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Poet-novelist Jeet Thayil on editing 'The Penguin Book of Indian Poets' together and why poetry finds a resurgence in dark times
In the beginning of the episode, you will hear my guest Jeet Thayil read from his book, Names Of The Women — women whose paths crossed with Christ, and who, it is said, stayed by him during the crucifixion. And after.I have been fortunate to read so many books since I started hosting this podcast. Each book is as wonderful and as compelling as the next. And then a book comes along, like Names Of The Women that holds the craft of writing to a higher standard.Let me tantalizingly cycle back to that in a minute.Penguin had sent me a copy of a book compiled and edited by Jeet — The Penguin Book Of Indian Poets — an almost 1000-page thick compendium of Indian poetry. The book was years in the making and I am sure it will be around years for the taking.But when I had gone over to interview Jeet's father, the famous journalist and author, TJS George, an earlier guest on this show, Jeet gave me a copy of Names Of The Women. And it gave me the chills in a way that very few books have done before. It is a hauntingly evocative story of the lives of those women.Despite being less than 200 pages long, Names Of The Women is aching to be a book three times its length. The substance is such. And when you pack all that into 200 pages, it makes it powerful.Thayil's writing is a masterclass in narrative storytelling, rich with literary devices that enhance his already compelling craft.So much for what I think about the book. Let's talk to Jeet.ABOUT JEET THAYILJeet Thayil is the author of four novels and five collections of poetry. His essays,poetry and short fiction have appeared in the New York Review of Books,Granta, TLS, The London Magazine, The Guardian and The Paris Review,among other venues. He is the editor of The Penguin Book of Indian Poets.Buy Names of the Women: https://amzn.to/3kKdFPjBuy The Penguin Book Of Indian Poets: https://amzn.to/41MT6lVWHAT'S THAT WORD?!Co-host Pranati "Pea" Madhav joins Ramjee Chandran in "What's That Word?!", where they discuss the not-so-fun origins of the word, "FUN".WANT TO BE ON THE SHOW?Reach us by mail: theliterarycity@explocity.com or simply, tlc@explocity.com.Or here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/theliterarycityOr here: https://www.instagram.com/explocityblr/
The Penguin Book of Indian Poets, the definitive anthology of Indian poetry in English for the next decade and more edited by Jeet Thayil, returns the forgotten figures of Indian poetry to the centre where they belong. Jeet compiled the work of 94 poets for this anthology, the oldest born in 1924 and the youngest in 2001. With the aim of giving readers a deeper understanding of a vast and fluid poetic tradition, this collection brings together writers from across the world, a wealth of voices that present an expansive, encompassing idea of what makes an ‘Indian' poet. This anthology is the culmination of a project Jeet began twenty years ago with a special supplement for Fulcrum, a poetry annual out of Boston. That was followed by 60 Indian Poets (Penguin India) and The Bloodaxe Book of Contemporary Indian Poets (Bloodaxe UK). This anthology, the final iteration, encompasses 75 years of Indian poetry in English. At 908 pages, it is voluminous and exhaustive, with 94 poets from all over the world. The poets of the Indian canon include Ezekiel, Kolatkar, de Souza, Das, Mehrotra, Ramanujan, Jussawalla, but so are vital newer voices such as Vijay Seshadri, Vahni Capildeo, Bhanu Kapil, Daljit Nagra, Rajiv Mohabir and Raena Shirali, among many others. This episode of BIC Talks is adapted from a BIC Venue event that took place in late April 2022. Subscribe to the BIC Talks Podcast on your favourite podcast app! BIC Talks is available everywhere, including iTunes, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Castbox, Overcast, and Stitcher.
Jaipur Literature Festival (2012) Main article: Jaipur Literature Festival Rushdie was due to appear at the Jaipur Literature Festival in January 2012 in Jaipur, Rajasthan, India. However, he later cancelled his event appearance, and a further tour of India at the time citing a possible threat to his life as the primary reason. Several days after, he indicated that state police agencies had lied, in order to keep him away, when they informed him that paid assassins were being sent to Jaipur to kill him. Police contended that they were afraid Rushdie would read from the banned The Satanic Verses, and that the threat was real, considering imminent protests by Muslim organizations. Meanwhile, Indian authors Ruchir Joshi, Jeet Thayil, Hari Kunzru and Amitava Kumar abruptly left the festival, and Jaipur, after reading excerpts from Rushdie's banned novel at the festival. The four were urged to leave by organizers as there was a real possibility they would be arrested. A proposed video link session between Rushdie and the Jaipur Literature Festival was also cancelled at the last minute after the government pressured the festival to stop it. Rushdie returned to India to address a conference in New Delhi on 16 March 2012. Chautauqua attack (2022) Main article: Stabbing of Salman Rushdie On 12 August 2022, while about to start a lecture at the Chautauqua Institution in Chautauqua, New York, Rushdie was attacked by a man who rushed up onto the stage and stabbed him repeatedly, including in the neck. The attacker was pulled away before being taken into custody; Rushdie was airlifted to hospital in Erie, Pennsylvania, where he underwent surgery. Rushdie's agent, Andrew Wylie, said: "Salman will likely lose one eye; the nerves in his arm were severed; and his liver was stabbed and damaged." Wylie said Rushdie is currently on a ventilator and unable to speak. In the years prior to the stabbing, Rushdie traveled without a security detail while the Chautauqua festival where he was speaking is known for an "accessible" and "relaxed environment." The CEO of PEN America noted, "We cannot immediately think of any comparable incident of a public violent attack on a writer during a literary event here in the United States." The New York Times reported that the incident sent "ripples of 'shock and horror' through the literary world". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salman_Rushdie
Poet-novelist Jeet Thayil on editing 'The Penguin Book of Indian Poets' together and why poetry finds a resurgence in dark times
Poet-novelist Jeet Thayil on editing 'The Penguin Book of Indian Poets' together and why poetry finds a resurgence in dark times
A lifetime spent reading, writing and reflecting teaches you a lot. Nilanjana Roy joins Amit Varma in episode 284 of The Seen and the Unseen to talk about books, feminism, family, memory and the state of the world. Also check out:1. Nilanjana Roy on Twitter, Instagram, Amazon, Financial Times, Business Standard and her own website. 2. The Girl Who Ate Books: Adventures in Reading -- Nilanjana Roy. 3. The Wildings -- Nilanjana Roy. 4. The Hundred Names of Darkness -- Nilanjana Roy. 5. Episodes of The Seen and the Unseen that discuss reading and writing with Sara Rai, Amitava Kumar, VK Karthika, Sugata Srinivasaraju, Mrinal Pande, Sonia Faleiro, Vivek Tejuja, Samanth Subramanian, Annie Zaidi and Prem Panicker. 6. Episodes of The Seen and the Unseen on the creator ecosystem with Roshan Abbas, Varun Duggirala, Neelesh Misra, Snehal Pradhan, Chuck Gopal, Nishant Jain, Deepak Shenoy and Abhijit Bhaduri. 7. A Meditation on Form -- Amit Varma. 8. Why Are My Episodes so Long? -- Amit Varma. 9. The Prem Panicker Files -- Episode 217 of The Seen and the Unseen. 10. Jonathan Haidt on Amazon. 11. Where Have All the Leaders Gone? -- Amit Varma. 12. The Ranga-Billa Case. 13. Sarojini Naidu on Amazon. 14. The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi. 15. The Mahatma and the Poet — The letters between Gandhi and Tagore, compiled by Sabyasachi Bhattacharya. 16. Amitava Kumar Finds the Breath of Life -- Episode 265 of The Seen and the Unseen. 17. Margaret Mascarenhas on Amazon. 18. The Web We Have to Save -- Hossein Derakhshan. 19. The Country Without a Post Office -- Agha Shahid Ali. 20. Wanting — Luke Burgis. 21. René Girard on Amazon and Wikipedia. 22. The Silence of Scheherazade -- Defne Suman. 23. Silver -- Walter de la Mare. 24. Lessons from an Ankhon Dekhi Prime Minister — Amit Varma. 25. George Saunders and Barack Obama on Amazon. 26. A life in 5,000 books -- Nilanjana Roy. 27. Surender Mohan Pathak, Ibne Safi and Gabriel Garcia Marquez on Amazon. 28. The Power Broker — Robert Caro. 29. The Death and Life of Great American Cities — Jane Jacobs. 30. JRR Tolkien, Ursula Le Guin and Terry Pratchett on Amazon. 31. Forget reading Thomas Piketty. Try a bit of Terry Pratchett -- Robert Shrimsley. 32. Fifty Shades of Grey -- EL James. 33. Ankur Warikoo, Aanchal Malhotra, Manu Pillai and Ira Mukhoty on Amazon. 34. Mahashweta Devi and Naiyer Masud on Amazon. 35. The former homes of Hurree Babu and Putu the Cat. 36. The Life and Times of Abhinandan Sekhri -- Episode 254 of The Seen and the Unseen. 37. Om Namah Volume -- Amit Varma. 38. Salman's Sea of Stories -- Salman Rushdie's Substack newsletter. 39. What Is It Like to Be a Bat? — Thomas Nagel. 40. The Hidden Life of Trees -- Peter Wohlleben. 41. An Immense World -- Ed Yong. 42. The Twitter thread by Sergej Sumlenny that Nilanjana mentioned. 43. The Inheritance of Loss -- Kiran Desai. 44. The Grapes of Wrath -- John Steinbeck. 45. Pather Panchali -- Bibhutibhushan Bandopadhyay. 46. Gora -- Rabindranath Tagore. 47. William Shakespeare, Kalidasa, Geoffrey Chaucer and Krishna Sobti on Amazon. 48. The Cult of Authenticity -- Vikram Chandra. 49. Meenakshi Mukherjee: The Death of a Critic -- Nilanjana Roy. 50. Field Notes from a Waterborne Land: Bengal Beyond the Bhadralok -- Parimal Bhattacharya. 51. Patriots, Poets and Prisoners: Selections from Ramananda Chatterjee's The Modern Review, 1907-1947 -- Edited by Anikendra Sen, Devangshu Datta and Nilanjana Rao. 52. The City Inside -- Samit Basu. 53. Understanding India Through Its Languages -- Episode 232 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Peggy Mohan). 54. Wanderers, Kings, Merchants: The Story of India through Its Languages — Peggy Mohan. 55. The Life and Times of Mrinal Pande -- Episode 263 of The Seen and the Unseen. 56. Manjula Padmanathan on Amazon. 57. The Life and Letters of Raja Rammohun Roy. 58. If No One Ever Marries Me -- Lawrence Alma-Tadema. 59. If No One Ever Marries Me -- Natalie Merchant. 60. Kavitha Rao and Our Lady Doctors -- Episode 235 of The Seen and the Unseen. 61. Lady Doctors: The Untold Stories of India's First Women in Medicine — Kavitha Rao. 62. The Memoirs of Dr Haimabati Sen — Haimabati Sen (translated by Tapan Raychoudhuri). 63. Women at Work — Episode 132 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Namita Bhandare). 64. The Loneliness of the Indian Woman -- Episode 259 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shrayana Bhattacharya). 65. Films, Feminism, Paromita — Episode 155 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Paromita Vohra). 66. The Kavita Krishnan Files — Episode 228 of The Seen and the Unseen. 67. Manjima Bhattacharjya: The Making of a Feminist -- Episode 280 of The Seen and the Unseen. 68. I, Lalla: The Poems of Lal Dĕd -- Translated by Ranjit Hoskote. 69. Lal Ded's poem on wrestling with a tiger. 70. Anarchy is a likelier future for the west than tyranny -- Janan Ganesh. 71. The Better Angels of Our Nature -- Steven Pinker. 72. The Ferment of Our Founders -- Episode 272 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Kapila). 73. Rukmini Sees India's Multitudes — Episode 261 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Rukmini S). 74. A Life in Indian Politics -- Episode 149 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Jayaprakash Narayan). 75. The Gita Press and Hindu Nationalism — Episode 139 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Akshaya Mukul). 76. Gita Press and the Making of Hindu India — Akshaya Mukul. 77. Manohar Malgonkar, Mulk Raj Anand and Kamala Das on Amazon. 78. Kanthapura -- Raja Rao. 79. India's Greatest Civil Servant -- Episode 167 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Narayani Basu, on VP Menon). 80. Private Truths, Public Lies — Timur Kuran. 81. Alice Munro on Amazon. 82. The Bear Came Over the Mountain -- Amit Varma's favourite Alice Munro story. 83. The Median Voter Theorem. 84. The Ice Cream Vendors. 85. Mohammad Zubair's Twitter thread on the Dharam Sansad. 86. The Will to Change -- Bell Hooks. 87. Paul Holdengraber, Maria Popova, Rana Safvi and Rabih Alameddine on Twitter. 88. The hounding of author Kate Clanchy has been a witch-hunt without mercy -- Sonia Sodha. 89. Democrats have stopped listening to America's voters -- Edward Luce. 90. From Cairo to Delhi With Max Rodenbeck -- Episode 281 of The Seen and the Unseen. 91. The Indianness of Indian Food — Episode 95 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Vikram Doctor). 92. GN Devy. 93. The Art of Translation -- Episode 168 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Arunava Sinha). 94. Alipura -- Gyan Chaturvedi (translated by Salil Yusufji). 