’s mentor was journalist Isaac Chotiner.
When asked about his SAS mentorship experience, Zeyad told us,
“I found Isaac at one of the worst phases of my life. Apart from being the best writing mentor there could be, he quickly became a friend and therapist who made me believe in myself. I think the best thing a mentor can do is to restore your faith in yourself and your abilities, and that’s what Isaac did in-between his very busy schedule working at The New Yorker. Surprisingly for a man of his achievements, he had no airs, only empathy. In an age where giving offence is seen as a virtue, he was unusually sensitive. Isaac was the best mentor a struggling writer in Aligarh could have ever hoped for. I thank South Asia Speaks and Sonia for pairing me with this gem of a person.”
You can read an excerpt from City on Fire here.
Our first debut of 2024 is Shah Tazrian Ashrafi’s The Hippo Girl and Other Stories, which was published in February by Hachette India. Shah (SAS, 2023) was mentored by novelist Karan Mahajan.
In a review for Scroll, SAS 2021 alum Atharva Pandit said that each of the stories in The Hippo Girl could have been a novel. He writes: “these stories resonate beyond the pages because the people in them seem to have had a life beyond these pages. Irrespective of whether the people are based on real-life or made-up, you get a sense while reading Ashrafi’s collection that these people existed; that these people had flesh and blood and thoughts and, especially, a history of their own.”
Read an excerpt from The Hippo Girl here.
Here’s what Shah had to say about being an SAS Fellow:
“Having Karan as my mentor truly felt like someone was holding my hand, guiding me through every step of the way like a genuine well-wisher would. Working with him has enriched me in ways I could not imagine before; now I know some of the most effective ways of seeing and analysing matters related to the craft of fiction. His expertise as a novelist, as an academic practitioner of creative writing really shines through his gentle, compassionate, and invaluable feedback.”
Congratulations Zeyad and Shah, all of us at SAS are proud of you!
And on to some more good news. We’re delighted to share that Zainab Ummer Farook (SAS 2023) won the 20th Toto Funds the Arts Award for Creative Writing in English. The award consists of a cash prize of Rs 60,000. Kinshuk Gupta (SAS 2023) was also shortlisted for the award. Kinshuk and Zainab were SAS’s first cohort of poetry fellows with 2023’s newest mentor, Tishani Doshi.
The recent publications of our writers and their stories of an underrepresented version of South Asia warm our hearts as the fellowship matures and grows ever more representative.
This year we introduced a new fellowship category: Beyond Ability, for writers with disabilities who will be mentored by our new mentor Abhishek Anicca. Abhishek is the author of The Grammar of My Body, an insightful account of what it is like to live with disability.
We’re also joined by three additional new mentors: Novelist V.V. Ganeshananthan, Editor of Himal Southasian Roman Gautam, and translator Srinath Perur. Please join us in welcoming them.
With 15 mentors at the helm this year, South Asia Speaks welcomed a new class of 19 fellows. The projects this year range from personal histories to ecological narratives, forgotten accounts of failed rebellions to fantastical folklore. This is one of our most representative South Asia Speaks cohorts to date and we couldn’t be happier to introduce you to them.
Aotemsü Jamir is a writer from Nagaland, India. He is working with mentor Madhuri Vijay on a satirical novella set in Nagaland. His latest story, “Verminator”, contains rats, alcoholics and laughs you won’t see coming. Read it over at Out of Print.
Bharath recently published an evocative and compelling short story called “Thayamma” in the thirteenth issue of the Gulmohar Quarterly. Bharath is a writer, translator, and dancer from Tamil Nadu, India. He is working with mentor Mahesh Rao on a collection of short stories.
Parth MN reported on the devastating communal fallout of a doctored image shared on social media in a village in Maharashtra, for the People’s Archive of Rural India (PARI). Parth is an independent journalist from Maharashtra, India. He is working with mentor Mansi Choksi on a book about Maharashtra’s sugarcane industry.
Samiya Javed Akhtar is a development communications practitioner and writer in New Delhi, India. Samiya is working with mentor Abhishek Anicca on a book on disability, identity and society. Of her initial experience in the mentorship, she writes:
“The experience thus far has been incredibly grounding. Attending the orientation and meeting fellow writers, each exploring diverse topics, was enriching. But what truly stood out was my initial conversation with my mentor, Abhishek Anicca. Heading into it, I felt the weight of self-imposed pressure regarding what I believed my writing ‘should be’ - a sentiment quite common among writers, I believe. Conversing with Abhishek helped alleviate my anxieties. His advice to write authentically, embracing vulnerability, without fixating on conveying a specific ‘message,’ deeply resonated with me. This guidance has provided clarity and liberated me from the pursuit of perfectionism at this stage.”
