Y'all want to help me flesh out my list of potential writers invitees? Have I missed any significant South Asian or South Asian diaspora writers? How about emerging writers that you just happen to know about? Are any of these people deceased?
Sorry about the ugly formatting -- just don't have the patience to reformat today...
South Asian Lit Festival -- Writers' List * owned ! have read Author Title(s) Contact Info Notes Alexander, Meena The Shock of Arrival Ali, Monica Brick Lane (*) London Badami, Anita Rau The Hero's Walk (*!) Canada Baldwin, Shauna Singh What the Body Remembers Budhos, Marina Tamar The Professor of Light Chandra, Vikram Red Earth and Pouring Rain (*!), Love and Longing in Bombay (*) Shruthi is willing to contact: Shruthireddy@aol.com, Washington D.C. and Bombay, vchandra@mindspring.com DasGupta, Shamita Das The Demon Slayers and Other Stories (Bengali folktales), A Patchwork Shawl (creative nonfiction) Das, Kamala My Story: The Compelling Autobiography Daswani, Kavita For Matrimonial Purposes (*) Los Angeles De Souza, Eunice Nine Indian Women Poets: An Anthology (ed.) Desai, Anita In Custody (made into Merchant Ivory film) (*!), Fasting, Feasting (*!), Baumgartner's Bombay, Clear Light of Day, many more novels Cambridge, MA (teaches at MIT)? (son, Kiran Desai) Desai, Kiran Hullaballoo in the Guava Orchard NY? Divakaruni, Chitra Banerjee The Mistress of Spices (*!), Sister of My Heart (!), The Vine of Desire (*!), Arranged Marriage (*!), The Unknown Errors of Our Lives (*!), Leaving Yuba City, Black Candle Sunnyvale, CA Ghosh, Amitav The Glass Palace, The Calcutta Chromosome, Shadow Lines, In an Antique Land, The Circle of Reason, finalist for Commonwealth Prize, which he rejected New York Gunesekera, Romesh Reef (*!), Monkfish Moon (*!) London (Sri Lankan author) Gupta, Sunetra A Sin of Colors Ismail, Raviya Poem "Jasmine Rain" in Deslicious She lives in NJ. Jhabvala, Ruth Prawer Shards of Memory (*!), Esmond in India (*!), Travellers (*), Heat and Dust, many more novels, Booker Prize-winner, co-wrote Howards End film and A Room with a View England? Kamani, Ginu Junglee Girl (*!) Kamdar, Mira Motiba's Tattoos Kapur, Manju Difficult Daughters Khotari, Geeta Kumar, Amitava Passport Photos (creative nonfiction), Bombay-London-New York, Husband of a Fanatic Teaches English literature at Pennsylvania State Univ. Kunzru, Hari The Impressionist (*), Transmission London Kurieshi, Hanif The Black Album (*!), The Buddha of Suburbia (*!),My Beautiful Launderette (film) (!), Sammy and Rosie Get Laid, London Kills Me, Outskirts and Other Plays London Lahiri, Jhumpa Interpreter of Maladies (!), Pulitzer-prize-winner, The Namesake Mandava, Bhargavi C. Where Oceans Meet Los Angeles Manji, Irshad The Trouble with Islam Toronto? Mehta, Gita A River Sutra (*!), Karma Cola, Raj India, England, U.S. Mishra, Pankaj The Romantics (*) New Delhi, Simra Mistry, Rohinton A Fine Balance (*!), Family Matters (*!), Such a Long Journey (*!), Swimming Lessons (*!) near Toronto Mootoo, Shani Cereus Blooms at Night Mukherjee, Bharati Darkness (*!), The Tiger's Daughter, The Holder of the World (*!), Leave it to Me (*!), Jasmine (!), Wife, The Middleman and Other Stories (*!), Days and Nights in Calcutta (*!), The Sorrow and the Terror, Desirable Daughters (*!) U.C. Berkeley Naipaul, V.S. A Way in the World (*!), many many other books born in Trinidad, lives in England Narayan, Kirin Love, Stars, and All That Narayan, R.K. Swami and Friends, many more novels. India Ondaatje, Michael Running in the Family (*!), In the Skin of a Lion (*!), Anil's Ghost (*!), The English Patient (film) (!) Toronto Prashad, Vijay Rahman, Imad He published a collection of short stories earlier this year entitled, I Dream of Microwaves. Pakistani born -Wisconsin resident Roy, Arundhati The God of Small Things, Booker prize winner New Delhi Rushdie, Salman Midnight's Children (*!), Haroun and the Sea of Stories (*!),The Moor's Last Sigh (*),The Satanic Verses, East, West (*!), Imaginary Homelands (*!), Shame, etc. Selvadurai, Shyam Funny Boy (*!), Cinnamon Gardens (*!) Sri Lankan, queer, Toronto resident Seth, Vikram A Suitable Boy (*!), The Golden Gate (*!), An Equal Music (!) San Francisco? Sidhwa, Bapsi Cracking India Singh, Shauna Baldwin What the Body Remembers Suri, Manil The Death of Vishnu (*!) math professor at U Maryland, Baltimore Syal, Meera Anita and Me (*!), Life Isn't All Ha Ha Hee Hee (*!) London Tharoor, Shashi The Great Indian Novel, Riot, Show Business, Five Dollar Smile and Other Stories Vassanji, M.G. The In-between Life of Vikram Lall Toronto?
