I entirely failed to do…

I entirely failed to do any work yesterday. Dunno what was wrong with me; just couldn't focus. Today seems a bit better, though -- got Kaolin and Carmela working on setting up that technology exchange program; with any luck, we'll be able to announce it at the end of June, along with our new travel grant. And started planning the next in-person SA lit meeting. Slowly, we progress.

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?

10 thoughts on “I entirely failed to do…”

  1. 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

  2. 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

  3. 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.

  4. Mary Anne Mohanraj

    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!

  5. Mary Anne Mohanraj

    Thanks, Anita. We’re covering fiction, poetry, playwrights, and creative non-fiction. The standard creative writing genres. 🙂 What does Sara Suleri do?

  6. 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

  7. 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

Leave a Reply to Jawahara Cancel Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *