Scherezade Siobhan

Scherezade Siobhan is a psychologist, writer and a community catalyst who founded The Mira Project and runs The Talking Compass?—?a therapeutic space dedicated to providing mental counseling services and decolonizing mental health care. She is an award-winning author of “Bone Tongue” (Thought Catalog Books, 2015), “Father, Husband” (Salopress, 2016) and “The Blues Kali” (Forthcoming, Lithic Press). Find her @zaharaesque on twitter. Send her chocolate and puppies?—?nihilistwaffles@gmail.com. Tweet at her @zaharaesque.

Interview with Scherezade Siobhan

Rochelle Potkar

Rochelle Potkar: An alumna of Iowa’s International Writing Program, and Charles Wallace Writer’s fellowship, Rochelle Potkar was the winner of the 2016 Open Road Review contest for The leaves of the deodar. Her poem The girl from Lal Bazaar was shortlisted for the Gregory O' Donoghue International Poetry Prize, 2018. Her poem Place won an honorable mention at Asian Cha’s Auditory Cortex. Her poem Skirt was made into a poetry film by Philippa Collie Cousins for the Visible Poetry Project. Her latest book is Paper Asylum (Copper Coin). (https://rochellepotkar.com)

Interview with Rochelle Potkar

Vinita Agrawal

Vinita Agrawal Author of three books of poetry, Vinita is an award winning poet and editor. Recipient of the Gayatri GaMarsh Award for Literary Excellence, USA, The TallGrass Writers Guild Award, Chicago, Hongkong Proverse Prize, her poems have appeared in Asiancha, The Fox Chase Review, Open Road Review, Mithila Review, Bombay Review, Mascara Literary Review, Blue Fifth Review among others. She has read at Kala Ghoda Arts Festival, SAARC, 100 thousand Poets, Lucknow Literature Festival, Cappucino and Women Empowerment events. She is on the Advisory Board Of The Tagore Literary Prize.

Love, Lust and Loyalty by Yuimi Vashum reviewed by Vinita Agrawal

Varsha Tiwary

Varsha Tiwary finds her material and insights from being on the other side of the table - that the act of writing confers. All fodder for more stories. Her works are forthcoming in Shenandoah, Gargoyle and Caitlin Press.

Women’s bodies, the ultimate battleground?

Yasmeen Hameed

Yasmeen Hameed is a Pakistani Urdu poet, translator and an educator. Yasmeen Hameed’s original literary contributions are her five books of poetry published in Urdu in 1988, 1991, 1996, 2001 and 2007. She has contributed to English writing through translation of contemporary Urdu poetry into English She has edited (in English), issues of Pakistani Literature published by the Pakistan Academy of Letters.[2] She has written scripts in English for cultural/fashion shows sponsored by the Government of Pakistan, performed in London in 1995 and Washington in 1996 and in the World cup cricket Cultural Festival in Pakistan in 1996. She has also contributed a monthly column to the "Books & Authors" supplement of The Daily Dawn newspaper. She has won Tamgha-e-Imtiaz (Medal of Distinction) for Literature awarded by the Government of Pakistan in 2008[2] Fatima Jinnah Medal for Literature awarded by the Government of Punjab, Pakistan on International Women’s Day, 8 March 2006[2] Ahmed Nadeem Qasmi Award for Poetry (2001) for the collection, Fana bhi eik saraab Iffat Saeed is a writer and a translator based in Lahore Pakistan. He has translated the works of Yasmeen Hameed, Ada Jaffery, Munir Niazi amongst others.

Yasmeen Hameed, Translated from Urdu by Iffat Saeed

Nzanmongi Jasmine Patton

Nzanmongi Jasmine Patton is an Assistant Professor at the Department of English, Gargi College, Delhi University. She has translated and compiled the first anthology of Lotha-Naga folktales entitled A Girl Swallowed by a Tree: Lotha Naga Tales Retold.

Excerpt from the introduction of ‘A girl swallowed by a tree’ by Nzanmongi Jasmine Patton

Tanveer Anjum

Tanveer Anjum holds a masters in English literature and has a doctorate in applied linguistics. She has been writing poetry for several decades. Her collections of poetry are Undekhi Lehren (1982), Safar aur Qaid mein Nazmein (1992), Toofani Barishon mein Raqsaan Sitaare (1997) and Sar-o-Barg-e-Aarzoo (2002). She is a recipient of the Presidential Award, Izaz-i-Fazeelat (2000).

Tanveer Anjum translated from the Urdu by Tanveer Anjum and Afzal Ahmed Syed

Afzal Ahmed Syed

Afzal Ahmed Syed is a contemporary Urdu poet and translator, known for his mastery of both classical and modern Urdu poetic expression. He is the author of the modern nazm collections(An Arrogated Past, 1984),(Death Sentence in Two Languages, 1990), and (Rococo and Other Worlds, 2000). Another collection of classical ghazals is titled (The Dark Pavilion, 1988). Syed has translated a wide and important body of works by contemporary poets, playwrights and novelists. He was the one of the first Urdu translators of Gabriel García Márquez and Jean Genet. His work has been widely published in leading Urdu literary periodicals such as Shabkhoon, Aaj, and Dunyazad. He currently teaches at Habib University.