“As someone who has predominantly written in isolation, and rarely delved into issues of mental illness, sharing experiences of how we've both used humour in our writing to discuss particularly challenging life situations is the closest I've come to 'being in community' with other writers who deal with similar anxieties and afflictions.
As I progress through my chapters, I'm striving to honour raw emotions and experiences more candidly, always from a place of disquiet, but with a newfound goal of paying it forward and fostering a sense of community for others who may feel the same isolation I once did.”
We’re sure you will, Samiya! And we agree, the rest of your cohort does have brilliant and diverse ideas. Here’s what they are up to:
Shradha Chettri is from a village in Kalimpong district, West Bengal, India. Shradha is working with mentor Roman Gautam on a book about the Gorkha identity movement.
Kopal Agarwal is a writer from Lucknow, India. Kopal is working with mentor Mira Kamdar on a series of creative nonfiction essays set in an old mohalla of Lucknow.
Somaiyah Hafeez is a freelance journalist and writer from Balochistan, Pakistan. Somaiyah is working with mentor Sanam Maher on a collection of profiles of Baloch women who are campaigning for the release of their loved ones from prison.
Iswarya V. is a translator and critic in Bengaluru, India. Her debut translation of a Tamil short story was shortlisted for the Mozhi Prize 2022–yes, the same one started by alums Suchitra Ramachandran (SAS, 2022) and Priyamvada Ramkumar (SAS, 2021). Iswarya is working with mentor Arunava Sinha on translating a short story collection by B. Jeyamohan from Tamil to English.
Dinesh Kafle is a journalist and academic from Nepal. He leads the opinion department at The Kathmandu Post, teaches media studies at Kathmandu University, and is a former Sangam House fellow. Dinesh is working with mentor Srinath Perur on a translation of Nayan Raj Pandey’s fiction from Nepali to English.
Khansa Kubra is a poet from Kashmir. Born in district Pulwama, her work explores living and growing up amidst conflict. She is working with mentor Tishani Doshi on a poetry collection.
Sirus J Libeiro is a researcher and translator in Mumbai, India. He is interested in articulations of urban experiences, science fiction, and the uncanny in non-English languages. Sirus is working with mentor Arunava Sinha on a collection of short stories by Bandhu Madhav – one of the earliest contributors to Dalit literature in Marathi.
Aishwarya O is a disabled writer, activist, and tactile artist from Bengaluru, India. She writes about her experiences of being a woman with a disability in India, and aims to portray disability as it really is, rather than what it looks like when seen through nondisabled eyes. Aishwarya is working with mentor Abhishek Anicca on a poetry collection.
Radhika Raj is a senior writer and editor at Roundglass Sustain, where she writes about India’s biodiversity and environment. She is working with mentor Aanchal Malhotra on a book about the lost wildernesses of Punjab.
Adil Rashid is an independent journalist who was born and raised in Srinagar, Kashmir. He is working with mentor Rahul Bhatia on a collection of profiles of everyday Kashmiris.
Shripad Sinnakaar is a poet and researcher from Mumbai, India. Shripad is working with mentor Tishani Doshi on a poetry collection.
Prachi Sibal is a journalist in Mumbai, India, where she writes on culture and the performing arts. Prachi is working with mentor Taran Khan on a nonfiction book about type design in Indian languages and type collectives in the country.
Eshna Sharma has an undergraduate degree in English and Creative Writing and is currently working as a creative producer in Mumbai, India. Eshna is working with mentor Prayaag Akbar on a short story collection that explores girlhood, memory, delusion, and culture.
Srividhya Venkatesan is a content writer and translator from Chennai, India. Srividhya is working with mentor Arunava Sinha on translating a collection of short stories by La. Sa. Ramamirtham.
Jigme Wangchuk is a Tibetan writer living in New Delhi, India. Jigme is working on a collection of short stories about the Tibetan diaspora with mentor Deepa Anappara.
That’s all for now. You can connect with us on Twitter, Instagram, Linkedin and Threads to see more of what our fellows are up to.
Until next time, keep reading and writing!
Swati Singh
for
South Asia Speaks