DSC SALF Programme 2010 by Pascal Barry

Principal Sponsor

London UK-wide

15–25 October 2010 26–31 October 2010

Produced by Amphora Arts

Official Souvenir Programme

PROGRAMME CONTENTS

Hello! And welcome to the UK’s first DSC South Asian Literature Festival. We’re very proud to present this unique festival, which has grown from what was just an idea in spring 2009 to a major festival with over 40 events, 70 speakers and 20 different locations. The result is what you hold in your hands today. This souvenir programme represents partnerships we have established with over 40 organisations. It also includes authors and artists drawn from a broad range of disciplines, heritage and locations. And among the venues themselves we’ve discovered (and hope you will too) the value of spaces not always known to the reading public – our libraries. At this festival we want you to be curious. Take a look at our “new arrivals” strand for books being launched this October. Families and children can come to both weekends and enjoy storytelling and crafts. Not least, our central stand of “themed discussions” is a carefully crafted blend of well-known and emerging voices brought together in new ways on stage. And the art of telling stories is in the performance of them, as can be found among our music and spoken word events. In other words, come and see stories brought to life!

Bhavit Mehta Festival Director

Jon Slack Festival Director

A Word from our Patrons / Friends of the Festival1

Sponsors, Partners, Supporters

FEATURE: Stories to Life

FEATURE: Twin Dynasties

FEATURE: Found Music

FEATURE: Power of the Pen?

FEATURE: Chetan Bhagat

FEATURE: Free the Word

FEATURE: Taste of South Asia

Main London Event Listings

Children’s Events

FEATURE: Storytelling Works

FEATURE: Tell It Like It Is

Creative Writing Workshops

Library Events

FEATURE: Reimagining Libraries

The Festival hits the Road

Top 50 South Asian Must-Reads 42 Top 20 South Asian Children’s Books

Speaker Index

The DSC Prize for South Asian Literature

The Festival Team / Thank You 61 facebook.com/southasianlitfest @sthasianlitfest www.dscsouthasianlitfest.com

South Asian Literature Survey

Festival Friends Scheme

A Word from our Patrons I am delighted to welcome you to the DSC South Asian Literature Festival. DSC is an infrastructure company that has diversified globally into hospitality, trading, real estate and retailing. DSC is also committed to creating infra-wealth within society through literature. The idea of a literature festival began when a writer friend mentioned that they were having difficulty finding sponsors for an esoteric group of writers who were coming together to discuss literature. I intervened and suggested I would help if I was allowed at this gathering because some of my favourite authors were coming, and suggested this should be an interface between writers and readers like me. This is how we started funding the DSC Jaipur Literature Festival, and have continued our support for the last five years. Today it is the largest literary event of its kind in the region. From the Festival the DSC prize was a natural progression and the idea of my son Manhad Narula. With a prize tag of USD 50,000, the prize is unique since it is not linked to any authorsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; ethnicity or background and is open to writers from any part of the globe, as long as the work is connected to South Asia. Bhavit and Jon met me almost a year ago. They were already looking to produce a South Asian literature festival in the UK but so far they had not found a sponsor. I was very impressed with what they were planning and their confidence that they would be able to do it. What makes this festival unique is that they will take it to the people with their outreach programme, with events at a range of public libraries in Outer London. A rich literary fare is in store and I hope you enjoy the next few days as much as I am going to!

Surina Narula

Friends of the Festival We are grateful to the following Founding Friends, who have each offered the vital support needed to help secure the Festivalâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s long-term future. To find out more on how to become a Friend of the Festival, see page 64.

FOUNDING FRIENDS Vivienne Wordley Bill Samuel Rakesh Bhanot Naresh Nagrecha

Elka Bhatt Milen & Beejal Shah Teja Picton Howell

Sponsors

Supported by

Media Partners

Festival Partners The Asian Writer

Storytelling . Theatre

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Penned in the Margins

For millennia, human imagination has reached to the heavens and the stars, dived to the depths of oceans, trudged through steamy tropical jungles and across deserts, trekked across Himalayan peaks and glaciers, and told tales of the here and now, of the foul and the fair, of the beyond and what was, of what is to be and what may or may not be. All in search of a good story that will entrance and horrify, stun and anger, sadden and gladden, fill with love and hatred â&#x20AC;&#x201C; the great conflicting emotions that touch our lives. The art of storytelling, the desire to express thoughts and share ideas with others, is an ancient tradition. This tradition has evolved from prehistoric manâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s urge to draw pictures on cave walls, capturing the lives of primitive hunters and gatherers. Storytelling has a rich and colourful history, from Quyior (the ancient performing art of China) and Katha (an Indian style of religious storytelling that thunders through the scriptures), to the lives of the Harrapans and

Mohenjo-daro, the Buddha and the Prophet Mohammed. All these extraordinary stories have been passed down the generations. And continue to be reinterpreted in imaginative ways, by voices old and new. Today, the magical realism of Tolkien jostles for attention alongside graphic novels, Gabriel Marquez and Rushdie as well as the explosive journeys of a Terry Pratchett story. Yet an assured place for the classics remains, for Munshi Premchand, Mirza Ghalib, for Bankim and Tagore, and for Shakespeare, Voltaire and Goethe. Their epic stories continue to remain eternal, proving common bonds across cultures and throughout history. Storytelling has swiftly moved from the spectacle of declamations at village and town squares to new idioms. Cinema, theatre and television have transformed the medium. And now, within a thriving landscape of literature in the UK, festival audiences are able to experience the journey offered by both.

Today, Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni writes about the Mahabharat from Draupadi’s point of view, while Omkara defines the life of Othello

This is the tradition of sharing tales from father to son, from friend to friend and generation to generation, that seeks out the inspired, the colourful and the dramatic across and beyond the subcontinent, and reimagined - a new platform for literature brought to stage through debates, performance, music, food, art and cinema.

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The most demonstrative example of this shift in storytelling from town crier to TV and cinema is the Mahabharata. Once the preserve of priests and village storytellers, who held audiences captive with what was their only entertainment, it was restyled and revisited by the film-maker BR Chopra, who shut down India every Sunday with his serial on the government channel, Doordarshan, with families rushing through their chores to catch the 9am programme with the Pandavas, Kauravas and Krishna.

and Peter Brooks plays the Mahabharata to Broadway audiences. In our mission to bring “stories to life” we will combine the ancient arts of storytelling - performance, music and the spoken word - and add a modern twist, where the old meets the new; traditions blending with modernity of author discussions, book signings, tours and blogging. The internet has given storytelling a new voice that can complement and even support traditional methods.

The DSC South Asian Literature Festival will seek out these stories, passed down through the generations and played out on television screens or enacted through film or music, and bring them to life. One such event is “When Books Meet Cinema”, which explores the idea that films are an important way for readers to discover new literature, and the new stories contained within them.

v An Evening with Nayantara Sahgal and Fatima Bhutto Two dynasties come together on stage at the DSC South Asian Literature Festival, in what promises to be a remarkable and unique evening in discussion with prominent figures from India and Pakistan, Nayantara Sahgal and Fatima Bhutto. Nayantara, a descendant of the Nehru family, was born in 1927 into an established political family. With Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru – India’s first Prime Minister – as her uncle, Indira Gandhi as her first cousin and her mother being the country’s first ambassador to the UN it is not surprising that most of Nayantara’s writings are inspired by history and politics. Nayantara’s fiction deals with India’s elite responding to the crises engendered by political change and her novels are often set against the backdrop of pivotal events in Indian history. She was one of the first female Indo-Anglican writers to receive wide recognition. Fatima Bhutto is the granddaughter of former Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, the niece of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto and

the daughter of Murtaza Bhutto. A Pakistani poet and writer, Fatima came to fame after the appearance of her first book, a collection of poems titled Whispers of the Desert. Fatima Bhutto’s latest book, Songs of Blood and the Sword, tells the family story of rich feudal landlords – the proud descendants of a warrior caste – who became powerbrokers when Pakistan was liberated from colonial British forces in the aftermath of the Second World War. Fatima is active in Pakistan’s socio-political arena and currently writes columns for The Daily Beast, New Statesman and other publications. The evening will take the audience on a journey of vivid impressions through the personal images and stories of both speakers, and shed light on the experience of growing up in such powerful and turbulent families.

At Kings Place • 21 October See listings on page 21 for more information

Amit Chaudhuri and band take to the stage Amit Chaudhuri is a best-selling and award winning novelist. He is also a poet, non-fiction writer, lecturer and critic. Over the past two decades Amit has also pursued the path of a traditional Hindustani singer, performing worldwide and releasing three albums on the HMV label. Even since January 2005, he has given live recitals of his distinctive mix of raga, jazz, rock and blues under the thoughtprovoking rubric ‘This Is Not Fusion’. The second album in his ‘This Is Not Fusion’ series is Found Music. According to Amit, it takes its name from the non-musical art-world practice of placing existing objects into new contexts or arrangements, imbuing them with fresh meaning. His idea taps into the nonmusical art world of Marcel Duchamp and his celebrated ‘readymades’; already existing objects given fresh life courtesy of their incorporation into a new and original work of art.

The recording’s opening song, ‘On Broadway’ (post-colonial version) re-imagines the American standard as a raga sung by a homesick immigrant Indian cook while ‘Country Hustle’ uses the ‘Hi Ho Silver’ chorus to conjure up Chaudhuri’s childhood love of The Lone Ranger. ‘Messages from the Underground (Break on Through)’ not only plays with the familiar warning to Tube passengers, ‘Mind the gap’, but also, via The Doors’ ‘Break on Through (To the Other Side)’, explores the notions of mental freedom encapsulated by the band’s name. The power of such carefully arranged collisions is tellingly illustrated by the involuntary laugh of delighted surprise from audience members who suddenly recognise pieces of ‘found music’. David Mossman, founder of the Vortex, says Chaudhuri’s project is “one of the most important I’ve heard in the last twenty years” and N. Radhakrishnan, editor of Rolling Stone (India), calls him “one of the most talented musicians in India today”. Where to see Amit The album Found Music will be launched at the DSC South Asian Literature Festival along with an exclusive showcase gig by the Amit Chaudhuri Band on Saturday 16th October, Rich Mix

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See listings on page 16 for more information.

In the valleys between the Himalayas and the Pir Panjal lies the ravaged region of Kashmir. Torn apart by territorial disputes, war and all its associated violence for the last 60 years, Kashmir is remembered by many as Edenic. This paradise lost is recounted passionately by Salman Rushdie in his 2003 novel Shalimar the Clown, as he documents how the luscious valleys disintegrated under ruthless and perpetual violence. In a torturous climax in the novel, Rushdie writes: “Who lit that fire? Who burned that orchard? Who shot those brothers who laughed their whole lives long? Who killed the sarpanch? Who broke his hands? Who broke his arms? Who broke his ancient neck? Who shackled those men? Who made those men disappear? Who shot those boys? Who shot those girls? Who smashed that house? Who smashed that house? Who smashed that house? ...

Who killed the children? Who whipped the parents? Who raped that lazy-eyed woman? Who raped that grey-haired lazyeyed women as she screamed about snake vengeance? Who raped that woman again? Who raped that woman again? Who raped that dead woman? Who raped that dead woman again?” Political administrators have stood accused of casting a blind – or indifferent – eye to the suffering that continues to plague this troubled region. It is writers and artists who offer a window on the lives of the people of Kashmir to the rest of the world. But these writers also provide hope, and the promise that there are forces that wish to see an end to the conflict. At Rich Mix • 15 October See listings on page 16 for more information

India’s “Paperback King” With a book of his sold every 20 seconds in India and having being named one of the 100 most influential people in the world this year by Time Magazine, Chetan Bhagat chose well when he decided on a change in career from investment banking to writing. His first book, Five Point Someone – What not to do at IIT, won him a major fan base and marked a turning point in Indian literature. His language and stories saw many similarities of lifestyle and experiences with the Indian middle class youth and crowned him India’s “Paperback King”.

Chetan will be speaking at the Festival on 24 October and meeting with various audiences, including aspiring young Brit-Asian actors and teenagers, as part of his visit.

Where to see Chetan • When Books meet Cinema – 24 October, 7pm, £8 (incl. drinks), QForum London • Chetan in conversation with fans,– 27 October, time and date TBC See listings on page 23 for more information

Although criticised for his lack of literary finesse, critics could not deny that Bhagat was a man of the masses, loved for his simple writing style and vivid storytelling ability, with his huge popularity and recordbreaking sales figure saying it all. After Five Point Someone came One Night @ a Call Centre, The 3 Mistakes of My Life and his latest novel 2 States: The Story of My Marriage that was published in 2009.

