Tag: south asian authors

• “Seeing our ancestors in stories, especially those who made important strides, empowers us.”

• “I wanted to tell a version where [Kaikeyi’s] actions were not motivated by spur of the moment jealousy, but rather decisions based on her life experiences.”

  

• 21 Books Set Against The Backdrop of British Colonisation of India, The Subcontinent’s Independence & The Partition

  

• Mihir From ‘Fantasy Book Critic’ Recommends Six Must-Read Fantasy Books That Use Indian Mythology

• Maya Prasad Shares The Recipe For Romance: A Charm Spell & Also Recommends Rom-Com Books

• “In the context of exotic vistas, I seek to be a humble merchant of tales, eager to give the world a glimpse of our desi riches”

• “There have definitely been ups and downs, but I always remind myself that first and foremost, [writing] has to bring me joy in order to keep doing it”

• Salma Hussain Recommends Twelve Canadian Writers Creating Stories Around Muslim Characters

• “It has been a pleasure to craft…an embrace of warmth and acceptance around a young brown girl”

• “I hope that young queer Muslim readers understand that you’re perfect just the way you feel”

• “As an adult they seem incongruous, but as children we knew seemingly opposite things can co-exist…as long as we made the space”

• “Both [my] characters soon come to realise that, like everything that ascends, they must come down eventually where their problems still remain”

• “As a writer, I believe it’s extremely important to try and create, as much as possible, diverse stories about a community”

• “I wanted a brown kid at the center, the protagonist of her own life, abolishing the misconstructions society has of Desis and Muslims”

• “I wanted to explore Aafiyah’s denial, acceptance, and guilt…but also show that she is much more than a bad habit”

• “Faith is not a static thing; it may ebb and flow, and I attempted to illustrate the same fluctuations”

• “I honestly don’t think it’s possible for me to write a story that doesn’t have a healthy dose of family drama”

• “The shape of the trauma may be different, but the taste of tears on their tongue is the same”

• “An Urdu phrase I loved including was ‘aaj jaane ki zidd na karo,’ which…loosely translates to: today, don’t insist on leaving”

• Guest Post: Writing A Medieval India-Inspired Fantasy World [Tanaz Bhathena]

  

• “I hope it means that queer South Asian teens don’t have to feel the way I did when I was younger: that they don’t think about their race and nationality being in conflict with their sexuality”