Tanveer Anjum translated from the Urdu by Tanveer Anjum and Afzal Ahmed Syed

Nadia Niaz

Nadia Niaz is a writer, editor and academic ‘from’ Melbourne via Pakistan and many other places. She has a PhD in Creative Writing and Cultural Studies and teaches at the University of Melbourne. A simultaneous trilingual third-culture kid herself, Nadia is interested in multilingual creative and poetic expression, the practicalities and politics of translation, and language use among third culture kids and other globally mobile cohorts. In 2018 she founded the Australian Multilingual Writing Project. Her most recent work can be found in The Polyglot, Not Very Quiet, Peril, and Pencilled-In. Nadia is a member of the West Writers Group.

A ghazal for my Dadi and her sisters

Sangeeta Bandyopadhyay

Sangeeta Bandyopadhyay is a Bengali novelist. She has published nine novels and over fifty short stories since her debut, Shankini. A newspaper columnist and film critic, Sangeeta lives and works in Kolkata.

An Excerpt from The Yogini by Sangeeta Bandyopadhyay, translated from the Bangla by Arunava Sinha

Arunava Sinha

Arunava Sinha has translated over fifty books from Bengali. He is the winner of the Crossword Translation Award, for both Sankar's Chowringhee and Anita Agnihotri's Seventeen, and of the Muse India translation award for Buddhadeva Bose's When the Time Is Right. His translation of Chowringhee was also shortlisted for the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize.

An Excerpt from The Yogini by Sangeeta Bandyopadhyay, translated from the Bangla by Arunava Sinha

Ranendra

Ranendra is the author of three critically acclaimed books in Hindi: a collection of short stories, "RaatBaakiEvam Anya Kahaniyaan", published by RajkamalPrakashan, and two novels, "Global GaonKeDevta", published by BharatiyaGyanpeeth, and "GaayabHotaDesh", published by Penguin Hindi. "Global GaonKeDevta" was recently published in English translation, "Lords of the Global Village" (translator: Rajesh Kumar), by Speaking Tiger.

Baba, Crows and Black Smoke

Hansda Sowvendra Shekhar

>Hansda Sowvendra Shekhar translates between English, Hindi, and Santhali, apart from being the author of three books written originally in English: "The Mysterious Ailment of RupiBaskey" (a novel), "The Adivasi Will Not Dance" (a collection of short stories), and "Jwala Kumar and the Gift of Fire: Adventures in Champakbagh" (a novel for children).

Baba, Crows and Black Smoke

Mrinalini Harchandrai

Mrinalini Harchandrai is the author of 'A Bombay in My Beat', a collection of poetry. Her poem won first prize in The Barre (2017) and she was a finalist for the Stephen A. DiBiase Poetry Prize 2019. Her unpublished novel manuscript was selected as Notable Entry for the Disquiet International Literary Prize 2019. Her short fiction has been longlisted for the Commonwealth Short Story Prize 2018 and Columbia Journal Spring 2020 Contest. Her work has been anthologized in RLFPA Editions’ Best Indian Poetry 2018 and The Brave New World of Goan Writing (2018, 2020).

Three poetry by Mrinalini Harchandrai

Pervin Saket

Pervin Saket is the author of the novel ‘Urmila’ and of a collection of poetry ‘A Tinge of Turmeric’. Her novel has been adapted for the stage, featuring the classical dance forms of Kathak, Bharatnatyam and Odissi. Her work has been featured or is forthcoming in 'The Indian Quarterly', 'The Joao-Roque Literary Journal', 'Paris Lit Up', ‘The Madras Courier’, 'The Punch Magazine', ‘Cold Noon’, ‘Earthen Lamp Journal’, 'Breaking the Bow', 'Kritya', ‘Veils, Halos and Shackles – International Poetry On the Oppression and Empowerment of Women’, and others. She is co-founder and instructor at the annual Dum Pukht Writers’ Workshop held at Pondicherry, India.

Conversations In My Head - On Eunice De Souza’s Legacy

Neera Kashyap

Neera Kashyap has worked on social communications, specifically health and environment. As an author, she has published a book of stories for young adults titled ‘Daring to dream’ (Rupa & Co., 2003) and contributed to five prize-winning anthologies published by Children’s Book Trust. As a literary writer of short fiction, poetry, essays, story/book reviews and creative non-fiction, her work has appeared or is forthcoming in South Asian journals – both online and print – which include Kitaab, Papercuts, Out of Print Magazine and Blog, Earthen Lamp Journal, Muse India, Indian Review, The Bombay Literary Magazine, Verse of Silence, Erothanatos and Indian Literature. She lives in Delhi.

The Awakening

Kaushiki Saraswat

Kaushiki Saraswat

Pandemic

Sena Chang

Sena Chang is a musician, poet, and artist. In addition to writing poetry related mainly to her Asian heritage and Kafkaesque scenarios, Chang is the founder of The Pandemic of ‘20 Project. There, she seeks to give a voice to Tokyo's youth through creative writing and other mediums of art. Her most recent works have appeared or are forthcoming in Raised Brow Press and The International Educator, amongst others.

