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

From Kalki 2898 AD, Brahmastra, and beyond, Indian cinema has become oversaturated with sci-fi films that focus on motifs from religion and mythology, fixating on technical effects rather than innovative ideas and storytelling. By Marnina (Avirup)

Poetry: ‘I placed my parents on a bench / And refused to let the sunset / Dawn upon their lives.’

Considering the polarizing socio-political climate in the country, Sneha Bengani examines censorship and outrage in Hindi cinema, and the consequences of heightened intolerance towards this democratic, transformative medium.

With an electrifying, viral video, Hanumankind’s “Big Dawgs” has become Indian hip hop’s biggest global smash. In an email exchange, Karan Madhok and Nakul Yadav discuss his unlikely breakthrough, the future of Indian rap, and Baba Sehgal’s “Aaja Meri Gaadi Mein Baith Ja”.

Poetry by Kiriti Sengupta: ‘Death pauses verdict; the authority mars evidence. / The doomed is put on the pyre; rallies slit through / the silence.’

“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

The collection Awaaz: Voices of Govandi has emerged from the need of the people of Govandi to reclaim the narrative about their neighbourhood, and carve out their own future. Here is an excerpt from the collection. Edited by Nisha Nair-Gupta

Poetry by Vrinda Bansal: ‘I am rage and blasphemy, God in a dungeon, / a domesticated wolf, the brain of a terrorist party / I am your grandmother’s birthday party and a child’s funeral, / a barrel of kerosene’

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

Poetry by Smita Agarwal: ‘The dahlias grow hawa mey— / off the air, we’d say / Down steep ravines / into which the monsoon // munificence would flow’

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