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Bhagat made the transition from writer to scriptwriter with his book One Night @ a Call Centre, which was adapted for cinema in 2008 and released under the title Hello. Even though this film did only moderately well in the Indian box office, his first book Five Point Someone adapted to cinema under the title 3 Idiots, became the highest grossing Bollywood film of all time.

By Robert Sharp As part of an international writers’ association, English PEN is delighted to support the DSC South Asian Literature Festival. The International PEN charter, written by our first President, the Nobel Laureate John Galsworthy, begins with the words “Literature knows no frontiers, and must remain in common currency among people in spite of political or international upheavals.” The UK already has strong political, economic and cultural links with the countries of South Asia, many of them members of the Commonwealth, but ethnic and religious tensions threaten these relationships. Strengthening the ‘common currency’ of literature is as essential now as it ever was. The Festival events planned at the Free Word Centre on 19 October, in partnership with Index on Censorship, each speak to the challenges of ‘political upheaval’, and how literature very often becomes the first casualty of political expediency. These events deal with the most extreme

forms of censorship – murder, and the threat of violence. Encounters with such destruction and hate usually yield the darkest of stories, but it is surprising how often such conflicts can also give us examples of hope and human tenacity. PEN’s core programmes all work with writers who find themselves in such extreme circumstances, campaigning on behalf of threatened and persecuted writers all around the world, raising money, offering support, and demanding their release. Meanwhile, our Readers & Writers Programme gives a voice to refugees who have fled war and violence. And our Writers in Translation Programme ensures that the stories told by those who have experienced conflict and exile are brought to Anglophone readers. We look forward to exploring all these themes on 19 October, and we hope you will join us. Robert Sharp is the Campaigns Manager for English PEN

At the Free Word Centre • 19 October

• Breaking the Language Barrier – 1pm / Free • Words without Borders – 4pm / £5 • From Fatwah to Jihad – 6pm / £5 • In the Dark: The Last Time I Saw Richard – 8pm / £5 £10 for all events on Tuesday See listings on pages 18–19 for more information

A day out in Shoreditch

After its first appearance at WOMAD, Madras Café has passed along approximately £130,000 to its parent body, Action Village India (www.actionvillageindia. org), which works towards righting economic and social injustices in India through the Gandhian Philosophy of non-violent change. While many have complimented their food, Madras Café now works to spread the word on development issues

Join us for a day out in Shoreditch and experience a taste of South Asia.

At Rich Mix Bar • 17 October • Journey to South Asia – 1pm / £5. • India and Pakistan – 3.30pm / £5 • The Complete Works – 6.30pm / £5 £10 for all events on Sunday See listings on pages 16–17 for more information

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Its regular customers over the past 16 years, especially those from the WOMAD Music Festival, have begun to distinguish between the vast varieties of Indian food served at the tent almost as quickly as they can be cooked. The variety on offer is of course a direct result of having quality volunteer cooks from the North and deep South of India, but more so because of the enormous range of menus readily available throughout the subcontinent.

through ways that are as interesting and digestible as the meals they serve. Visitors to the tent at Womad are treated to a colourful and informative multi-media display of the café’s work with partner NGOs in rural India.

On 17 October embark with us on a journey through South Asia, where the music will charm, the stories enchant, and the food evoke a sense of discovery and home. Come to the Rich Mix and enjoy the many riches of South Asia with our series of events throughout the day that will be infused with food provided by the Madras Café. Spurred by the quest for the perfect idli, as much as by interest generated by an appearance at WOMAD in 1993, Madras Café is all about food with a conscience. And by the mantra “All Indian food is not curry”.

15/16/17 October

Opening Night

Amit Chaudhuri presents “Found Music” Am i t C h a u d h u r i b a n d

Power of the Pen

Amit Chaudhuri showcases his unique mix of raga, jazz, rock, blues, techno and disco: "one of the most original and exciting sounds in contemporary music today", say critics. The Amit Chaudhuri Band will be playing improvised material as well as reworking classics from This Is Not Fusion and the new album, Found Music. 16 October, 8pm • £8/£10 door • Rich Mix

A Resolution for Kashmir?

For 60 years, the Kashmir conflict has dominated what is one of the world’s most militarised regions. Yet this beautiful part of South Asia has a proud literary heritage dating back further than any other on the subcontinent. Our panelists will discuss the role of literature in the conflict and ask whether the written word can help steer the troubled relationship between Pakistan and India towards a resolution. 15 October, 6.30pm • £7/£10 door • Rich Mix

New Arrival VAANI Book Launch The Vaani anthology features upcoming Asian women writers and poets, with Pakistanborn Orange Prize-nominated novelist Roopa Farooki, Sweta Srivastava Vikram and Hema Macherla debating their interpretation of ‘The Asian Experience’, with Smita Singh Vaani founder – moderating. The event includes live music by up-and-coming singer Rita Morar, an art exhibition and delicious Asian food.

Lord Meghnad Desai, J u s t i n e H a r dy, V i c t o r i a S c h o f i e l d Moderated by r i t u l a s h a h

Journey to South Asia

Lands, Language and Imagination Geoff Dyer , Hardeep Singh Kohli Moderated by G e o r g e Al a g i a h

The South Asian subcontinent, home to some of the world’s most dramatic and stunning landscapes, is a travel writer’s paradise. What is it about the people and places of these countries that fire the literary imagination? Our illustrious panel will share their experiences through words and imagery, transporting you to a land that continues to fascinate and intrigue. 17 October, 1pm • £5 each or £10 for all of Sunday • Rich Mix Bar

16 October, 7pm • FREE • Gloucester Room, Ilford Central Library See pages 34–35 for information on other library events around London

Event Key

Libraries

New Arrivals

Themed Discussion

Performance

Education

17/18 October

The Complete Works

Storytelling on the Round N i k e s h S h u kl a , N i v e n G o v i n d e n , Anjali Joseph, Sabrina Mahfouz, I r fa n M a s t e r

in association with granta magazine Fa r r u k h D h o n dy, H M N a qv i , M o h a mm e d H a n i f Moderated by J o h n F r e e m a n

Today’s Pakistan is home to a diverse population, with almost 200 million people speaking nearly 60 languages between them. Out of this, a new generation of authors writing in English has emerged. Comparisons are being drawn with a similar “corona burst” of literary talent writing in English that surfaced in India during the 1990s. What makes this one stand out? To commemorate the new Pakistan Granta issue, its editor John Freeman will attempt to answer this, in what promises to be a lively and engaging debate. He will be joined by writers from Pakistan and India, including up-and-coming novelist HM Naqvi, writer Farrukh Dhondy and Mohammed Hanif, winner of the 2009 Commonwealth Writers Prize for Best First Book. 17 October, 3.30pm • £5 each or £10 for all of Sunday • Rich Mix Bar

New Arrival “Coconut Unlimited” Nikesh Shukla showcases his debut novel, Coconut Unlimited, which follows the adventures of three hapless, hip-hop obsessed Asian boys in an all-white private school who form a band called ‘Coconut Unlimited’. 17 October, 6pm • FREE •Rich Mix

17 October, 6.30pm • £5 each or £10 for all of Sunday • Rich Mix Bar

Tell It Like It Is

The Value of Storytelling in Developing Literacy V a y u N a i d u , J a n e t t a O t t e r - B a r r y, G i t a W o l f, p e t e r c h a n d

This event, ideal for teachers, early-years workers and school librarians, explores the value of storytelling in developing children’s literacy, through a workshop and panel discussion by storyteller Vayu Naidu, author and publisher Gita Wolf, publisher Janetta Otter-Barry and storyteller Peter Chand. Come and experience the wonders of storytelling and discuss its importance in fostering a love of literature. 18 October, 5pm • FREE • Free Word Centre See page 28 for more information

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Literary Worlds Apart?

India and Pakistan

The Complete Works promises an entertaining evening combining music with the written word. Curated by Nikesh Shukla and featuring some of the most exciting contemporary British-based Asian writers, this event will challenge your expectations of a literary night out, mixing shortstory readings with music that inspired them.

18/19 October

Breaking the Language Barrier

Literature Festivals in Translation In Association with English PEN V i v i e n n e W o r d l e y, S u r i n a N a r u l a , N a m i t a G o k h a l e , S u s i e N i c kl i n Moderated by D a n i e l H a h n

Journey to South India A Window on the Last Classical Civilisation M i c h a e l W o o d , N i kk i B e d i

Join historian and BBC presenter Michael Wood as he takes the audience on an exotic journey to what he calls “the last classical civilisation to survive into the modern world”. In his lecture, Wood will show how the tropical landscape and geography have shaped the material culture and way of life in South India. Looking in particular at the region’s literature, sculpture, art and architecture, this lavishly illustrated presentation is a window onto one of South Asia’s (and the world’s) great cultural traditions. Wood’s published works include The Smile of Murugan: A South Indian Journey (Penguin) and The Story of India (BBC Books). With an introduction by Nikki Bedi. 18 October, 6.30pm • £7.50/£5 conc • British Library

Literature festivals are now an integral part of our cultural fabric and festival brands are becoming increasingly international, welcoming writers from around the world and providing a vital platform for new voices to be heard. Yet English-language authors still seem to dominate the line-up. Can festivals help to break down the dominance of English and enable literature in other languages to travel? Or do they simply support the wider promotion of those writers who speak the world’s lingua franca? Join Namita Gokhale, Founder and Co-Director of the DSC Jaipur Literature Festival, Susie Nicklin, Director of Literature at the British Council, Daniel Hahn, translator and author, Vivienne Wordley, Programme Director of the Emirates Airline Festival of Literature, and Surina Narula, who spearheads the philanthropic work of the DSC group, as they debate these questions and discuss the globalisation of world literature. 19 October, 1pm • FREE • Free Word Centre

19 October Words Without Borders

Literature In A Time of Conflict in association with index on censorship / english pen M o h a mm e d H a n i f, R a j i va W i j e s i n h a Moderated by Il y a s K h a n

In this special event, which will include a keynote address by eminent writer and Sri Lankan MP Rajiva Wijesinha, acclaimed Pakistani writer Mohammed Hanif will join with Ilyas Khan to discuss how conflict in South Asia has affected a generation of writers.

From Fatwa to Jihad

The Culture of Offence in Britain in association with index on censorship / english pen Kenan Malik, Shiv Malik Moderated by R o h a n J a y a s e k e r a

This event examines how the rise of terrorism in the last 20 years has created fear leading to an era of curtailment of the freedom of expression in the UK. Writer and broadcaster Kenan Malik (whose book From Fatwa to Jihad examines the Salman Rushdie case) and journalist Shiv Malik explore multiculturalism, terror, free speech and the “culture of offence” in modern Britain. 19 October, 6pm • £5 each or £10 for all of Tuesday • Free Word Centre

W i ll i R i c h a r d s , R a j i v a W i j e s i n h a

The Last Time I Saw Richard is a radio documentary drama commissioned by BBC Radio 4, written and produced by Roger Elsgood and Willi Richards. It focuses on the life and murder of the Sri Lankan journalist, actor and political activist Richard de Zoysa in February 1990 by a Sri Lankan Government death squad. Based on testimony by people who knew and worked with Richard, the production was recorded entirely on location in Sri Lanka with a Sri Lankan cast. This moving audio documentary, presented in total darkness, will be followed by a discussion with the director Willi Richards and eminent Sri Lankan MP Rajiva Wijesinha, whose book The Limits of Love inspired the production 19 October, 8pm • £5 each or £10 for all of Tuesday • Free Word Centre

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19 October, 4pm • £5 each or £10 for all of Tuesday • Free Word Centre

In the Dark: The Last Time I Saw Richard

Join us afterwards to hear Rajiva Wijesinha read from Bridging Connections: An Anthology of Sri Lankan Short Stories.

20 October

Bhakti and the Blues V a y u N a i d u , Cl e v e l a n d W a t k i s s

Storyteller Vayu Naidu and renowned Jazz/Blues singer Cleveland Watkiss will take the audience to unexpected places, on an epic voyage to find love in all its forms, including Bhakti - the desire to belong eternally. In a journey which combines storytelling, music improvisation and visual display, the audience is taken through a cycle describing the manifestation of spiritual love in the world, its retreat into hiding and the processes which form part of a cycle of reconnection featuring Union, Separation, Anger, Despair, Longing and Doubt.