Her Bloody Sunrise

Barnali Ray Shukla

Barnali Ray Shukla is an Indian writer, filmmaker and poet. Her work has been featured in many national and international journals and anthologies, and her maiden poetry collection, Apostrophe, won the RLFPA 2016. Barnali has written and directed one full length feature, two documentaries and one short film. She lives in Mumbai with her books, plants and a husband.

Second Thoughts

Hussain Haidry

Hussain Haidry, is a poet, screenwriter and lyricist, who shot to fame when his poem Hindustani Musalmaan went viral on social media. Hussain switched out of a successful career in Finance in Kolkata, and moved to Mumbai to become a full-time writer. He has written lyrics for films like Gurgaon, Qarib Qarib Single, and Mukkabaaz; and many popular web series. As a screenwriter, he has co-written the web series, Laakhon Mein Ek Season Two, on Amazon and is presently working on several films.

Snakes (“Dogle” by Hussain Haidry) Translated by Kartikay Agarwal

Kartikay Agarwal

Kartikay is a bilingual poet from Kanpur (UP, India) with his heart sitting by the sea in Mumbai. Returning to the fold of poetry after a hiatus of half a decade, he is currently traversing voices, themes and forms – while finding ties between his two languages, English & Hindustani.

Snakes (“Dogle” by Hussain Haidry) Translated by Kartikay Agarwal

Vasudha Rungta

Vasudha Rungta is an Executive Producer and Director. She is the founder of 'Melting Clock' ; a production house that produces tv commercials, digital video content, music videos, documentaries, etc. She has been part of international feature film and video collaborations and to her privilege, worked with Brad Pitt and Dede Gardner's company, Plan B Entertainment on a feature called 'A Mighty Heart' that tells the story of American Journalist 'Daniel Pearl', with eminent screenwriter/ actor, Dan Futterman. She has extensively worked in advertising for 15+ years and has recently directed animated videos on topics of social class prejudice, class/caste discrimination and the current Covid scenario. She is a creative writer by passion and is slowly reaching her goals of transforming this passion into a more professional arena. Her submission 'Kites' embodies class prejudice and the second submission 'An Arranged Marriage Diary' is a more colloquial inspection of the Indian Arranged marriage landscape today with its casteism, beauty myths and narrow minded prejudices.

An arranged marriage diary

Kinshuk Gupta

Kinshuk Gupta uses the scalpel of his pen to write about his experiences as an undergraduate medical student. He was longlisted for the People Need Change Poetry Contest (2020) organized by The Poetry Society, UK. His haiku have been nominated for the Touchstone Awards and the Red Moon Anthology. His work can be read or forthcoming in The Hindu Business Line, The Hindu, Modern Haiku, Haiku Foundation, Contemporary Haibun Online, among others. He currently works as the Poetry Editor for Jaggery Lit.

Guilt By Kinshuk Gupta

Michelle D’costa

Michelle D'costa works for Bound, a literary company in Bombay. Her prose and poetry have been published in journals like Out Of Print Magazine, Eclectica, Litro UK among others. https://michellewendydcosta.wordpress.com/

When you don't step out of your house

Tapan Mozumdar

Tapan Mozumdar

Sada, the sin eater
Sprouts

Praveena Shivram

Praveena Shivram is an independent writer based in Chennai, India, and, over the past 15 years, has written for several national publications. Till recently, she was the editor of Arts Illustrated, and is currently curating and editing the Lockdown Journal Chennai. Her fiction has appeared in the Open Road Review, The Indian Quarterly, Himal Southasian, Out of Print, Jaggery Lit, Desi Writers’ Lounge, Spark, Chaicopy, and Helter Skelter’s anthology of New Writing Volume 6. Read her work at www.praveenashivram.com

The Waiting

Lina Krishnan

Lina Krishnan

Ramnarayan ka baaja

Shikhandin

Shikhandin

BALDILOCKS

Manabika

Manabika is a queer individual, trying to negotiate their space in this cis-heteronormative world. They are a researcher with a public interest oriented group, and enjoys making sense of the world through pictures.

Social Media

Devanshi Khetarpal

Devanshi Khetarpal is from Bhopal, India, but currently lives in New York, where she is a BA-MA candidate in Comparative Literature at New York University. Her poetry collection, 'Small Talk,' came out in 2019 from Writers Workshop, and her work has been published or is forthcoming in The Bombay Literary Magazine, Diacritics, Vayavya, and Transom, among others. Her website is: www.devanshikhetarpal.co.

Poems By Devanshi Khetarpal

Matt Pasca

Matt Pasca is a poet, teacher and traveler who believes in art’s ability to foster discovery, empathy and justice. He has authored two poetry collections—A Thousand Doors (2011 Pushcart nominee) and Raven Wire (2017 Eric Hoffer Book Award Finalist)—and serves as Assistant Poetry Editor of 2 Bridges Review. In his corner of New York, Matt curates Second Saturdays @Cyrus, a popular poetry series, and spreads his unwavering faith in critical thought and word magic to his Poetry, Mythology and Literature students at Bay Shore High School, where he has taught for 23 years and been named a New York State Teacher of Excellence. Pasca is currently at work on his third poetry collection, tentatively titled Traitor. www.mattpasca.com

Poems By Matt Pasca

Shamayita Sen

Shamayita Sen is a Delhi based poet, lecturer and PhD research candidate (Department of English, University of Delhi). She is the author of For the Hope of Spring: hybrid poems (Hawakal Publishers, 2020), and editor of Collegiality and Other Ballads: feminist poems by male and non-binary allies (Hawakal Publishers, 2021). Her research articles and poems have appeared in various avenues in India and abroad. She can be reached at:shamayita.sen@gmail.com.

