S125.
Mango Is Not My Only Metaphor: South Asian Writers on Fiction in the 2020s
Saturday, February 10, 2024
9:00 am to 10:15 am
Despite the innovative art South Asian writers are creating, the United States writing world often expects our work to fit into the same single-story immigrant narrative that has been in vogue for decades. Join five South Asian writers of various intersectional identities as we discuss what South Asian fiction looks like in the 2020s, how we respond to and/or critique our lineages, how we navigate the Western publishing industry, and what we envision for an inclusive South Asian writing community.
Participants
Swati Sudarsan is the 2023 recipient of the Bread Loaf Conference Katharine Bakeless Nason Award in Fiction, and she has received support from Tin House, Kenyon Review, and more. Her work has appeared in McSweeney's, Catapult, Denver Quarterly, among others.
Eshani Surya is a writer living in Philadelphia interested in what a body encapsulates and how it can be defined. Her novel, Ravishing, will be published by Roxane Gay Books/Grove Atlantic in 2024. Her short stories and essays can be found in The Rumpus, DIAGRAM, Catapult, and Joyland.
Mimi Mondal is a writer and editor originally from Kolkata, India. Her Nebula Award-nominated novelette His Footsteps, Through Darkness and Light and other short stories are available online. She has also written Bengal- and South Asia-inspired worlds for Dungeons & Dragons and other TTRPGs.
Sarah Thankam Mathews is the author of All This Could Be Different, which was shortlisted for the 2022 National Book Award in Fiction. Mathews's debut novel was also a New York Times Editor's Choice and named a Best Book of the Year by NPR, Vogue, Vulture, Los Angeles Times, Slate, and others.
Sophia Babai is an Indian, Iranian, and Tanzanian writer and climate activist. Their work has been featured in several publications including Autostraddle, Fast Company, and the award-winning anthology Body Talk.