Cricket, Commonwealth and Country Rom e s h G u n e s e k e r a , B o r i a M a j u m da r Moderated by M i h i r B o s e

This timely event will examine the relationship between the people of South Asia and two huge sporting occasions which have been brought to bear by former English rulers and how that relationship plays out today. The event, with author Romesh Gunesekera, academic Boria Majumdar and sports writer Mihir Bose, will aim to be light-hearted in tone and feature archived images, and focus on how writing has affected the interpretation of cricket and the Commonwealth Games, both here and on the subcontinent. 20 October, 7pm • £9.50 • Kings Place Hall 1

New Arrival “Sellotape Legacy: Delhi and the Commonwealth Games” Launching Boria Majumdar’s new publication: a first-time study of the the Games from its inception through to the present day, and how it bodes for the legacy of India’s capital. Part of the Cricket, Commonwealth and Country event

20 October, 9pm • £9.50 • Kings Place Hall 2

In Association with Asian Literary Review Fat i m a B h u t t o, N aya n ta r a S a h g a l M o d e r a t e d b y M aya J a g g i

21 October, 7pm • £9.50 • Kings Place Hall 1

Kalagora in association with Penned in the Margins Siddhartha Bose

Kalagora is a Hindi neologism meaning black man / white man. This show tells his story: from a wild Millennium eve party in Manhattan to homecoming amid the grime and glory of London’s East End. The global wanderer plays witness to traffic accidents and street surrealism in Mumbai, the irresistible “city of motion”, observing the uncanny and the unexpected at the start of the twentyfirst century. Blending poetry, monologue and theatre, and accompanied by specially commissioned video and music, Kalagora showcases the talent of poet-performer Siddhartha Bose. Incorporating influences from free jazz to Indian epic and Shakespeare, this powerful new piece of live literature testifies to the “scintillating shock of the new in a globalised world”. 21 October, 8pm • £8/£6 conc • Rich Mix Theatre

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Two dynasties come together on stage in what promises to be a remarkable and unique evening in discussion with two prominent descendants from India and Pakistan, Nayantara Sahgal and Fatima Bhutto. In India, Nayantara descends from the Nehru family, arguably the world’s oldest democratic dynasty. In Pakistan, Fatima Bhutto is the granddaughter of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, Prime Minister from 1971 until his execution in 1977, while his daughter Benazir (Fatima’s aunt) was elected for two stints as prime minister during the 1990s, the first woman from a Muslim state to head a government, before she was assassinated in 2007. The evening, which will draw on person and archived imagery, will see both speakers talking about their personal experiences of growing up in such powerful and turbulent dynasties. Moderated by Maya Jaggi.

21 October

Twin Dynasties

22/23 October

A Visual Renaissance

The Rise of Graphic Novels in South Asia in association with The Drawbridge Pa u l G r av e t t, W o o d r o w p h o e n i x , k r i pa j o s h i , m u s ta s h r i k

Mushaira

Gathering of Poets S at y e n d r a S r i va s tava , N i r a n j a n a D e s a i , Am a r j i t C h a n d a n , H i l a l Fa r e e d

Mushaira is a poetry symposium conducted in a centuries-old tradition of the Indian subcontinent. Some of the UK’s leading poets will recite poetry in Hindi, Gujarati, Punjabi and Urdu, with translations in English. Featuring Satyendra Srivastava, Niranjana Desai, Amarjit Chandan and Hilal Fareed. 22 October, 6.30pm • FREE • The Nehru Centre

This event looks at the exciting range of literary graphic novels and high-flying comics from the subcontinent that are revisiting myth, history and addressing contemporary and social issues. Comic guru Paul Gravett, graphic novelists Woodrow Phoenix and Kripa Joshi, alongside live artist and animator Mustashrik, discuss the current rise in this genre of literature in the region. 23 October, 7pm • £8 (inc. drinks) • QForum

New Arrival “The To-Let House” Set in the troubled region of Shillong, in northeast India, Daisy Hasan’s The To-Let House narrates Di, Addy, Kulay and Clemmie’s tormented passage into adolescence and identity where the children’s inner world mirrors the outer. 23 October, 8.30pm • FREE •QForum

24/25/26 October

DSC Prize for South Asian Literature 2010 Shortlist Gala Dinner

Bringing Literature to Life on the Big Screen

in association with tongues on fire K i s h w a r D e s a i , Shar m is th a Goop tu, F a r r u k h D h o n d y, C h e t a n B h a g at

This event will look at the way in which popular South Asian cinema recasts a range of literature genres, from epics and classical drama, to colonial and contemporary novels. Writer and Asian Film Festival Director Lady Kishwar Desai, academic Sharmistha Gooptu, Bollywood screenplay writer Farrukh Dhondy and India’s biggest paperback author Chetan Bhagat, examine the ways in which films offer different interpretations, shift plots and characters, and ultimately change the way people discover new literature. 24 October, 7pm • £8 (inc. drinks) • QForum

New Arrival “Times and The Thames” Indian Journalist Vijay Dutt - posted for 15 years in London – will launch his book that takes a view of contemporary England – from politics to curry to the enchantment of Indian cinema. 24 October, 9pm • FREE •QForum

The DSC Prize for South Asian Literature is guided by an international Advisory Committee comprising MJ Akbar, Urvashi Butalia, Tina Brown, William Dalrymple, Lord Meghnad Desai, David Godwin, Surina Narula, Senath Walter Perera, Nayantara Sehgal and Michael Worton. The DSC Prize for South Asian Literature is unique since it is not driven by ethnicity in terms of the author’s origin and is open to any author belonging to any part of the globe, so long as the work is based on the South Asian region and its people. Check for updates online.

Chetan Bhagat & Ira Trivedi in Conversation in association with IndiansInUK.net C h e ta n B h ag at, I r a t r i v e d i

Chetan Bhagat is India’s biggest-selling paperback writer, with many of his books going on to become major Bollywood films. The most recent, 3 Idiots, has become the highest grossing Bollywood film of all time. Seen more as a youth icon than just an author, Chetan will meet with fans in this rare UK appearance. He’ll be joined in conversation by Ira Trivedi, author of The Great Indian Love Story. 26 October, 6.30pm • £7/£4 conc • Tattershall Castle (Boat on the Thames)

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When Books meet Cinema

The Festival is proud to be associated with the new DSC Prize for South Asian Literature, worth US $50,000. From the longlist of 16 books announced in September, five shortlisted books will be announced on Monday 25 October at Shakespeare’s Globe.

Children’s Workshops The DSC South Asian Literature Festival introduces an inventive series of workshops for children. Delving into the idea of learning through storytelling, these workshops are designed to encourage children to use their creative energy through stories, enactments and hands-on activities. The art of storytelling has been passed down from generation to generation through folktales, paintings and songs. Using it to engage the interest of children, to teach and encourage creative thinking is an innovative technique that is fun and educational for all. Through professional storytellers reading aloud and craft activities, this is a vivid journey that will be both absorbing and instructional, and seeks to foster a long-term love of literature in children.

South Asian Storytelling and Tribal Art Workshop In partnership with Tara Books

Illustration by Various Artists, Tara Books

Author and storyteller Gita Wolf takes children and their parents on a colourful journey of folktales and storytelling. Reading from her book Do! which is illustrated by ‘Warli’ artists of western India she weaves tales of village life, myths and legends. The book combines beautifully drawn illustrations of the tribal community with simplistic stories of what happens in the village. The easy to follow art makes it quickly relatable by children. The workshop also engages children actively with the Warli art form. After the storytelling and book reading, they are instructed on how to draw their own pictures of Warli art to carry back home with them. 16 October • 11am - 12.30pm • Venue 2 Rich Mix / £2 per child (for children ages 4-11)

Storycraft Workshop In partnership with Apples & Snakes This storycraft workshop will encourage children and adults to enjoy stories together in an active and fun way. This workshop will be guided by leading storyteller, Debbie Guneratne. The session will feature a hands-on craft workshop and children will be able to take home their creations! 16 October • 1.30pm - 3pm • Venue 2, Rich Mix £2 per child (for children ages 4-11) To book tickets for events at Rich Mix call the Box Office on 020 7613 7498

South Asian Scenes Children’s workshop

Craig Jenkins of Vayu Naidu Storytelling Theatre Company, in association with Saadhak Books, charismatically tells three tales from the subcontinent at the British Museum. Ready? Steady, and Go! Take part in these stories with sound and craft!

Eyes on the Peacock’s Tail A Folktale from Rajasthan by Vayu Naidu In the beginning, the peacock had a sheer and shimmering blue-green tail. This story tells how the proud peacock went on a journey that gave him the ‘eyes’ on his tail. 23 October • 1.30pm • Room 33, British Museum • FREE (limited seats)

Hiss, Don’t Bite! A Folktale from Bengal by Vayu Naidu A bad tempered snake kills a cow and everyone is afraid... until a wondering monk tells the snake a secret that changes his life.

Laghu the Clever Crow A Tale by Granny Geeta Laghu, an unattractive but very intelligent crow, saves a flock of doves from being captured by a hunter. This simple tale highlights that things should not be judged on how they appear.

23 October • 1.30pm • Room 33, British Museum / FREE (limited spaces)

23 October • 3.30pm • Room 33, British Museum • FREE (limited seats)

To book tickets for events at the British Museum call the Box Office on 020 7613 7498

Illustration by Mugdha Shah, Tulika Publishers

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Storytelling . Theatre

Dr Vayu Naidu Artistic Director, Vayu Naidu Company Storytelling Theatre

In the universe of market forces, the written story gets credence, and the notion of authorship, agents and publishing spirals the status of literature as solely a written phenomenon. Let us rewind to a time before the printing press in Europe, and immediately one realises that the continuing phenomenon in India and Africa â&#x20AC;&#x201C; orality and the sound of language â&#x20AC;&#x201C; is essential to the craft of storytelling. Storytelling in the oral tradition is an act of composing a narrative in the moment of performance by the storyteller, and if it passes the test

of time, place, action, and diction, it enters the cosmos of Oral Literature. Oral literature is at the source of pre- and post-colonial cultures and is at a turning point today.

Telling It Like It Is

The Value of Storytelling in Developing Literacy

When storytelling is considered a thing of the past, and a primitive practice not for the urban and metropolitan mind, I strongly urge people to listen, again: “The Ao-Nagas say that a script inscribed on a hide was hung on a wall for all to see and learn. But one day a dog pulled it down and ate it up. Since then, the people say that every aspect of their life – social, political, historical and religious – has been retained in the memory of the people through the Oral Tradition.” The Old Story-Teller, Temsula Ao Storytelling in education is now vital with the multicultural fabric of British schools. “Telling It Like It Is” offers the value of storytelling as reading with little support from a home environment can be challenging. The experience can make a deep impression. The joy of knowing a story through storytelling and then being guided to read is one of the hallmarks of Vayu Naidu Company’s Live Book Tour.

“Telling It Like It Is” is a new event exploring the value storytelling in the classroom can have in developing children’s literacy skills. Hearing a story being told helps children to become absorbed in the fabric of a tale, in turn encouraging them to feel motivated and empowered when presented with the written word. This event includes a demonstration from a professional storyteller and will provide an interactive forum with which to engage a panel of distinguished speakers. Speakers include: storyteller Vayu Naidu; storyteller Peter Chand; author and publisher Gita Wolf; and publisher Janetta Otter-Barry. Come and experience the wonders of storytelling and discuss its importance in fostering a love of literature. The event, ideal for teachers, librarians and others working in education, will include drinks and networking. Refreshments served from 4.30pm Event 5pm - 6.30pm

Illustration by Carol Liddiment, Saadhak Books

Price: FREE (reserve a place at storytelling@southasianlitfest.com)

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Venue: Free Word Centre, 60 Farringdon Road, London, EC1R 3GA

Creative Writing Workshops

To book places, please call 020 7323 8181 or visit the Ticket Desk in the Great Court at the British Museum

Romesh Gunesekera

Moniza Alvi

FICTION WRITING

POETRY WRITING

This tutored workshop with prize-winning Sri Lankan-born writer Romesh Gunesekera offers a great chance for new writers to learn how to write and become equipped with the tools needed to develop further.

In this tutored poetry workshop with celebrated Pakistan-born poet Moniza Alvi, experiment with a range of approaches and develop your technique in the fundamentals of form and imagery.

Session time: 10.30am-1.30pm ÂŁ20 (limited places)

Session time: 2pm-5pm ÂŁ20 (limited places)

In association with Wasafiri and The Open University, these workshops offer the chance to be tutored by two bestselling writers and be inspired by the South Asian objects forming part of the British Museum / BBC Radio 4 series, A History of the Worlds in 100 Objects.