Touch is Memory by Shamayita Sen

Ko Ko Thett

Ko Ko Thett is a Burma-born poet, literary translator, and poetry editor for Mekong Review. Since his samizdat days at the Yangon Institute of Technology in the 90s, he has published and edited several collections of poetry and translations in both Burmese and English. His poems are widely translated and anthologised. His translation work has been recognised with an English PEN award. Thett is the author of “Bamboophobia” (Zephyr Press, 2022) and has co-edited with Brian Haman "Picking off new shoots will not stop the spring: Witness poems and essays from Burma/Myanmar (1988-2021)" (Ethos Books, 2022) . He lives in Norwich, UK.

Three Poem By Ko Ko Thett

Moe Nwe aka Soe Naing Tun

Moe Nwe aka Soe Naing Tun was a twenty-year-old student from Myitkyina Technology University. He was killed in a protest in Moehny in on 27 March 2021. The poem is dated 20.02.2021.

Spring and rabid dogs

Maw Min Thann

Maw Min Thann classical guitarist, writer and poet, passed away from COVID-19 in his hometown of Mandalay on 29.07.2021. His guitar performances often accompanied poetry readings in Mandalay. The poem, dated 13.09.2020, was written during the first wave of COVID-19 and the lockdown in Mandalay.

September

Khet Thi (1976-2021)

Khet Thi (1976-2021) is one of the household names in contemporary Burmese poetry. On 8 May 2021, he was snatched by security forces in Shwebo, Myanmar. The following morning, his body, internal organs missing, was returned to the mortuary in Monywa. The poem was first published in Burmese in Beauty Magazine, July 2017.

A question for God

Nithya Mariam John

Nithya Mariam John is a poet, translator and teacher from Kerala. A few of her works are housed in Kendra Sahitya Akademi's Indian Literature, Kerala Sahitya Akademi's Malayalam Literature Survey, Borderless, SETU, International Journal of Fear Studies and Samyuktha Poetry. Poetry Soup, Reflections & Ruminations and Bleats and Roars are short collections of her scribblings. She is a lazy scribbler on Mizhi (nmjs.in) and tries to climb over her unending ignorance by reading.

A Stillbirth

Pratima Balabhadrapathruni

Pratima Balabhadrapathruni is a Home maker and many other small things. Sometimes she writes stuff. She lives in Singapore

Agnus Dei

Jonaki Ray

Jonaki Ray was educated in India (Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur) and the USA (University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign). A scientist by education and training, and a software engineer (briefly) in the past, she is now a poet, writer, and editor in New Delhi, India. She is a 2017 Oxford Brookes International Poetry Contest, ESL, winner, and has been shortlisted for multiple other awards, including the 2021 Live Canon Chapbook Contest and the 2018 Gregory O'Donoghue International Poetry Prize.

Three Poem By Jonaki Ray

Devashish Makhija

Devashish Makhija has written and directed the multiple award winning films 'Ajji' (Granny), 'Bhonsle', 'Taandav', 'El'ayichi', 'Agli Baar' (And then they came for me), 'Rahim Murge pe mat ro' (Don’t cry for Rahim LeCock), 'Absent', and ‘Happy’; has had a solo art show 'Occupying Silence'; written the bestselling children's books 'When Ali became Bajrangbali' and 'Why Paploo was perplexed', a Harper-Collins collection of short stories 'Forgetting', the novel ‘Oonga’, and the forthcoming book of poems 'Disengaged'. He is always under construction at www.makhijafilm.com

Four Poem By Devashish Makhija

Murray Alfredson

Murray Alfredson is a former librarian, lecturer in librarianship and Buddhist Associate in the Multi-Faith Chaplaincy at Flinders University. He has won a High Beam poetry award 2004, the Poetry Unhinged Multicultural Poetry Prize 2006, the Friendly Street Poets Political poetry prize 2009. He serves the editorial panel of different international journals and magazines. He is at Ashvamegh editorial panel. He describes himself as a poet, essayist and skeptic. He is the author of Gleaming Clouds (Interactive Publications). He lives in Australia.

Three Poem By Murray Alfredson

K Srilata

K Srilata was writer in residence at Sangam house, India, Yeonhui Art space, Seoul and the University of Stirling, Scotland. She teaches Literature and Creative Writing at IIT Madras. Her debut novel Table for Four (Penguin, India) was long listed in 2009 for the Man Asian literary prize. Srilata is the c0-editor of the anthologies The Rapids of a Great River: The Penguin Book of Tamil Poetry, Short Fiction from South India (OUP), All the Worlds Between: A Collaborative Poetry Project Between India and Ireland (Yoda) and Lifescapes: Interviews with Contemporary Women Writers from Tamilnadu (Women Unlimited). Her book The Other Half of the Coconut: Women Writing Self-Respect History was re-issued as an e-book by Zubaan in 2020. She has five poetry collections, the latest of which, The Unmistakable Presence of Absent Humans was published by Poetrywala, Mumbai in 2019. Her translations include Vatsala’s novels Once there was a Girl (Writers Workshop) and The Scent of Happiness (Ratna Books, 2021). A multi-genre anthology on the disability experience is forthcoming from Amazon/Westland later this year.

