The Profound Metaphors of Inner Turmoil in Aparna Sanyal’s INSTRUMENTS OF TORTURE
In Aparna Sanyal’s Instruments of Torture, each tale is a deep dive into the abyss of human suffering, portraying characters who are not just victims of their circumstances but also complex individuals grappling with the aftermath of their traumas. By Namrata
Voices of a Generation: An Interview with A.M. Gautam on INDIAN MILLENNIALS
In a lengthy conversation, A.M. Gautam, the author of Indian Millennials: Who Are They, Really? (2024), speaks about the many anxieties and opportunities of the Indian millennial, themes of romance, employment, politics, and commerce, and discovering his own self while exploring the larger generation. By Karan Madhok
Down to EARTHA: Vinita Agrawal’s Poetic Conversation with Nature
Vinita Agrawal takes the role of a ‘poetic journalist’ in Eartha, in verses that spark with compassion for all living entities on the planet. By Tansy Troy
The City Must Die Before It’s Reborn: Varun Thomas Mathew’s THE BLACK DWARVES OF THE GOOD LITTLE BAY
The dystopian universe of Varun Thomas Mathew’s The Black Dwarves of the Good Little Bay (2019) is a prophetic chronicling of crisis as a condition of existence, and the contingency of truth as a mode of knowing or bearing witness to crisis. By Paromita Patranobish
“I surrendered to the chaos”: An Interview with Tashan Mehta, author of MAD SISTERS OF ESI
“I was chasing this desire to pin down the inexplicable when I wrote Mad Sisters, but acknowledge that it is inexplicable. It sort-of grew in the novel, intwining with the cosmos and the idea of the sublime, and how the interpersonal is the tether that keeps us sane—and perhaps caged.” By Akankshya Abismruta
Rainbows on the Silver Screen
From Ek Ladki Ko Dekha Toh Aisa Lagaa, Badhai Do, Shubh Mangal Zyada Saavdhan, and more, a fresh lease of life seems to have been granted to a responsible on-screen LGBTQIA+ representation in the glitzy-verse of commercial Bollywood over the past decade. By Nivedita Dey
“We All Share Human Experiences” – An Interview with K. Vaishali
K. Vaishali won the prestigious Sahitya Akademi Yuva Puraskar this year for her memoir Homeless: Growing Up Lesbian and Dyslexic in India. She speaks about this latest honour, inclusivity in Indian publishing, and the challenges of revealing the sensitive parts of her life to the world. By Namrata
Celestial Broadcasts
Sanket Mhatre poems in A City Full of Sirens address and interrogate the relations between ‘the eternal’ and ‘the transient’ in a nuanced manner, tearing into the expansive multiplicities of singular moments. By Ankush Banerjee
In the Unifying Language of Verse
Published in India’s 75th year of Independence, Converse: Contemporary English Poetry by Indians (2022) presents unique and diverse voices from the diaspora, with poems that are a sustained discussion with history, oneself, the environment, myth, science, and relationships. By Dustin Pickering
Obsession and Namelessness in Devibharathi’s THE SOLITUDE OF A SHADOW
In The Solitude of a Shadow, Devibharathi presents a complex picture of a vengeance-seeking narrator fractured by trauma, caste, and identity crisis. By Sneha Pathak
A Way of ‘Happening’: Amitava Kumar’s THE YELLOW BOOK
Amitava Kumar’s The Yellow Book: A Traveller's Diary (2023), conceptualizes the journal itself as an art object, where the act of journaling becomes a form of artistic practice. By Pranavi Sharma
“Sometimes silence works”: Words and Withdrawals in Kiriti Sengupta’s Oneness
Kiriti Sengupta’s Oneness (2024) is a condensed capsule of poetry, one that weaves multiple strains of being into an organic unity. With his vivid and sonic juxtapositions, the compositions in the new collection both obfuscate and enlighten the reader. By Ajanta Paul