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B r i t i s h M u s e u m , 2 3 O c t ob e r

VAANI Book Launch The Asian Experience

R o o pa Fa r o o k i , S w e ta S r i va s tava Vikr am, Hema Macherla , R i ta M o r a r , S m i ta S i n g h

The Vaani anthology features upcoming Asian women writers and poets. Join the panel as they discuss their interpretation of ‘The Asian Experience’. The event includes live music, an art exhibition and delicious Asian food. Central Library, Clements Road, Ilford, Essex IG1 1EA

16 October • 6.30pm–9pm • FREE

The Obscure Logic of the Heart Pr i y a B a s i l , S m i t a S i n g h

Priya’s book tells the love story between a Muslim girl, Lina, and a liberal Kenyan architecture student, Anil, both second-generation immigrants living in London. Due to their different backgrounds, Lina’s relationship is in stark opposition to her parents’ wishes, forcing her to make a choice between her family and her love. Westminster Reference Library, 35 St. Martin’s Street, London WC2H 7HP

19 October • 7pm–9pm • FREE

Climbing the Coconut Tree

Witness the Night

N i k e sh S h u k l a

K i sh w a r D e s a i

Nikesh Shukla, a London-based author, filmmaker and poet, launches his debut book, Coconut Unlimited, set in Harrow in the 1990’s. It follows the adventures of three hapless, hiphop obsessed Asian boys in an all-white private school who form a band. Hear Nikesh read extracts from his book and discuss what inspires him to put pen to paper.

In a small town in India, a young girl is found tied to a bed inside a townhouse where thirteen people lie dead. She is held in prison, awaiting interrogation for the murders she is believed to have committed. Simran, a social worker, strongly believes the girl to be innocent and sets out to discover the truth. Join the author as she talks of the hero of her book and throws light on one of South Asia’s major concerns — gender prejudice.

Eltham Library, 181 Eltham High Street, London SE9 1TS

18 October • 7pm–9pm • FREE Gayton Library, Harrow, Garden House, 5 St John’s Road, Harrow HA1 2EE

24 October • 7pm • FREE

Hornsey Library, Haringey Park, London N8 9JA

19 October • 7pm–9pm • FREE

All Kinds of Magic

A Life Apart

P i e rs M o o r e Ed e

Neel Mukherjee

In April 2004, Piers Moore Ede embarked on a very unusual journey. Disheartened by a world seemingly hooked on material wealth and scientific fact, he decided to travel the world in search of something completely different the magical, the mystical, the numinous. In All Kinds of Magic, Piers recounts this voyage of re-enchantment in South Asia.

A Life Apart blends a coming-of-age story with the excitement of an urban thriller. Neel interweaves the worlds of the arms trade, sex workers, fruit pickers and the Daily Mail, while casting light on the economic policies of the Raj, communal violence and the fragility of relationships.

Acton Library, High Street, London W3 6NA

21 October • 6pm–8pm • FREE

Islington Central Library, 2 Fieldway Crescent, London N5 1PF

20 October • 6pm–8pm • £3

Priya, of Kenyan origin, and Onyeka, from Nigeria, have both written about love and relationships that are opposed by society at large and can have a profound effect on life. Marcus Garvey Library, Tottenham Green Centre,1 Philip Lane, London N15 4JA

20 October • 7pm • FREE

We Are A Muslim, Please

Onyeka’s The Abyssinian Boy is about a South Indian Tamil Brahmin essayist and his East Nigerian Christian wife and the hallucination their nine year-old child faces. Having sold over 15,000 copies within the first 6 months of its release, the book is being made into a film. Wimbledon Reference Library, Wimbledon Hill Road, London SW19 7NB

22 October • 7pm–8pm • FREE

Musharah

Zaiba Malik

Urdu Poetry Afternoon

Zaiba Malik has worked on some of the BBC and Channel 4’s most acclaimed radio and TV documentaries. We Are A Muslim, Please is a funny and poignant memoir of her early years growing up in Bradford in the 70s and 80s

Va r i o u s p o e t s

Central Library, Clements Road, Ilford, Essex IG1 1EA

20 October • 7.15pm–9pm • £2.50

A poetry symposium conducted in a centuries old tradition of the Indian sub-continent. All communities and all ages are invited to attend and enjoy the poetry and the entertainment of an event for lovers of literature. Central Library, Clements Road, Ilford, Essex IG1 1EA

24 October • 3.30pm–7pm • FREE

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Pr i y a B a s i l & O n y e k a N w e l u e

Onyeka Nwelue

Love and Lands Apart

The Abyssinian Boy

Reimagining Libraries Books capture the imagination of young and old alike, where people can slip away from the humdrum of their daily lives to the magical realms of fantasy. As part of the DSC South Asian Literature Festival’s mission to extend our outreach into Outer London communities, where new authors can connect with local audiences, we have partnered with The Reading Agency With its mission to ‘inspire more people to read more’, The Reading Agency is the UK’s leading charity specialising in actively promoting reading through libraries. It was founded on the principle that reading changes people’s lives and life chances. The Agency passionately believes in the power of the written word to transform lives and bring people closer together. And just as the DSC South Asian Literature Festival showcases outstanding South Asian writers, similarly the Agency strives to develop the readers who will enjoy these works.

The Reading Agency has tried to reach readers through innovative projects and partnerships. One of the most successful of these is ‘Reading Partners’ – a consortium of libraries and some of the biggest and best publishers in the country. Together, publishers and libraries have organised a wave of events and activities over the last few years. The Agency has collaborated with the BBC Asian Network on events including sessions starring Gautam Malkani and Hanif Kureishi, among others. Finally, the DSC South Asian Literature Festival and The Reading Agency aim to provide reading opportunities to every child, and share the common aim of making libraries more than just a place to borrow books. They want people – from all backgrounds and walks of life – to be able to connect directly with authors through events, discussions, book readings and signings, and establish an important and inspiring platform for growth in the years to come.

The Festival hits the Road The DSC South Asian Literature Festival will be setting up camp in London 11 days this year. But like all good things, books, words and stories should be free-flowing and available to all. The vision for the Festival is that it be taken to various parts of the country from the coastal regions of South-East England to the upland areas of Scotland, from Asian-rich in the Midlands to villages in Wales, from historic university cities to towns in beautiful nature-rich valleys. South Asian literature should reach out to many areas, and be made accessible to all! In it’s inaugural year, the Festival is hosting 3 events different regions of the country: Peak District, Leicester and Brighton. Come to Brighton to hear authors share their experience of writing from a Diasporic perspective in ‘A Home From Home’, hear how South Asian writers have treated the subject of love, marriage and relationships in ‘Love in the Modern Age’ over lunch in Leicester, or visit the village of Calver in Hope Valley to hear about the controversial and charismatic Phoolan Devi in ‘Outlaw India’s Bandit Queen and Me’.

A Home From Home In Partnership with City Books Daisy Ha san, HM Naqvi, Moderated by jon sl ack

Many authors of South Asian writing live in the West, away from the Subcontinent. Come to hear a few such authors share their experience of writing from a Diasporic perspective and about living or visiting their “other homes” in South Asia. Set in the troubled region of Shillong, in North-East India, Daisy Hasan’s The To-Let House narrates the tormented passage into adolescence and identity of 4 children where their inner world mirrors the outer. In his debut novel Home Boy, HM Naqvi provides a new voice, a new way of examining and understanding the life of Muslims in New York City after 9/11. It is the voice of the young, hip-hop male trying to blend into a new and different world, a world removed from life in Karachi, Pakistan. The event would include readings and discussion, followed by questions from audience members.

Brighton Dome, Church Street, Brighton, East Sussex, BN1 1UE • 27 October • 7pm • £4

Love in the Modern Age In Partnership with Charnwood Arts & The Asian writer Fa r a h a d Z a m a , H e m a M a c h e r l a , A n j a l i J o s e p h , M o d e r a t e d b y b h av i t m e h ta

Love, marriage (arranged or otherwise), sex and family relationships have historically been a great source of inspiration for many South Asian authors and poets, and those who have traveled or lived there. This stellar panel of speakers would look at the way in which modern South Asian writers have treated this subject – from comical representations to melodramatic, heart-warming or tragedy-filled renditions. The event would include readings and discussion by the authors, followed by questions from audience members. We would also feature some imagery/photos to be included amongst the readings.

University Of Leicester, Lancaster Road, Leicester, LE1 7HA • 29 October • Free lunch buffet provided @ 12.30pm. Start time 1.30pm – 3pm • £5

Outlaw - India’s Bandit Queen and Me In Partnership with Peak Festival & Country Bookshop Roy Moxham , Moderated by Ger aldine Rose

Calver Village Hall, off Main Street, Calver, Hope Valley, S32 3XR • 31 October • time TBC • £4

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Phoolan Devi was the controversial and charismatic ‘Bandit Queen’ of India, hailed as a modern-day Robin Hood in the villages surrounding Delhi. In revenge for her own gang rape, her followers killed 20 upper class Indians, which led to her surrender and imprisonment. In June 1992, struck by her story and appalled by her plight, author Roy Moxham wrote to Phoolan Devi and helped her obtain justice, offered her encouragement when she became an MP in India on her release, and travelled with her for several years before she was killed in 2001. Based on the diaries that documented their extraordinary friendship, Moxham offers a fascinating portrait of a remarkable woman and reveals the hidden face of India.

Top 50 South Asian Must-Reads Let the blue mountain be ink powder; the ocean the ink pot; a branch of the heavenly tree the pen; and the whole earth the paper. ~ Pushpadanta The literary landscape of South Asia is growing and changing from day to day. More and more books are being written in English and made available to the market right across the world. However, if you’re a novice to South Asian writing, where do you start? This Top 50 list of must-read books takes you on a short journey of this rich literary landscape. Like any book list, the selection is subjective and hence should be treated merely as a ‘taste’ of some of what is available to buy or order from booksellers in the UK today. Do you agree with the list? Would you like to see further recommendations? Join the debate on our website: www.dscsouthasianlitfest.com

A Fine Balance, Rohinton Mistry (McClelland and Stewart) v A Golden Age, Tahmina Anam (John Murray) v A House for Mr Biswas, V.S. Naipaul (Everyman) v A Sea of Poppies, Amitav Ghosh (John Murray) v A Suitable Boy, Vikram Seth (Penguin) v Burnt Shadows, Kamila Shamsie (Bloomsbury) v City of Djinns: A Year in Delhi, William Dalrymple (Bloomsbury) v Collected Poems in English, Arun Kolatkar & Arvind Krishna Mehrotra (Bloodaxe Books) v Cracking India, Bapsi Sidhwa (Milkweed Editions) v Curfewed Night, Basharat Peer (Scribner Book Company) v Delhi - A Novel, Khushwant Singh (Penguin) v Desirable Daughters, Bharati Mukherjee (Hyperion) v Fasting, Feasting, Anita Desai (Vintage) v Freedom at Midnight, Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre (HarperCollins) v Geetanjali, Rabindrath Tagore (Branden Books) v Heat and Dust, Ruth Prawer Jhabvala (Touchstone) v Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard, Kiran Desai (Anchor) v Jeff in Venice, Death in Varanasi, Geoff Dyer

(Canongate Books) v Look We Have Coming to Dover!, Daljit Nagra (Faber) v Maximum City, Suketu Mehta (Knopf) v Midnight’s Children, Salman Rushdie (Vintage) v My Beautiful Laundrette, Hanif Kureishi (Faber) v My Kind of Girl, Buddhadeva Bose (Archipelago Books) v No Full Stops in India, Mark Tully (Penguin) v Passage to India, EM Forster (Penguin) v Q&A, Vikas Swarup (Scribner) v Reef, Romesh Gunesekera (Granta Books) v Running in the Family, Michael Ondaatje (Vintage) v Sacred Games, Vikram Chandra (HarperCollins) v Shantaram, Gregory Roberts (Scribe Publications) v Siege of Krishnapur, JG Farrell (Weidenfeld & Nicolson) v Swami and Friends, RK Narayan (Hamish Hamilton) v The Adventures of Feluda, Satyajit Ray (Puffin Books) v The Alchemy of Desire, Tarun Tejpal (Picador) v The Argumentative Indian: Writings on Indian History, Culture and Identity, Amartya Sen (Allen Lane) v The Case of Exploding Mangoes, Mohammad Hanif (Knopf) v The God of Small Things, Arundhati Roy (Harper Flamingo) v The House of Blue Mangoes, David Davidar (Perennial Press) v The Impressionist, Hari Kunzru (Penguin) v The Marriage Bureau for Rich People, Farahad Zama (Abacus) v The Namesake, Jhumpa Lahiri (Houghton Mifflin) v The Other Side of Silence: Voices from the Partition of India, Urvashi Butalia (C Hurst & Co) v The Recognition of Sakuntala: A Play In Seven Acts (Oxford World’s Classics), Kalidasa & WJ Johnson (Oxford University Press) v The Reluctant Fundamentalist, Mohsin Hamid (Hamish Hamilton) v The Sister of my Heart, Chitra Divakaruni (Anchor) v The Story of India, Michael Wood (BBC Books) v The Thousand Faces of Night, Gita Hariharan (Women’s Press) v The White Tiger, Aravind Adiga (Atlantic Books) v Three Novels, Amit Chaudhuri (Picador) v What the Body Remembers, Shauna Singh