Three Poem By K Srilata

Shobhana Kumar

Shobhana Kumar has two collections of poetry: The Voices Never Stop (2012) and *Conditions Apply (2014), from Writers Workshop, Kolkata. Her work has been anthologised in journals and books of poetry and Japanese short forms. Her poem, ‘Just Married’ was selected and translated by Gulzar in his monumental work, A Poem a Day, published by HarperCollins, in 2020. She has authored six books of non- fiction covering biographies, corporate, industrial, and educational histories. Her short stories have been published or are forthcoming in a few anthologies. Kumar is Poetry Editor of Sonic Boom Journal and its imprint, Yavanika Press. She is co-curator at The Quarantine Train, a writing collective founded by Arjun Rajendran. Here, she is part of the team that envisions the collective’s long-term goal of building a nurturing, warm community for writers, aspiring and established. She also works in the spaces of corporate communication, branding and advertising, and education. Along with a group of friends, she runs Small Differences, an NGO that works with elderly, abandoned people, the transgender community and extremely vulnerable populations.

Three Poem By Shobhana Kumar

Semeen Ali

Semeen Ali is the author of four books of poetry and has edited a few poetry anthologies with national and international publishers. She reviews books for leading Indian journals as well as is the Fiction and Poetry editor at Muse India.

Two Poem By Semeen Ali

Siddharth Dasgupta

Siddharth Dasgupta writes poetry and fiction from lost hometowns and cities inflicted with an existential throb. His fourth book—A Moveable East—has arrived in March '21 via the independent publisher Red River. Siddharth's literature has appeared in Epiphany, Lunch Ticket, The Bosphorus Review, The Aleph Review, Kyoto Journal, nether Quarterly, and elsewhere. He lives in the city of Poona, where he is currently finessing a novel mired in the act of memory, while trying to corral a few rowdy poems into collections.

Three Poem By Siddharth Dasgupta

Ghassan Zaqtan

Ghassan Zaqtan is a Palestinian poet and novelist. He was born in Beit Jala, near Bethlehem, and has lived in Jordan, Beirut, Damascus, and Tunis. His book “Like a Straw Bird it Follows me” translated by Fady Joudah was awarded the Griffin Poetry Prize , 2013. Winner of Mahmoud Darwish Excellence Award (along with Lebanese Elias Khoury and American Alice Walker). His name appeared twice among the short-listed award winners of the Neustadt International Prize for Literature in the years of 2014, 2016 / University of Oklahoma, perceived as the American Nobel Prize. In recognition of his achievement and contribution to Arabic and Palestinian literature, Ghassan Zaqtan was awarded the National Medal of Honour. He is a consultant for cultural policies in the Welfare Association and is a member of the executive board of the Mahmoud Darwish Foundation. Zaqtan writes a weekly column in the Palestinian Al-Ayyam newspaper. He lives in Ramallah.

Four Poem By Ghassan Zaqtan

Malachi Edwin Vethamani

Malachi Edwin Vethamani is a Malaysian Indian poet and writer. His poetry publications include: Life Happens (Maya Press, 2017) and Complicated Lives (Maya Press, 2016). His poems appear in several international literary publications. He published an edited volume of poems entitled Malchin Testament: Malaysian Poems (Maya Press, 2017). It won the Best Book prize in the English Language category for the Malaysian Best Book Award 2020 organised by Malaysian Publishers Association. He is Founding Editor of Men Matters Online Journal.

Three Poem By Malachi Edwin Vethamani

Jade Elvina Hinder

Jade Elvina Hinder is a fully fledged unicorn. Her writing is dark and a little f&cked up, but that’s just her. She is a self-pronounced coffee addict who has to have at least 5 coffees throughout the day. Now down to the professional stuff... Urgh, boring! She holds a bachelor’s degree in Creative Writing from the University of Gloucestershire and has a body positivity Instagram page. She has a short story published in Short Fiction Break and a flash fiction in The Pinecone Review. She has a novel written, which is hopefully soon to be published, or she may self-publish through Amazon. She has had a variety of different roles including working at a football stadium, the NHS (her current full-time role), Tesco, Carphone Warehouse and Marks and Spencer. In her spare time, she enjoys attending readings, painting, life drawing and being with her baby brother.

Two Poems By Jade Hinder

Lina Krishnan

Lina Krishnan is an artist and poet in Auroville. These poems traverse time, and to the poet are a sort of diary of the years under the lid. Asylum was in response to the migrant boats to Europe and their reception. I am who I am was written for Junaid, still a sore spot in many hearts. War Clouds is the periodic atmosphere surrounding every country, while Adda Nights provide the occasional succour.

Three Poems By Lina Krishnan

Alka Balain

Alka Balain is in love with words and colours. She began to discover her passion at a late stage in life and is an open mic poet. The consciousness flowing in the words speaks to her. She loves to explore different dimensions of the metaphysical - spiritual world. Alka has received recognition from Asian Literary Society and her work has recently been published in an anthology. She is one of the shortlisted winners of the Poetry Festival of Singapore, Catharsis.

