reading+writing+conversation+community
Hello and welcome to Episode 84 of Desi Books—news and views about desi literature from the world over. I’m your host, Jenny Bhatt. Thank you for tuning in. Today, in #FiveDesiFaves, we have Sorayya Khan, who has a new memoir out: We Take Our Cities With Us. She discusses the five desi books to which she owes a substantial debt. Spanning genres and generations, these are by Sara Suleri, Bapsi Sidhwa, Agha Shahid Ali, Urvashi Butalia, and Intizar Husain.
Hello and welcome to Episode 83 of Desi Books—news and views about desi literature from the world over. I’m your host, Jenny Bhatt. Thank you for tuning in. In today's #DesiCraftChat, we have Kalyan Raman discussing his latest Tamil-to-English translation of Vaasanthi's novel, Breaking Free. We also discuss how he chooses the works to translate, what drew him to translate this novel, how a translator brings all their learning and experiences to their translation work, how he sees literary criticism and translation work as connected, and a lot more.
Hello and welcome to Episode 82 of Desi Books—news and views about desi literature from the world over. I’m your host, Jenny Bhatt. Thank you for tuning in. In today's #DesiCraftChat, we have Nandita Dinesh discussing her debut novel, This Place That Place, and how the hybrid, nonlinear novel form helped her write about the effects of war, how her theater and performance background informed this book, why she wanted to explore nuanced and ethical ways to engage with contexts we may not understand, and much more.
Rashi Rohatgi reviews Vaishnavi Patel’s Kaikeyi and The Ramayana of Valmiki, translated by Robert P Goldman and Sally J Sutherland Goldman.
Veena Narayan reviews The First World War Adventures of Nariman Karkaria by Nariman Karkaria (tr. by Murali Ranganathan).
Suhasini Patni reviews A Gujarat Here, A Gujarat There by Krishna Sobti, translated from the Hindi into English by Daisy Rockwell.
#DesiBooksReview Issue 3 Feature Essay by N Kalyan Raman on Translation (excerpted from Breaking Free)
#DesiBooksReview Issue 3 Feature Essay by Vaasanthi on Literary Lineage (excerpted from Breaking Free)
Hello and welcome to Episode 80 of Desi Books—news and views about desi literature from the world over. I’m your host, Jenny Bhatt. Thank you for tuning in. In today's #DesiCraftChat, we have Devi S. Laskar discussing her new novel, Circa, and writing in the second person, how fiction can show a possible path out of grief, embracing how journalism informs her fiction and poetry, using the pendulum method to finish a book, what's changed (or not) for older women writers of color, and much more.
Hello and welcome to Episode 79 of Desi Books—news and views about desi literature from the world over. I’m your host, Jenny Bhatt. Thank you for tuning in. In today's #DesiCraftChat, we have Vauhini Vara discussing her debut novel, The Immortal King Rao, how she braided multiple storylines together, why she ended with a question about human ambition, how her MFA helped her bring this first book into the world—and much more.