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Baldwin (Black Swan)

The UK alone has an Asian community of more than 1.4 million: a significant publishing market that is just beginning to be recognised. Perhaps the biggest gap in this market is South Asian children’s books. These stories are not just for children of South Asian origin, but can go further to connect with an even wider audience, especially in the increasingly multicultural society we live in. South Asian picture books are filled with magical and mythical heroes; enchanting tales of talking birds and wish-fulfilling trees; romantic stories of young princes rescuing maidens from the clutches of demons; court jesters displaying their wit and wisdom to kings and ministers. Here are some of our favourite that are available in the UK… Elephant Dance: A Journey to India, Theresa Heine ~ Sheila Moxley (Barefoot Books) v How Ganesh Got His Elephant Head, Harish Johari ~ Pieter Weltevrede (Bear Cub Books) v Kim: A Graphic Novel, Lewis Helfand ~ Rakesh Kumar (Campfire) v Laghu the Clever Crow, Bhavit Mehta ~ Carol Liddiment (Saadhak Books) v Mangoes and Bananas, Nathan Kumar Scott ~ T. Balaji (Tara Publishing) v Miraculous Gopal, Sita Gilbakian ~ Padmavati Devi Dasi (Mandala Publishing Group) v Mr Jeejeebhoy and the Birds, Anitha Balachandran (Young Zubaan) v Rama and Sita - Path of Flames, Sally Pomme Clayton ~ Sophie Herxheimer (Janetta Otter-Barry Books) v Robi Dobi: The Marvelous Adventures of an Indian Elephant, Madhur Jaffrey ~ Amanda Hall (Dial Books) v Siddharth and Rinki, Addy Farmer ~ Karin Littlewood (Tamarind) v Stories from India, Anna Milbourne ~ Linda Edwards (Usborne Publishing) v That’s How I See Things, Sirish Rao ~ Bhajju Shyam (Tara Publishing) v The Drum: A Folktale from India , Rob Cleveland ~ Tom Wrenn (August House Publishers) v The Glum Peacock, Tabish Khair ~ Nilima Eriyat (Young Zubaan) v The Little Brown Jay, Elizabeth Claire ~ Miriam Katin (Mondo Publishing) v The Monkey and the Crocodile, Paul Galdone (Houghton Mifflin) v The Puffin Book of Classic Indian Tales for Children, Meera Uberoi (Penguin) v The Swirling Hijaab: in Urdu and English, Na’ima bint Robert ~ Nilesh Mistry (Mantra Lingua) v The Tiger Child, Joanna Troughton (Penguin) v Traditional Stories from India, Vayu Naidu (Wayland)

A,B

Amarjit Chandan

Amarjit has published seven collections of poetry and four books of essays in Punjabi and has appeared in anthologies and magazines world-wide. He has edited and translated many anthologies of Indian and world poetry into Punjabi. His awards include the Life-time Achievement Award by the Language Department of the Punjab Government and the Life-time Achievement Award by the Anad Foundation New Delhi. His latest collection in English translation, prefaced by John Berger, is Sonata for Four Hands.

Amit Chaudhuri

The Guardian describes Amit as, ‘one of the leading novelists of his generation’. His latest book, The Immortals, is his fifth novel, and a New Yorker Book of the Year 2009. It was Reviewers Choice, Best Books of 2009, in the Boston Globe and the Irish Times, and is now longlisted for the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature. He is also an internationally acclaimed essayist, musician and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. He was one of the judges of the 2009 Man Booker International Prize.

Anjali Joseph

Anjali was born in Bombay in 1978. She read English at Trinity College, Cambridge, and has taught English at the Sorbonne. More recently she has written for The Times of India in Bombay and has been a Commissioning Editor for ELLE (India). She graduated from the MA in Creative Writing course at the University of East Anglia with distinction in 2008, and this year was named in the Daily Telegraph’s “Best 20 British Novelists Under 40”. Her first novel, Saraswati Park, was published in 2010.

Bhavit Mehta

Bhavit studied Biological Sciences at Queen Mary, University of London, and worked at UCL before entering the world of Children’s books in 2007 when he started his independent publishing house, ‘Saadhak Books’. Taking inspiration from tales by his grandparents, his first picture book Laghu the Clever Crow was published in 2009. Bhavit also works with the Society of Young Publishers, a not-for-profit organisation for students and publishers in the book industry. He is a Director of the DSC South Asian Literature Festival.

Boria Majumdar

Boria is a Rhodes Scholar, a Senior Research Fellow at the University of Central Lancashire and a visiting Professor at the University of Toronto. He has taught at Oxford University, University of Chicago and La Trobe University Melbourne. Some of his publications include Olympics: The India Story and Twenty-Two Yards to Freedom: A Social History of Indian cricket. He recently published the first definitive history of the Commonwealth Games, Sellotape Legacy: Delhi and the Commonwealth Games.

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Aditya is economics leader writer at the Guardian and also a columnist for the paper. He joined the paper from the BBC where he was a senior producer on the BBC’s Ten O’Clock News and on Newsnight. Before that, he spent five years as economics producer for the BBC, where his series of reports from China won a Harold Wincott award in 2006. He has also written for the Telegraph, Financial Times, FT Magazine and New Statesman.

Aditya Chakrabortty

C,D Chetan Bhagat

Chetan’s writing has made him a youth icon in India. The New York Times called Chetan ‘the biggest selling English language novelist in India’s history’. His first novel Five Point Someone was made into the movie 3 Idiots and has since become the highest grossing Bollywood movie of all time. In addition to fiction, Chetan speaks and blogs on political and current affairs, and his latest novel, Two States, features inside stories behind the banking crisis. He was named in 2010 as one of the 100 Most Influential People in the World by TIME Magazine.

Cleveland Watkiss

Born in the East End of London, Cleveland is a vocalist, actor and composer. He studied voice at the London School of Singing and at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama. He co-founded the influential Jazz Warriors big band and has performed with many artists from around the world such as The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Bob Dylan, Stevie Wonder, Robbie Williams, Joe Cocker, The Who, Soul II Soul, London Chamber Orchestra, Bjork and Pete Townsend.

Craig Jenkins

Craig joined Vayu Naidu Company as a Resident Storyteller in 2007. Craig’s work for the Company has included storytelling performances for a number of high profile organisations and festivals (the BBC, Barbican Centre, Somerset House, London Mela), as well as leading storytelling workshops in a variety of education and outreach settings. Craig has also lectured on film at the Noble Sage Art Gallery, as well as continuing to write academic pieces on representations of the female figure within Hindi film.

Daisy Hasan

Daisy has held many prestigious fellowships that have allowed her to research and write about the cultures of North-East India. She holds a PhD from Swansea University, and is currently engaged in a study of South Asian women’s art in conflict situations at the University of Leeds. She is also working on her second novel. Her first novel, The To-Let House, published by Tara Books in 2010, was longlisted for the 2008 Man Asian Literary Prize.

Daniel Hahn

Daniel is a writer, editor and translator. Among some two-dozen translations (from Portuguese, Spanish and French), major projects include Creole and The Book of Chameleons by Angolan novelist José Eduardo Agualusa; the latter won the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize in 2007. Other translations include the autobiography of Brazilian footballer Pelé, which was shortlisted for Best Sports Book of 2006 at the British Book Awards. He is chair of the Translators Association and interim director of the British Centre for Literary Translation.

Debbie Guneratne

Debbie is an international storyteller and the Artistic Director of Create! She founded “Small Tales Storytelling Clubs”, which train the storytellers of the future. She also leads the educational workshops for The Royal National Theatre. Debbie has broadcasted for the BBC World Service and Radio 1 Ireland, and one of her stories has been made into a film.

F,G

Farrukh Dhondy

Farrukh is a British writer and activist of Indian Parsi descent. A fiction writer for all generations, he also writes for theatre, film and television. He is a columnist, biographer and former Channel Four Commissioning Editor. Farrukh’s Bollywood contributions include writing the script for Dev Benegal’s Split Wide Open, and recenty the script for the theatre play Miranda. He has two screenplays – Carpet Boy and A Bend in the River - which are about to go into production.

Fatima Bhutto

Fatima is a Pakistani poet and writer. She came to fame after publishing a collection of poems, Whispers of the Desert. Her new book, Songs of Blood and the Sword, tells the story of a family of rich feudal landlords who become powerbrokers when Pakistan is liberated from colonial British forces. She is active in Pakistan’s socio-political arena and currently writes columns for The Daily Beast and New Statesman.

Geoff Dyer

Geoff Dyer’s many books include But Beautiful, Yoga For People Who Can’t Be Bothered To Do It, The Ongoing Moment and, most recently, the novel Jeff in Venice, Death in Varanasi. His many awards include a Somersert Maugham Prize, the E. M. Forster Award and a Lannan Literary Fellowship. He lives in London.

George Alagiah

Born in Sri Lanka, George is the presenter of the BBC’s Six O’Clock News. He joined the station in 1989 after seven years in print journalism. He is recognised throughout the industry for reporting on some of the most significant events of the last decade and a half. His first book, A Passage to Africa, won the Madoc Award at the 2002 Hay Literary Festival. Most recently, he has published A Home from Home, a book on multiculturalism in Britain.

Gita Wolf

Gita trained as an academic in English and Comparative Literature, but opted to write and publish books for children because of her special interest in visual and literary communication. She has written over a dozen books for children and adults. She has won won the Alcuin Citation in Canada in 1997 and the 1999 Biennale of Illustrations Bratislava plaque. Gita started Tara Publishing in 1994 and has since been joined by other writers and publishing professionals who share Tara’s unconventional objectives.

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Farahad grew up in Vizag on the east coast of India, where his novels are set. He was recruited at university by a banking firm and has worked in Mumbai, Zurich and New York. Farahad moved to London in 1990 and works in the City, writing on his commute and at weekends. The Marriage Bureau for Rich People is his first novel. Farahad is currently working on a third book, Not All Marriages Are Made In Heaven.

Farahad Zama

H,I Hardeep Singh Kohli

Hardeep is a regular on BBC 1â&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Question Time, This Week with Andrew Neil, and was a former Newsnight Review contributor. He is also Contributing Editor on the Spectator Magazine, and has written for the Independent on Sunday, The Times, Observer Woman and CondĂŠ Nast Traveller. In 2008 Hardeep published his first book, Indian Takeaway, which was nominated for an Independent Book Award.

Hema Macherla

Hema Macherla was born in the rural village of Atmakur, Andhrapradesh, India. She came to the UK in 1977 speaking very little English. She lives with her husband in London and has two grown up children. She has published 25 short stories and a number of articles in Indian magazines. Breeze from The River Manjeera (The Linen Press) is her first novel.

Dr Hilal Fareed

Hilal was born in Lucknow and raised in Aligarh. He practices as an Orthopaedic Surgeon in a West London NHS Hospital. He has been writing poetry since his school days. He has written a few Nazms but his main genre is Ghazal, through which he responds to his surroundings and to himself.

HM Naqvi

HM Naqvi was born in 1974. Since then he graduated from Georgetown and Boston University, worked in finance, ran a slam venue, and taught creative writing at B.U. He received a Lannan fellowship, a Phelam Prize, and has read verse on NPR, BBC, and at Lollapalooza. Presently, he resides in Karachi. He is the author of Home Boy.

Ilyas Khan

Ilyas is a Lancastrian who returned to Great Britain in 2009 from Hong Kong where he lived and worked since 1989. An enthusiastic supporter of the arts and a prominent rare and antiquarian book collector, he is the owner and publisher of the acclaimed Asia Literary Review, and was associated for some time with the Hong Kong Literary Festival, where he was a director and a significant fundraiser. He is also a co-owner of London based Cadogan Contemporary Art Gallery, and Patron of the prestigious Asia Art Archive

Ira Trivedi

Ira is the author of the bestselling novels What Would You Do To Save The World? and The Great Indian Love Story. Her first novel, written when she was 19, has been translated into Hindi, Marathi and Tamil and has been met by critical and public acclaim. Ira lives in New Delhi, India and is currently working on her third novel, The Intern. She is an avid traveler and spiritual seeker, and holds a MBA from Columbia Business School and a BA in Economics from Wellesley College.

I–K

Janetta Otter-Barry

Janetta was Editorial Director at Frances Lincoln Children’s Books for 20 years, and now runs her own eponymous list for Frances Lincoln. She has a longstanding interest in publishing traditional tales for children, and in celebrating cultural diversity through her publishing. She helped to set up the Frances Lincoln Diverse Voices Book Award in 2009. Her authors include John Agard, Elizabeth Laird, Ifeoma Onyefulu, Jessica Souhami, Beverley Naidoo.

John Freeman

John became Editor of Granta after six years on the board of the National Book Critics Circle, and has been with the magazine since December 2008. During that time he edited work by Ha Jin, Paul Auster, Wislawa Szymborska and Joseph O’Neill. He has also spent the past six months hosting 25 Granta events around the United States and Canada.

Jon Slack

Jon is a Director of the DSC South Asian Literature Festival, and has been involved in a number of other projects in the book industry, as well as artist management. He co-founded Canon Tales – a series of unique visual events featuring innovators in publishing – and co-creator of the Author Blog Awards. He was closely involved with the Society of Young Publishers for three years (inc. as Chair in 2008), and has organised trade events for young publishers and entrepreneurs in the UK and internationally. .

Justine Hardy

Justine Hardy has been a journalist for 21 years, many of those spent covering South Asia. She is the author of five books ranging in subject from war to Hindi film. Her second book, Scoop-Wallah, was the story of her time on an Indian newspaper in Delhi. It was shortlisted for the 2000 Thomas Cook/ Daily Telegraph Travel Book Award and serialised on BBC Radio 4. The Wonder House is a novel set against the conflict in Kashmir. It was shortlisted for the 2006 Author’s Club Best First Novel.

Kenan Malik

Kenan is an Indian-born

British writer, lecturer and broadcaster, trained in neurobiology and the history of science. As a scientific author, his focus is on the philosophy of biology, and contemporary theories of multiculturalism, pluralism and race. In From Fatwa To Jihad, published in 2009, he documents the events surrounding the Bradford protests, the Fatwa, the riots in India and the government and media response.

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Irfan is project manager of Reading The Game at the National Literacy Trust. His family is from Gujarat, India where his debut novel is set. A Beautiful Lie, to be published by Bloomsbury in January 2011, is an atmospheric, quirky and moving first novel.

Irfan Master

K–M Kishwar Desai

Kishwar has worked in print and TV for over 20 years. Her first book Darlingji: The True Love Story of Nargis and Sunil Dutt was published by HarperCollins India in 2007. Her first novel, Witness the Night, was longlisted for the 2009 Man Asian Literary Prize and was published in the UK by Beautiful Books in 2010.

Maya Jaggi

Maya is an award-winning cultural journalist, critic and presenter. She has been a profile writer and critic for the Guardian Review for 10 years, and contributes to publications, including Sunday Times Culture, The Independent, Financial Times, Economist and BookForum, as well as BBC radio and television. Some of her arts interviews appear in the books Lives and Works and Writing Across Worlds. She is a member of English PEN’s Writers in Prison committee.

Lord Meghnad Desai

Meghnad studied at the University of Bombay and wrote his PhD at the University of Pennsylvania. He has taught at the London School of Economics since 1965 and was made a Professor of Economics in 1983. Meghnad’s first novel, Dead on Time, was published by HarperCollins India and by Beautiful Books in London in 2008. His latest book, The Rediscovery of India, is published by Allen Lane.

Michael Wood

Michael is an English historian and broadcaster. He has presented numerous television documentary series and made over 80 documentary films, including Legacy: A Search for the Origins of Civilization and The Story of India. He has written numerous books on English history, including In Search of the Dark Ages, The Domesday Quest, In Search of England and In Search of Shakespeare. He is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society.

Mihir Bose

Mihir is a British-Indian sportswriter and journalist, who was the BBC’s Sports Editor until late 2009. Of Bengali origin, Mihir was brought up in Bombay before coming to the UK in 1969 to study to become a chartered accountant. After spending a year studying engineering at Loughborough University, he worked in business journalism, later becoming a sportswriter and journalist at the Daily Telegraph for 10 years. He now writes for the Evening Standard.

Mohammed Hanif

Mohammed was born in Okara, Pakistan in 1965. He has written plays for the stage and BBC radio, and his film The Long Night has been shown at film festivals around the world. He is a graduate of UEA’s MA in Creative Writing and is the former head of the BBC’s Urdu Service in London. His first novel A Case of Exploding Mangoes was shortlisted for the 2008 Guardian First Book Award.

M,N

Mustashrik

Mustashrik is a multidisciplined and skilled artist, who fleets confidently and spiritually between the narrative mediums of canvas and film. Having grown up and travelled as a child, he’s used these experiences and chance encounters to create worlds and visual stories. He contributes to the design of animations, commercials, films and other artistic avenues, collaborating on creative teams for clients such as Coca-Cola, Stella Artois and The Department for Transport.

Namita Gokhale

Namita is a writer and publisher. Her first novel, Paro: Dreams Of Passion, caused an uproar due to its candid sexual humour. Namita is a director of Yatra Books, which co-publishes with Penguin India in English, Hindi, Marathi and Urdu. Besides being a founder director of the DSC Jaipur Literature Festival, Namita Gokhale conceptualized the International Festival of Indian Literature, Neemrana 2002, and the Africa-Asia Literary Conference, Neemrana 2006.

Nayantara Sahgal

Nayantara was born in 1927 into a political family: her uncle, Jawaharlal Nehru, was India’s first prime minister; her mother was the country’s first ambassador to the U.N.; and Indira Gandhi was her first cousin. Her fiction deals with India’s elite responding to the crises engendered by political change, and her novels are often set against the backdrop of pivotal events in Indian history. She was one of the first female Indo-Anglian writers to receive wide recognition.

Neel Mukherjee

Neel reviews fiction for The Times and TIME Magazine Asia, and has written for the Times Literary Supplement, Daily Telegraph, Observer, The New York Times, Boston Review, Sunday Telegraph and Biblio. His first novel, Past Continuous, was joint winner of the Vodafone-Crossword Award. The UK edition of the novel, A Life Apart, was published by Constable & Robinson in January 2010 and has been longlisted for the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature.

Nikesh Shukla

Nikesh is a London-based author, film-maker and poet. He is the resident poet for BBC Asian Network. His writing has been featured on BBC 2, Radio 1 and 4, Resonance FM and BBC Asian Network. He has been published in Tell Tales, Litro, Bad Idea, Pen Pusher and Transmission Magazine. His first book, Coconut Unlimited, will be published by Quartet Books in October 2010.

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After a long career as a secondary school teacher, Moniza now tutors for the Open College of the Arts and lives in London. In 2002 she received a Cholmondeley Award for her poetry. The Country at My Shoulder, a collection of poetry, was shortlisted for the T. S. Eliot Prize and the Whitbread Poetry Award, and led to her being selected for the Poetry Society’s New Generation Poets promotion. Her most recent collections are Split World: Poems 19902005 and Europa, which was shortlisted for the 2008 T. S. Eliot Prize.

Moniza Alvi

N–P Nikki Bedi

Nikki has worked as a stage actress with some of India’s finest directors as well as having a successful TV career. She hosted Channel 4’s Bombay Chat, a cheeky on location interview show. She then hosted her own show Nikki Tonight on Star TV. She then went on to host the ITV talk show The Last Word. While continuing her work on television, Nikki began pursuing a career in radio. She is currently presenting To Buy or Not to Buy on BBC 1.

Niranjana Desai

Niranjana is a writer, poet and educational consultant. She came to Britain in 1964, pursuing a teaching career, and was the Curriculum Development Officer for the London Borough of Brent. Avta Rejo (Welcome Again) and Etar (This and That) are two of her publications of Gujarati poetry. Niru’s other publications include Rammat Gammat (Let’s Have Fun) and Zabookia (Twinking Stars).

Niven Govinden

Niven is an English novelist. He was born in East Sussex and then studied film at Goldsmiths College. We Are The New Romantics was published by Bloomsbury in 2004. Graffiti My Soul was published by Canongate Books in January 2007.

Onyeka Nwelue

Onyeka is a Nigerian writer. The first draft of his debut novel, The Abyssinian Boy, was completed within three months of his six-month stay in India, where he had gone under the invitation of the India Inter-Continental Cultural Association (IICCA) to write. The Abyssinian Boy is about a South Indian Tamil Brahmin essayist, his East Nigerian Christian wife and the hallucination their nine year-old child faces. The book, published in 2009, has received considerable critical acclaim.

Paul Gravett

Paul is a London-based journalist, curator, writer and broadcaster who has worked in comics publishing and promotion for over 20 years. In 1983 he launched Escape Magazine with Peter Stanbury. From 1992 to 2001, Paul was the director of The Cartoon Art Trust. He has written a number of books on comics and has written for various periodicals including the Guardian, The Comics Journal, Comic Art, Comics International, Time Out, Blueprint, Neo, The Bookseller, Daily Telegraph and Dazed & Confused.

Peter Chand

Peter has a vast repertoire of tales from the sub-continent, which he has collected and translated from Punjabi into English and performed all over Britain, Europe and India. He has told his stories to people of all ages and backgrounds in the UK and beyond, and has appeared several times on BBC Radio 4 and BBC Asian Network. Peter has told his stories in Belgium, Ireland, Norway, Greece, Holland and India.

P–R

Priya Basil

Priya is a British author. Her first novel, Ishq and Mushq, was published in 2007 and was shortlisted for a Commonwealth Writers’ Prize and longlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize and the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. Her second novel, The Obscure Logic of the Heart, was published in 2010. Priya grew up in Kenya, returning to the UK to study English Literature at the University of Bristol. She lives in London and Berlin.

Rajiva Wijesinha

Rajiva was a Professor of Languages before heading the Sri Lankan Peace Secretariat and becoming a Member of Parliament. He chairs the Council of Asian Liberals and Democrats and writes political history and philosophy as well as fiction and literary criticism. Rajiva’s publications include Bridging Connections and Liberal Perspectives on South Asia. His novels Servants and Acts of Faith have been published in Italian translation.

Rita Morar

Rita is a singer / songwriter that specialises in Hindi and English vocals both lead and backing. Since a very young age, music has been an always been an important aspect of Rita’s life. Whether it be devotional singing, playing the harmonium or having a great interest in a fusion of music from Indian classical to Dance, Rita continues to strive for a greater understanding in music. Rita has been aired on BBC Asian Network, BBC Radio 1 and also Buzz Asia.

Ritula Shah

Ritula is a journalist and news presenter on BBC Radio. She is a regular presenter of The World Tonight, the Saturday edition of PM, Woman’s Hour on Radio 4, and The World Today on the World Service. She joined the Radio 4 production team, moved from there to regional television news, and then to the Today programme in 1991. When The World Today launched on the World Service in 1999, Shah became one of its presenters and has remained with the programme ever since.

Rohan Jayasekera

Rohan is a British journalist, editor, web designer and activist for free expression and media rights. He is currently an Associate Editor for Index on Censorship magazine, where he is responsible for the charity’s international programmes. He worked for a variety of London and national newspapers during the 1980s and 1990s before going abroad, covering a dozen conflicts thereafter including Bosnia, Afghanistan and Iraq. He retains a keen interest in new playwriting and community theatre.

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Piers has worked as a farmer, boat driver, surfing instructor, poetry teacher and baker. He has travelled widely and contributed to many literary, travel and environmental publications, including the Telegraph, Times Literary Supplement, Ecologist, Traveller and Earth Island Journal. His first book, Honey and Dust: Travels in Search of Sweetness, was published in July 2005. All Kinds of Magic, published by Bloomsbury in 2010, is a personal search for the mystical and miraculous.

Piers Moore Ede

R,S Romesh Gunesekera

Romesh’s first novel, Reef, was shortlisted for the 1994 Booker Prize. He is also the author of The Sandglass, (winner of the inaugural BBC Asia Award) and Heaven’s Edge, which like his collection of stories, Monkfish Moon, was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. His most recent novel, The Match, was described by the Irish Times as a book that ‘shows why fiction is written—and read’. This year he has been appointed Writer in Residence at Somerset House.