Two Poem By Alka Balain

Nandini Sen Mehra

Nandini Sen Mehra processes her world through poetry. Her debut book of poems, Whorls Within, with a foreword by Gulzar is available on Amazon. A seeker of truth within multiplicity, she attempts to explore the tenderness and terror of the human experience through her work. Born in Kolkata, she called many cities in India home, before moving to the United States, Australia and finally Singapore, where she now lives. Tea and forest trails remain her enduring pleasures.

Three Poem By Nandini Sen Mehra

Arya Gopi

Arya Gopi is a bi-lingual poet who works both in English and Malayalam with more than half a dozen published books including five Malayalam poetry collections. Her first English title Sob of Strings was published in 2011.Her forthcoming books are A Biped Mammal (English poems) and After the Kiss (English poems). A contributor to major journals, she has won several awards which includes the Kerala State Sahitya Akademi Kanakasree Award. A PhD Holder in English literature, she teaches literature at Calicut University.

Two Poem By Arya Gopi

Rachel Chitofu

Rachel Chitofu writes in Harare, Zimbabwe. Some of her work has appeared or is yet to appear in Ariel Chart Magazine, Uppagus, Literary Yard and New Contrast.

Fiona by Rachel Chitofu

Shilpa Dikshit Thapliyal

Shilpa Dikshit Thapliyal is a bilingual poet from Singapore. She is a Pushcart 2021 nominee (Shot Glass Journal ) and recently released her second poetry collection ?Between Sips of Masala Chai?(Kitaab International, 2019). Her poems have been featured in QLRS? , Yearbook of English Indian Poetry-2021, OF ZOOS?, 'atelier of Healing', Shot Glass Journal, Taj Mahal Review, Anima Methodi , Asingbol, Unmasked- Reflections on Virus Times? amongst other anthologies and journals. Some of her poems written in Hindi have been translated into Spanish. She has read poetry in Malaysia, Mumbai, Australia and USA.

Two Poem By Shilpa Dikshit Thapliyal

Megha Sood

Megha Sood is an award-Winning Poet, Editor, Author, and Blogger based in New Jersey, USA. She is Associate Editor at MookyChick(UK), Life and Legends (USA), and Literary Partner in the project ?Life in Quarantine'' with Stanford University, USA. Author of Chapbook ( ?My Body is Not an Apology?, Finishing Line Press, 2021) and Full Length (?My Body Lives Like a Threat?, FlowerSongPress,2021).Recipient of Poet Fellowship 2021, National Level Winner Spring Mahogany Lit Prize.Blogs at https://meghasworldsite.wordpress.com/

Two Poem By Megha Sood

Rohee Dholakia

Rohee Dholakia is an Educator based out of Ahmedabad. She is working with Tide Foundation as an Executive Director and is also a Life-skills Trainer for other NGOs. Her work has been previously published in an anthology titled Kontinental Tales. She is a member of “The Quarantine Train."

Carrying an illness by Rohee Shah

Smitha Sehgal (India)

Smitha Sehgal (India) is a corporate legal professional and a bilingual poet who writes in English and Malayalam. Her poems, fiction and book reviews have been featured with literary publications including Kritya, Reading Hour, Brown Critique, Muse India, The Wagon Magazine, Kalakaumudi and Samakalika Malayalam. She is recipient of the Reading Hour Short Story Prize, 2015. Her poems have appeared in several anthologies of English Poetry including ‘Dance of the Peacock- an anthology of English Poetry from India’, ‘Suvarnarekha- an anthology of Women Poets of India’, “40 Under 40: An Anthology of Post-Globalisation Poetry” , “Witness -Red River Book of Poetry of Dissent” and Silk Road Anthology from Egypt.

Three Poem By Smitha Sehgal

Ankush Banerjee

Ankush Banerjee is a mental health professional, and poet currently based in Delhi. His poetry can be found or is forthcoming in Indian Literature, The Bombay Literary Magazine, Vayavya, Aainanagar, Eclectica, Mithila Review and elsewhere. He is pursuing his PhD in Masculinity Studies from BITS, Pilani.

Five Poem By Ankush Banerjee

Anjali Purohit

Anjali Purohit is a painter, writer, poet, translator and curator. She is the author of two books, Ragi Ragini: Chronicles from Aji’s Kitchen (Yoda Press, 2012) and Go Talk to the River: the Ovis of Bahinabai Choudhari (Yoda Press, 2019). She is the founder and curator of The Cappuccino Adda (formerly, Cappuccino Readings), an initiative working to foster a literary café culture in Mumbai and to contribute in building a vibrant writers’ community. She can be found at anjaliwrites.com

KANHOPATRA By Anjali Purohit

Aranya

Aranya is a poet who is currently based out of Delhi, a place to which he does not belong.