How about these authors?
Samina Ali, Madras on Rainy Days. She might be in California
Amulya Malladi, A Breath of Fresh Air, The Mango Season and the upcoming Serving Crazy with Curry, lives on the island of Mors.
Bharti Kirchner has written several cookbooks and the novels, Darjeeling, Desserts, Shiva Dancing and Sharmila’s Book. Might live in the Seattle area.
Another interesting, and perhaps the only well-known author from Nepal is Samrat Upadhyay. He has written the novel, The Guru of Love and the short story collection, Arresting God in Kathmandu. He might live in Indiana.
Mohsin Ahmad from Pakistan is the author of Moth Smoke. He is an interesting author and writes quite differently than most S. Asian writers. More gritty and urban. I don’t know where he lives.
Another author who does interesting historical projects is William Dalrymple who wrote The White Mughals and The City of Djinns. He lives in the UK.
Indu Sundaresan wrote The Twentieth Wife and The Feast of Roses. I don’t know where she lives.
These are just the ones I could think of right now. If some others come to mind I will let you know.
Jawahara
This is great! Very helpful…
Mary Anne,
Are you looking only for writers writing novels? One name that comes to mind, though not a novalist, is M. Night Shyamalan, who has written (and directed) quite a number of distinctive create works, though movies.
I only glanced over your list but I would assume that Salman Rushdie is on it?
Shannon
Here are some more:
Raj Kamal Jha who wrote The Blue Bedspread, one of my favorites. He lives in New Delhi.
Of course, there is David Davidar, author of The House of Blue Mangoes, the person who launched Arundhati Roy’s novel, the youngest Publisher (at 27) of Penguin (India) who has now been sent to Penguin Canada to set it back on track.
A lesser known author is Neelum Saran Gour, author for Virtual Realities. Not much on the international scene she is a regional writer who writes in English. Lives in my hometown, Allahabad, India.
I am sure a few more will come to mind as soon as I send this off. I am getting quite obsessed with this writing list now.
Shannon, it’s in alphabetical order. 🙂
I think we’ll restrict it to print literature for now — film opens up a whole ‘nother kettle of worms. 🙂
Jawahara, thanks for the additions!
There’s K.S Maniam from my neck of the woods,
Malaysia. Works of his include “The Return”
and “In a Far Country”
Found an info page about him:
http://www.ucalgary.ca/UofC/eduweb/engl392/492a/lectures/maniam.html
And is your list restricted to fiction? If not,
there’s always Sara Suleri.
Thanks, Anita. We’re covering fiction, poetry, playwrights, and creative non-fiction. The standard creative writing genres. 🙂 What does Sara Suleri do?
Cool!
Sara Suleri wrote an excellent memoir of her life in Pakistan Meatless Days (she’s a prof in the US now, I believe). I did a rather subjective review thingamajig of it on
my book journal but I think more pertinent info about the writer and the book can be found here.
Ven Begamudre (Regina, Canada)
Vandana Singh
Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha (Toronto, Canada) Her last book was called _Consensual Genocide_
Ramabai Espinet (Toronto, Canada) Her last book was called _The Swinging Bridge_
Last I knew, Irshad Manji was in fact in Toronto. I believe that Moyez Vasanji lives in the Greater Toronto Area (suburbs of Toronto).
Sandra Kasturi (Toronto, Canada)
Uma Parameswaran (Canada)
Oonya Kempadoo
Neil Bissoondath
Sharon Lewis (Toronto, Canada)
Arnold Itwaru
Cyril Dabydeen
Sasenarine Persaud
Rabindranath Maharaj, Greater Toronto Area. Wrote _Homer in Flight,_ _The Book of Ifs and Buts,_ _The Lagahoo’s Apprentice._
God, so many whose names I’m blanking on right now. You might check the Tsar books backlist (Canadian South Asian publisher): http://www.tsarbooks.com
Sashi Deshpande whose last book Binding Vines was published in the US. She has several other books.
Geetha Hariharan, novel In Times of Siege. She is currently a visiting proff. at GW
Vijay Prashad’s book is called Karma of Brown Folk. There is another newer one.
Shona Ramaya’s Monsoon Diary (?)
Bapsi Sidhwa, Cracking India
Akhil Sharma, The Obedient Father