Roopa Farooki

Roopa Farooki was born in Lahore in Pakistan and brought up in London. She graduated from New College, Oxford in 1995 and worked in advertising before turning to write fiction. Roopa now divides her time between south-west France and Kent with her husband, two sons and twin daughters. Bitter Sweets, her first novel, was shortlisted for the Orange New Writers Award 2007, her second novel, Corner Shop was published in 2008, followed by The Way Things Look to Me in 2009 which was recently longlisted for the Orange Prize for Fiction Award 2010.

Roy Moxham

Roy is the author of Outlaw - India’s Bandit Queen and Me, A Brief History of Tea, The Great Hedge of India and The Freelander. He was born and brought up in Evesham, Worcestershire. After working for a while on a Herefordshire fruit farm, Roy spent 13 years in Eastern Africa before returning to London to set up a gallery of African art. Following ‘retirement’ in 2005 he devote most of his energies to writing and giving talks.

Sabrina Mahfouz

Sabrina is an award winning poet, playwright and journalist. She has recently had her first short play, The Caravan, produced at London’s Canal Café Theatre.. She has worked with and written for a number of publications and websites, including the Guardian, The Independent, Tank Magazine, Arena, Open Magazine, Ibiza Style and Egypt Today. Sabrina is currently writing a play for Contact Theatre, Manchester on issues of child sexual exploitation.

Dr Satyendra Srivastava

Satyendra was is the author of several books, articles and plays. He also broadcasts in English and Hindi, and for many years he has been a columnist in various Indian publications. He is the author of two collections of poems in English: Talking Sanskrit to fallen leaves and Between thoughts. He has also published eight collections of Hindi poetry, full-length plays and radio plays.

Sharmistha Gooptu

Sharmishtha has a PhD in history from the University of Chicago. She is a founder and managing trustee of the South Asia Research Foundation (SARF), a not-for-profit research body based in India. Sharmishtha is also the joint editor of the Routledge journal South Asian History and Culture and the South Asian History and Culture book series. Her first monograph is titled Bengali Cinema: An Other Nation.

Siddhartha Bose

Siddhartha is a Londonbased poet and performer. His poetry mirrors his experiences as an ‘Indian immigrant and citizen of a globalised century’. His lyrical style merges storytelling with performance poetry, blending influences from free jazz to Shakespeare. His work has appeared in magazines like The Wolf, Fulcrum, The Literary Review, The Yellow Nib, Tears in the Fence, Eclectica and Alhamra Literary Review. Times Online dubbed him ‘one of the ten rising stars of British poetry’.

Smita Singh

Smita is the Chairperson and Treasurer of Vaani, a platform she initiated for Asian women writers to meet, to exchange, to share ideas. She has a first class Masters degree in English Literature and a variety of experiences of working in the city at various levels. At the moment she teaches post graduate class in one of the colleges in London. She writes short stories, novels and believes that Asian women writers need to be encouraged and given opportunities to be heard.

Surina Narula

Surina has been spearheading the philanthropic activities of the DSC group through her contribution to numerous socially relevant and charitable causes. Surina is engaged with community development and plays a key role in the Consortium for Street Children, of which she is currently President. She has received numerous prestigious awards, including the MBE in the Queen’s birthday honours list (2008), Asian of the Year Award in November 2005 from Asian Who’s Who International, and the Hind Rattan Award by the NRI Welfare Society of India in 1996.

Susie Nicklin

Susie joined the British Council as Director Literature from English PEN in 2005. She manages a team of specialist advisors and directs the British Council’s global literature programme, with special responsibility for China, India, Russia, Brazil and major partnerships. She has co-chaired the British Council’s Oxford conference and Cambridge seminar as well as debates and events at international book fairs and festivals. She sits on a variety of literature committees and has judged UK and international prizes.

Sweta Vikram

Sweta is a multi-genre writer and marketing professional. She is the author of two chapbooks of poetry, Kaleidoscope: An Asian Journey of Colors and Because All Is Not Lost. She is also the co-author of Whispering Woes of Ganges & Zambezi. Her debut fiction novel will be published by Niyogi Books in India. Sweta’s work has appeared in literary journals, online publications, and anthologies across United States, United Kingdom, Canada, India, New Zealand and Philippines.

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Shiv started his career in investigative journalism working for the New Statesman. Reporting from Afghanistan and Pakistan, he has since gone on to write for the Observer, The Sunday Times, Prospect, The Independent on Sunday and The Washington Post. In broadcast he has worked extensively for the BBC and Channel 4 News. The Evening Standard listed him as one of the most influential Londoners of 2008.

Shiv Malik

V,W Vayu Naidu

Vayu is an accomplished storyteller, writer, performer, workshop leader and teacher. Her art of storytelling is derived from the Indic oral tradition and its energy comes quite simply through the telling, not reading, of a story. Imagery is dense with Rasa, or mood, triggering emotional resonances. Storytelling for Vayu is about composing oral literature where the emotive impulse is from the oral imagination.

Victoria Schofield

Victoria attended Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford and has an MA in modern history. She has written extensively on South Asia. Her publications include the highly acclaimed Kashmir in Conflict: India Pakistan and the Unending War, Afghan Frontier and Wavell: Soldier and Statesman. She is a frequent commentator on the BBC and other news outlets and has travelled widely in the region. She is currently writing the official history of The Black Watch.

Vijay Dutt

Vijay is a journalist with over 30-years experience. He had a ring-side view of parliamentary democracy in practice, along with politics, media ethics, monarchy and diplomacy at the highest levels in India. He was witness to international diplomacy at the United Nations as part of the Indian delegation to the General Assembly. He came in close contact with politicians, journalists, leading Indians, and was witness to the machinations by world leaders as well as their pulls and pressures at summits and meets.

Willi Richards

Willi is a director and voice specialist and was a core member of staff at RADA from 1992-2004 where he still teaches part time. He has directed at the Theatre Royal Plymouth, Bristol Old Vic and in the West End. He directs drama for BBC Radio 3 and Radio 4, and has worked with the RSC in Stratford and London, the RNT Studio and the British Council across the world. Recently William worked with the United Nations, developing a training package on Human Rights for police officers in Sri Lanka.

Shakespeareâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Globe, London

The Jury for the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature will deliberate on the longlist to announce 5 selected works as the shortlist at the DSC South Asian Literature Festival, to be held in UK on 25th October at Shakespeareâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Globe. The winner of the first DSC Prize for South Asian Literature will be declared at the DSC Jaipur Literature Festival in January 2011.

Upamanyu Chatterjee: Way To Go (Penguin) Amit Chaudhuri: The Immortals (Picador India) Chandrahas Choudhury: Arzee the Dwarf (HarperCollins) Musharraf Ali Farooqui: The Story of a Widow (Picador India) Ru Freeman: A Disobedient Girl (Penguin/ Viking) Anjum Hassan: Neti Neti (IndiaInk/Roli Books) Tania James: Atlas of Unknowns (Pocket Books) Manju Kapur: The Immigrant (Faber & Faber) Daniyal Mueenuddin: In Other Rooms, Other Wonders (Bloomsbury) Neel Mukherjee: A Life Apart (Constable & Robinson) HM Naqvi: Home Boy (HarperCollins) Salma: The Hour Past Midnight (Zubaan, translated by Lakshmi Holmstrom) Sankar: The Middleman (Penguin, translated by Arunava Sinha) Ali Sethi: The Wish Maker (Penguin) Jaspreet Singh: Chef (Bloomsbury) Aatish Taseer: The Temple Goers (Penguin/Viking) For more information: www.dscprize.com

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The Jury for the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature includes internationally acclaimed literary figures, Lord Matthew Evans, Ian Jack, Amitava Kumar, Moni Mohsin, and Nilanjana S Roy (Chair).

The Longlist for the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature

The DSC Prize for South Asian Literature is very unique: it supports all those who have written about the South Asian region and its people, with no borders or boundaries about the eligibility of the author themselves. The prize will be awarded for the best work of fiction pertaining to the South Asian region, published in English, including translations into English. It is guided by an international Advisory Committee comprising MJ Akbar, Urvashi Butalia, Tina Brown, William Dalrymple, Lord Meghnad Desai, David Godwin, Surina Narula, Senath Walter Perera, Nayantara Sahgal and Michael Worton. With the announcement of the longlist, the anticipation is high on what will be the winning piece of literature.

Festival Team Alexia Tucker Production Co-ordinator, Amar Purohit Photographer, Amardeep Sohi Blogger, Aysha Abdulrazak Blogger, Beejal Soni Blogger, Bhavit Mehta Director, Bryan Obson Programme Contributor, Caroline Steer Online Marketing Assistant, Christopher Little Events Team, Daniel Bigler Blogger, Hannah Falvey Assistant Events Co-ordinator, Iman Qureshi Programme Contributor, Jay Clifton Event Liaison-South East, Jayshree Viswanathan Marketing Assistant, John Farrow Web Developer, Jon Slack Director, Madhulika Jalali Tech Team, Meghna Hazarika Programme Contributor, Natasha Wilson Tech Team, Neeraj Nathwani Photographer, Olivia Guest UK-Wide Events Co-ordinator, Pascal Barry Designer, Resham Naqvi Photographer, Rob Sharp, Programme Contributor, Samantha Cox Blogger, Sandy Mahal Programme Contributor, Sarah Chadfield Education Co-ordinator, Sarah Sanders Artist Co-ordinator, Sharmilla Beezmohun Artist Co-ordinator, Shazia Omar Blogger, Sona Hathi Web Content Editor, Sumaya Kassim Blogger, Sunil Chauhan Publicity Assistant, Tori Hunt Programme Contributor, Tricia Cox Library Events Coordinator, Ushma Mistry Assistant Events Co-ordinator, Vayu Naidu Programme Contributor, Vicky Newman Box Office Co-ordinator.

Thank You We would like to thank the following for their support in enabling this Festival to take place:

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Acton Village India; Adam Pushkin, British Council; Aditya Chakrabortty; Adrienne Loftus Parkins, The Asian Word; Akshay Pathak, German Book Office India; Alan Staton, Booksellers Association; Alasdair Livingstone; Alex Painter; Ali Sethi; Alice Ochocka, Apples & Snakes; Alice Le Page, The British Museum; Alison Morrison, Mainstream Publishing; Alison Pinder, Booksellers Association; Alistair Haggar, British Council; Allen Slack; Amarjit Chandan; Amit Sharma; Amit Chaudhuri; Amitava Kumar; Amy Webster, London Book Fair; Andrew Subramaniam, HW Fisher & Company; Andrew Robinson, MWL; Andy Quinn, Foyles; Angie Solomon; Anil Kumar, Asian Literary Review; Anjali Joseph; Anjan Saha; Anna Frame, Canongate; Anna Ridley, Penguin; Anna Baddeley, The Reading Agency; Anna Cumming; Anna Lewis; Annabel Robinson, FMcM; Anneka Verma; Anya Rosenberg, Bloomsbury; Apples & Snakes; Arts Council England; Asia Literary Review; AsiansInUK.com; Ayisha Malik, Random House; Bashob Dey; Beejal Soni; Ben Travers, MLA; Bhavisha Morjaria; Bigna Pfenninger, The Drawbridge; Bill Samuel; Book Marketing Limited; Booksellers Association; Boria Majumdar; Bridget Shine, IPG; British Council; British Library; Bryan Osbon, Madras Café; Caroline Collyer, Open University; Catherine Mulrine, HW Fisher & Company; Chandak Sengoopta, Birkbeck College; Chandni Chowk Restaurant; Charles Beckett, Arts Council England; Charnwood Arts; Chetan Bhagat; Chiki Sarkar, Random House India; Chloe Johnson-Hill, Random House; Chris Burton, FMcM; Chris Meade; Chris Slack; Chris White, Waterstones; Christian Lewis, Random House; Claire Fox, Institute of Ideas; Claire Anker, Publishers Association; Claire Nouvel, Rich Mix; Clara Womersley, Random House; Cleveland Watkiss; Confederation of Indian Industry; Consortium for Street Children; Cuan Hawker, Shakespeares’s Globe; Daisy Hasan; Dalma Slack; Daniel Hahn; Daniela Paolucci, Apples & Snakes; Danielle Innes, Livity; David Godwin; David Elias; Debbie Guneratne; DIPNET; Divya Mathur, The NDoug Wallace; DSC Limited; Dylan Calder; Eastern Eye; Ed Wilson; Eleanor O’Keeffe; Elka Bhatt; Emma Clackson, Jack Agency; Emma House, Publishers Association; Emrah Tokalac, Kings Place; EMW Picton Howell; English Pen; Farahad Zama; Farhana Shaikh, The Asian Writer; Farrukh Dhondy; Fatima Bhutto; Fiona McMorrough, FMcM; Fiona Smith, Kings Place; Fiona Allen, Waterstones; Free Word Centre; Gadhvi Mukesh; Gemma Seltzer, Arts Council; Geoff Dyer; George Alagiah; Geraldine Damico, Jewish Book Week; Geraldine Rose, Peak Festival; Gita Wolf, Tara Books; Gita Shankardass; Gita Wolf; Glen Izard, AMG; Grant Frampton; Granta; Gunveena Chadha, CII; Hannah Scott, Rich Mix; Hardeep Singh Kohli; Harsha Trivedi; Heather Whitely, Vampire; Helen Winning, Vayu Naidu Company; Hema Mehta; Hema Macherla; Hilal Fareed; Hilary Williams, British Museum; HM Naqvi; HW Fisher & Company; Ilyas Khan; Independent Publishers Guild; Index on Censorship; IndiansInUK.net; Ira Trivedi; Irfan Master; Jacks Thomas, Midas PR; Janetta Otter-Barry; Jason Smith, London Calling; Jay Vasudevan, Jacaranda Press; Jay Thaker; Jeet Thayil; Jenny Rowley, Ebury Publishing; Jenny Rowley, Random House; Jesse Ingham, Hay Festival; Jessica Axe, FMcM; Jo Henry, BML; Joanna Prior, Penguin; John Hampson, Arts Council; John Freeman, Granta; John Kampfner, Index on Censorship; John Farrow; John Freeman; Jon Fawcett, The British Library; Jon Howells, Waterstones; Joost van den Bergh; Jude Drake, Bloomsbury; Julia Kingsford, Foyles; Julia Farrington, Index on Censorship; Juliette Mitchell, Penguin; Justine Hardy; Kalpesh Solanki, AMG; Kate Arthurs, British Council; Kate Rochester, Granta; Kate Wilson, Nosy