Four Poems By Aranya

Seth Michelson

Seth Michelson is an award-winning poet, translator, and professor of poetry. He has published seventeen books of original poetry in English and Spanish, poetry in translation, and a bilingual Spanish-English poetry anthology. He is frequently featured at poetry festivals, book fairs, and universities around the world, and his work has been translated into many languages, including Hindi, Italian, Malayalam, Serbian, Slovenian, Spanish, Tamil, and Vietnamese. His many honors include fellowships from the Fulbright Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Mellon Foundation, and the Lenfest Foundation, as well as prizes from Split This Rock, the International Book Awards, the Paterson Poetry Prize, and the American Studies Association. He teaches the poetry of the hemispheric Americas at Washington and Lee University (USA), where he founded and directs the Center for Poetic Research. As a translator he focuses on poetry from underrepresented voices in Latin America. For example, he published the first-ever single-author book of poetry by a female Mapuche poet from territorial Argentina. He likewise edited and translated the groundbreaking bilingual poetry anthology, Dreaming America: Voices of Undocumented Youth in Maximum-Security Detention. It showcases poetry from workshops that he led in Spanish for three years inside the most restrictive maximum-security immigration detention center in the USA for undocumented, unaccompanied youth. All proceeds from its sale go to a legal defense fund for incarcerated undocumented children. He welcomes contact at sethmichelson@gmail.com.

Five Poem By Seth Michelson

Alicen Roshiny Jacob

Alicen Roshiny Jacob is an Assistant Professor in the Department of English, Aquinas College, Edacochin, Kerala. She writes poetry and fiction on her blog Loner by the Lamppost. Her work was featured in INKochi Cultural Magazine. She has written two cover stories (one a translation) for the same and is now a member of their editorial board. In between her roles as an educator, researcher and mother, Alicen loves to dabble her hands in paint and finds cycling relaxing.

The Vote By Alicen Jacob

Vinita Agrawal

Vinita Agrawal Author of four books of poetry, - Two Full Moons (Bombaykala Books), Words Not Spoken (Brown Critique), The Longest Pleasure (Finishing Line Press) and The Silk Of Hunger (AuthorsPress), Vinita is an award winning poet, editor, translator and curator. Joint Recipient of the Rabindranath Tagore Literary Prize 2018 and winner of the Gayatri GaMarsh Memorial Award for Literary Excellence, USA, 2015. She is Poetry Editor with Usawa Literary Review. Her work has been widely published and anthologised. Her poem won a prize for the Moon Anthology on the Moon by TallGrass Writers Guild, Chicago 2017. More recently her poem won a special mention in the Hawker Prize for best South Asian poetry. She has contributed a monthly column on Asian Poets on the literary blog of the Hamline university, Saint Paul, USA in 2016-17. In September 2020, she edited an anthology on climate change titled Open Your Eyes (pub. Hawakal). She judged the RLFPA poetry contest (International Prize) in 2016 and co judged the Asian Cha’s poetry contest on The Other Side ‘ in 2015. She is on the Advisory Board of the Tagore Literary Prize. She has curated literary events for PEN Mumbai. She can be reached at www.vinitawords.com. Write to her at vinita@usawa.in

Interview By Kala Ramesh

Looking Death in the Eye Through a Film Lens In Conversation With Barnali Ray Shukla

Kala Ramesh

Kala Ramesh comes from an artistic and culturally rich South Indian Tamil family and believes, as her father was fond of saying that “the soil needs to be fertile for the plant to bloom”. She also feels that she owes her poetic streak to her mother.

Interview By Kala Ramesh

Antara Mukherjee

Antara Mukherjee is a writer from Bangalore with a Master's in English Literature. Her work has appeared in Kitaab, Sahitya Akademi, Muse India, The Chakkar, Teesta Review, Verse of Silence and in 2020 her short story won the first spot in an 'All India Literature Competition,' hosted by the Anthelion School of Arts. She has co-written a playscript which is under production by a theatre group in Bangalore. She enjoys music and deep conversations with her nine-year-old son.

Fiction By Antara Mukherjee

Vrinda Baliga

Vrinda Baliga is the author of the short story collections 'Name, Place, Animal, Thing' and 'Arrivals and Departures'. Her work has appeared in And Lately, The Sun (Calyx Press, Australia, 2020), The Best Asian Short Stories 2019 (Kitaab International, Singapore), The Best Asian Speculative Fiction 2018 (Kitaab International, Singapore), Asia Literary Review, Himal Southasian, The Indian Quarterly, The Bombay Review, New Asian Writing, Commonwealth Writers adda, among others. She has won prizes/honourable mentions in the Salamander Fiction Prize 2021, The Written Circle Short Story Competition 2021, Bengaluru Review Short Story Competition 2020, Katha Fiction Contest 2017, and the FON South Asia Short Story Competition 2016, and received residency fellowships from Sangam House, India, and The Wellstone Center in the Redwoods, California. Vrinda lives in Hyderabad, India, with her husband and two children.

Fiction By Vrinda Baliga

Nina Kossman

Nina Kossman is an artist, writer, poet, and play-wright. Her paintings and sculptures have been exhibited in Moscow and New York. The recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts translation fellowship, a UN ESCO/PEN Short Story Award, she is the author of two books of poems in Russian and English as well as the translator of two volumes of Marina Tsvetaeva’s poetry, In the Inmost Hour of the Soul and Poem of the End. Her other books include Behind the Border (Harper Collins,1994); Gods and Mortals: Modern Poems on Classical Myths (Oxford University Press, 2001); Pereboi, a collection of Russian poems published in Moscow; a bilingual edition of her poems, and a novel.

Fiction By Nina Kossman

Shikhandin

Shikhandin is the nom de plume of an Indian writer who writes for adults and children. Her published books, as Shikhandin, include “Immoderate Men” (Speaking Tiger), and “Vibhuti Cat” (Duckbill-Penguin-RHI). Contributor to Magic Stories for Eight Year Olds by Penguin RHI, and Flipped: An Anthology of School and Sports Stories by Harper Collins. She has been honoured with many national and international awards.

Patchwork - Fiction

Tejaswinee Roychowdhury

Tejaswinee Roychowdhury is an emerging writer from West Bengal, India. She loves working across multiple genres and her work is published/forthcoming in Third Lane Magazine, Kitaab, The World Of Myth Magazine, Indian Periodical, and elsewhere. She is also a lawyer having an LL.M. in Business Law from the University of Calcutta. She tweets at @TejaswineeRC.

To Break the Unbreakable - Fiction

Monisha Raman

Monisha Raman is a content editor by profession, and I find my solace in words. My works of fiction and essays have been published by, New Asian Writing, The Curious Reader, Kitaab, Feminism in India, Spacebar Magazine, Phenomenal Literature (Vol.4 No.1), Active Muse, The Punch Magazine, Bengaluru Review, Asian Extracts, Indian Ruminations, Storizen Magazine, Jotted and The Universe Journal. My recent work was a part of the anthology Narratives in Domestic Violence by the International Human Rights Arts Festival.

Search - Fiction

Vaikhari Aryat

Vaikhari Aryat is a queer Dalit feminist from Kottayam, Kerala, currently pursuing PhD in Polit- ical Science at the University of Hyderabad. She writes on gender and caste issues, queer rights and issues, intersectionality and student rights. An active participant in student agitations in India in recent times, her narratives from the Rohith Vemula movement drew the attention of Amnesty International to the human rights violations at the University of Hyderabad. Vaikhari won the first Maktoob Media Award for her article on the role of caste in the rape and murder of a Dalit girl from Perumbavoor.

Untold lives - Fiction

Rochelle Potkar

Rochelle Potkar is a fictionist, poet, critic, curator, editor, translator, and screenwriter. Her most recent books are Bombay Hangover and The Coordinates of Us.

Mist - Fiction

Urmila

Urmila is a Gender Consultant and holds a degree of Masters in Law. Her work brings her closer to the issues women face. She recently started exploring her creative world through writing, among other things. She is a tri-lingual poet, writing in Hindi, English and Marathi. Her work has been published at The Kali Project and The EKL Review.

Kamla Bhasin…knowing her from the fringes - Non Fiction

Dean Kerrison

Dean Kerrison is a writer and a PhD candidate at Griffith University, Australia working on his first novel. His work often focuses on the (dis)connection of the outsider in foreign lands. He's had a playscript, fiction, nonfiction and poetry published in TEXT Journal, Meniscus, The Bangalore Review, Joao Roque Literary Journal, The Lit Quarterly, Allegory Ridge, among others.

Periphery of Truth: Beyond the Bamboo Curtain - Non Fiction

Manasee Palshikar (nadi)

Manasee Palshikar (nadi) is an MBBS doctor whose services are used mainly by working class women.
nadi has an MA in Gender, Culture and Development, from the Krantijyoti Savitribai Phule Women’s Studies Centre, Pune University.
She has done a course in Screenplay writing at the Film and Television Institute of India(FTII), Pune. Her novel Sutak was received warmly.

Down to the Image: Fiction as Feminist Critique in the Arena of Reproductive Autonomy by Manasee Palshikar (nadi)

Film script: “GESTATION TRUCE” By Manasee Palshikar(nadi)

Christopher T. Dabrowski

Christopher T. Dabrowski, Polish writer and screenwriter from the beautiful UNESCO heritage city of Kraków, has approximately 750 publications, in books, screenplays and anthologies across the continents of Asia, Europe, North America and Australia. Know more about his work here.

Three Translated Flash Fiction Pieces From Poland

B. Jeyamohan

B. Jeyamohan based out of Nagercoil near Kanyakumari, is one of the most prolific writers in India today. He writes in two languages, Tamil and Malayalam. His work, which includes both fiction and non- fiction, examines and reinterprets India’s rich literary and classical traditions, and his most significant work so far is a 26-part roman-fleuve called Venmurasu (The White Drum), a retelling of the Mahabharata. The story translated here, Devi, is a story that celebrates the feminine power in its different forms while following the triumphs and travails of an amateur theater group. It is set in a small village teeming with robust and highly opinionated characters, which makes the plot all the more animated.

Translation: "Devi"

Dr. Rahana K Ismail

Dr. Rahana K Ismail is a left hander, a poet and a doctor from Calicut, Kerala. Her work has appeared in nether Quarterly, Verse of Silence and EKL Review. She can be reached at rahanakismail@gmail.com when she is done rummaging through the woodsorrel, ironweeds and adiantum with her daughter.

Arundhati Subramaniam's Women Who Wear Themselves review by Dr Rahana K Ismail