Crow; Katherine Woodfine, Booktrust; Katherine Josselyn, Harper Collins; Kathryn Langley; Katie Allen, The Bookseller; Kelly Pike, Telegram Books; Kenan Malik; Kings Place; Lady Kishwar Desai; Kripa Joshi; Krishan Mehta; Kulbir Natt, Darbar Festival; Kuldeep Singh Maan, Indian Mirror Magazine; Lauren Slack; Laurence Sofowora, ABI; Leonora Borg, CSC; Leslie Henry, BML; Lisa Mead, Apples & Snakes; Lisa Shakespeare, Orion; Lisa Brännström; Livity; Liz Thomson, BookBrunch; Lopa Patel, Redhotcurry.com; Louise Rhind-Tutt; Lyndy Cooke, Hay Festival; Madeline Toy, Transworld Publishers; Madras Café; Maegan Chadwick-Dobson, Tara Books; Maggie Fergusson, Royal Society of Literature; Malti Bhandari; Manhad Narula; Marcus Gipps, Blackwell Books; Mark Reynolds, The Drawbridge; Mary Rahman; Mary Clemmey; Mary Paterson; Masud Hossain, British Council Bangladesh; Maureen Scott, Ether Books; Maureen Scott; Maya Jaggi; Mayank Mehta; Lord Meghnad Desai; Mehreen Malik; Meru Gokhale, Penguin; Michael Harris, Index on Censorship; Michael Green, Kings Place; Michael Slack; Michael Wood; Mihir Bose; Mike Jones, Ether Books; Milen Shah; Mina Mehta; Miriam Robinson, Foyles; Mitchell Albert, International PEN; Mohammed Hanif; Moni Mohsin; Monika Mohta, The Nehru Centre; Moniza Alvi; Mukulika Banerjee, London School of Economics; Mustashrik; Nabanita Sircar; Nadir Cheema; Namita Gokhale, DSC Jaipur Literature Festival; Namita Gokhale; Naresh Nagrecha; Navin Arora, IndiansInUK. net; Nayantara Sahgal; Neel Mukherjee; Neil Chisholm, Rich Mix; Nicholas Clee, BookBrunch; Nicholas Chapman, British Council; Nicholas Irinee; Nick Barley, Edinburgh Book Festival; Nick Dobson, Redbridge Central Library Services; Nicki Crossley; Nicky Potter, Frances Lincoln; Nielan Catherine, The Bookseller; Nigel Roby, The Bookseller; Nikesh Shukla; Nikki Bi, The Reading Agency; Nikki Bedi; Niranjana Desai; Niven Govinden; Norma Manhire; Oliver Carruthers, Rich Mix; Onyeka Nwelue; Pablo Rossello, British Council; Padmini Ray Murray; Palvi Haria-Shah; Paul Gravett; Paul Gravett; Peak Festival; Penned in the Margins; Peter Florence, Hay Festival; Peter Millican, Kings Place; Peter Collingridge; Peter Law; Peter Chand; Phil Manhire; Philip, The Space Centre; Piers Moore Ede; Priya Doraswamy, Jacaranda Press; Priya Basil; QForum; Pushpinder Chowdhry, Tongues on Fire; Rachel Stevens, British Council; Rachel Page, Royal Society of Literature; Rahul Verma, Livity; Rajendra Mehta (In Memory); Rajesh Aggarwal, RationalFX; Rajiva Wijesinha; Rakesh Bhanot; Ranmali Mirchandani, British Council Sri Lanka; Ravi Singh, Penguin India; Rich Mix; Rebecca Abrahams, Charnwood Arts; Richard Alford, Charles Wallace India Trust; Rita Hunt, CII; Rita Morar; Ritula Shah; Robert Sharp, English PEN; Roger Elsgood; Rohan Jayasekera; Rohini Chowdhury; Romesh Gunesekera; Roopa Farooki; Roy Moxham; Rukhsana Yasmin; Russell Thompson, Apples & Snakes; Ruth Harrison, The Reading Agency; Saadhak Books; Sa’ad Idris; Sabrina Mahfouz; Sailesh Ram, AMG; Samir Bhamra; Sandeep Mahal, The Reading Agency; Sanjay Thaker; Sanjoy Roy, Teamwork Productions; Sarah Ellis, Apples & Snakes; Saskia Vogel, Granta; Satyendra Srivastava; Shailesh Solanki, AMG; Shanti Venkatesh, The Nehru Centre; Sharmistha Gooptu; Shelina Permalloo, DIPNET; Shiv Malik; Shourav Mitra; Shreela Ghosh, Free Word Centre; Siddhartha Bose; Silvia Gavlakova; Simon Juden, Publishers Association; Simon Burke, Waterstones; Simon Robertson, Waterstones; Smita Singh, Vaani; Society of Young Publishers; Sophia Bartleet, Ether Books; Sophie Hoult, English PEN; Sophie Lording, Hay Festival; Sophie Robinson, Penguin; Sophie Dhaliwal; Sophie Rochester; South Asia Research Foundation; Spinebreakers; Sridhar Gowda, Peak Festival; Steve Dearden, NALD; Stuart Broom, Waterstones; Sudeep, The Nehru Centre; Sudeep Basu, GLA; Sujata Sen, British Council India; Suman Bhuchar; Sunila Galappatti; Surina Narula; Susanne Schettler; Susheila Nasta, Open University; Susie Nicklin, British Council; Suzy Astbury; Sweta Srivastava Vikram; Tanima Maniktala, British Council India; Tara Books; Taran Wilkhu, Himalaya Film and Culture Festival; Tattershall Castle; Teja Picton Howell, EMW Picton Howell; Thalia Cassimatis, Rich Mix; The Asian Writer; The Bookseller; The British Museum; The Drawbridge; The Nehru Centre; The Open University; The Publishers Association; The Reading Agency; The Space Centre; Tim Godfray, Booksellers Association; Tom Chivers, Penned in the Margins; Tom Tivnan, The Bookseller; Tongues on Fire; Umesh Patel, Action Village India; University of Leicester; Urvashi Butalia, Zubaan Books; VAANI; Vayu Naidu; Vayu Naidu Company; Vicky Addinall, Action Village India; Victoria Schofield; Vijay Dutt; Viv Bird, Booktrust; Vivienne Wordley, Emirates Literature Festival; VK Karthika, HarperCollins India; Wasafiri; Willi Richards; William Radice, SOAS; Woodrow Pheonix; Yash Mehta; Zahra Rizvi, British Council Pakistan; Zool Verjee, Blackwell Books…. and the friendly staff at Weatherspoons and Pret-aManger which have been our offices for last 18 months!

We would like to especially thank our Festival Team for their dedication and efforts, and to our fantastic supporters and sponsors, your invaluable contributions are what have made this Festival possible. And to our Friends and Family, who offered their love and support, feedback and – for those who put up with through the long nights – endless patience, we thank you! Bhavit Mehta & Jon Slack, Directors

Books for Millions?

The Value of South Asia in UK Publishing Your chance to participate in an important UK-first survey – and win some great prizes! In conjunction with the DSC South Asian Literature Festival, Amphora Arts is conducting an industry-first survey during the Festival’s month of October. The results will be debated by a panel of leading figures across the book trade at a special event in November. How it will work The survey produced in association with leading book trade magazine, The Bookseller, and conducted by industry-research specialist Book Marketing limited, will examine the reading and buying habits of South Asian Diaspora in the UK, and look to discover the reach and importance of South Asian literature – writing that is related in any way to the subcontinent – by the general reading public. Why this survey is important The Festival has long-term aims to raise the profile of South Asian literature in the UK, and Amphora Arts believes that more culturally-influenced content in the books we read can have far-reaching and positive benefits in both education and the way we grow as a society, both here and abroad. This survey is the beginning of an important initiative to help UK publishers and retailers better understand what Britain’s readers want to discover next. To find out more and take part, visit www.dscsouthasianlitfest.com/survey PRODUCED BY AMPHORA ARTS IN ASSOCIATION WITH

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SURVEY UNDERTAKEN BY

The DSC South Asian Literature Festival has launched a Friends scheme The Festival Friend’s scheme is a way for dedicated Festival goers to support the ongoing development of the Festival. Membership of the scheme lasts for 12 months from the date of joining, and entitles members to a range of exclusive benefits. Membership categories: (a) Member Friends: £25 for individual or £40 joint membership (b) Gold Friends: £200 for Gold Friend membership (c) Founding Friends: For this year only you can support the Festival as a Founding Friend by contributing £400 and above Member Friends receive: v Priority seating for you and up to three guests to all events* v Acknowledgement of your support on our website Gold Friends, in addition to the above, also receive: v Two free tickets to an event of your choice during the Festival v Acknowledgement of your support at Festival events Founding Friends receive all the above plus: v Exclusive invitation (for two) to the Festival’s opening night event and private reception on 15 October v Exclusive invitation (for two) to the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature – 2010 Shortlist Gala Dinner at Shakespeare’s Globe on 25 October v tFour free pairs of tickets to any events during the Festival For more information about the Friends scheme, please contact friends@southasianlitfest.com * subject to availability

Tickets & Venue Information Tickets can be purchased online at: www.dscsouthasianlitfest.com/events Contact boxoffice@southasianlitfest.com for ticketing queries. All tickets are available to purchase at venues where available â&#x20AC;&#x201C; book in advance to avoid disappointment.

London Kings Place

British Library 96 Euston Road, London NW1 2DB

British Museum Great Russell Street, London WC1B 3DG

Free Word Centre

British Library

The Nehru Centre

Free Word Centre British Museum Rich Mix

QForum

Tattershall Castle

60 Farringdon Road, London EC1R 3GA

Kings Place 90 York Way, London N1 9AG

QForum

Libraries across London. For details on our library events and locations, please see pages 34-36

5-8 Lower John Street, London W1F 9AU

Rich Mix 35-47 Bethnal Green Road, London E1 6LA

Tattershall Castle (boat) Victoria Embankment, Whitehall London SW1A 2HR

The Nehru Centre 8 South Audley Street, London W1K 1HF

uk-wide Calver Village Hall Main Street, Calver Hope Valley, Peak District S32 3XR

Richard Attenborough Centre University Of Leicester, Lancaster Road, Leicester LE1 7HA

Brighton Dome Church Street, Brighton, East Sussex BN1 1UE

Information correct at time of going to press. Please check online for any changes and additions.

Experience the Festival online

www.dscsouthasianlitfest.com Showcasing voices from across and beyond South Asia v

Event discussions and write-ups v v

Author profiles and blogs v

South Asian literature debates v

Up-and-coming writing talent v

facebook.com/southasianlitfest @sthasianlitfest