95. Tomb of Sand -- Geetanjali Shree (translated by Daisy Rockwell). 96. Writer, Rebel, Soldier, Lover: The Many Lives of Agyeya -- Akshaya Mukul. 97. Ashapurna Devi, Agyeya, Saadat Hasan Manto, Ismat Chugtai, Qurratulain Hyder, Amrita Pritam and Girish Karnad on Amazon. 98. The Adventures of Dennis -- Viktor Dragunsky. 99. Toni Morrison on Amazon. 100. Haroun and the Sea of Stories -- Salman Rushdie. 101. The Penguin Book Of Indian Poets -- Edited by Jeet Thayil. 102. These My Words: The Penguin Book of Indian Poetry -- Edited by Eunice de Souza and Melanie Silgardo. 103. The Autobiography of a Goddess -- Andal (translated by Priya Sarrukai Chabria and Ravi Shankar). 104. Ghachar Ghochar — Vivek Shanbhag (translated by Srinath Perur). 105. Amit Varma talks about Ghachar Ghochar in episode 13 of The Book Club on Storytel. 106. River of Fire -- Qurratulain Hyder. 107. The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas -- Ursula K Le Guin. 108. The Left Hand of Darkness -- Ursula K Le Guin. 109. Mother of 1084 -- Mahashweta Devi. 110. Jejuri -- Arun Kolatkar. 111. The Collected Essays of AK Ramanujan -- Edited by Vinay Dharwadker. 112. The Collected Poems of AK Ramanujan. 113. Folktales From India -- Edited by AK Ramanujan. 114. The Interior Landscape: Classical Tamil Love Poems -- Edited and translated by AK Ramanujan. 115. The Essential Kabir -- Translated by Arvind Krishna Mehrotra. This episode is sponsored by CTQ Compounds. Check out The Daily Reader and FutureStack. Use the code UNSEEN for Rs 2500 off. Check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing. And subscribe to The India Uncut Newsletter. It's free! The illustration for this episode is by Nishant Jain aka Sneaky Artist. Check out his work on Twitter, Instagram and Substack.
In this episode, Audra and Sadie wrap up their discussion on the entirety of Narcopolis by Jeet Thayil. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/litandlibation/message
In this episode, Audra and Sadie discuss Books 1 & 2 of Narcopolis by Jeet Thayil. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/litandlibation/message
The book is a definitive chronicle of the rich, diverse body of literature that is Indian poetry in English. Acclaimed author and journalist Soumya Bhattacharya explains why.
"Indian anthologists have made it a practice to exclude young poets. This is a disservice not only to young poets but actually to the older poets. I wanted to be as inclusive as possible; I was guided by the poems and not by the poets." - Jeet Thayil, editor, The Penguin Book of Indian Poets talks to @utterflea about the definitive anthology on the Books & Authors podcast.
From the Jewishness of the New Testament to attempts by 19th- and early 20th-century British Jews to blend in to Christian England, Giles Fraser shows how the two religions have a vexed history but are also surprisingly interconnected in his new book called Chosen. He also looks back at 2011, when the Occupy London took over the steps and surroundings of St Pauls and the resulting division in the church about how to react to this protest movement led him to leave his job and to a crisis of confidence. Miri Rubin, Professor of Medieval and Early Modern History at Queen Mary, University of London, and David Feldman, Professor of History and Director of the Pears Institute for the Study of Antisemitism at Birkbeck, University of London, join Giles Fraser and Matthew Sweet to explore the degree to which you can emphasise similarities between Christianity and Judaism - what do you gain and what do you lose? Producer: Eliane Glaser You can find a playlist of programmes exploring religious belief on the Free Thinking website https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p03mwxlp which includes Jonathan Freedland, Hadley Freeman, Howard Jacobson and Bari Weiss on Jewish Identity in 2020 Simon Schama and Devorah Baum on Jewish history and jokes and Frank Skinner, Jeet Thayil and Yaa Gyasi on Writing about Faith
What it means to be a black Christian woman in the UK is at the heart of Chine McDonald’s new book, God Is Not a White Man. Part memoir and part theological and historical study, McDonald looks back at the role the Christian faith has played over the centuries in perpetuating ideas of white supremacy. She tells Tom Sutcliffe that black women in the church have stayed silent too long. The writer Jeet Thayil re-imagines the story of the New Testament through the eyes of the women suppressed and erased from the Gospels. Names of the Women brings to life fifteen women whose importance at the Crucifixion highlights the power they once had. Thayil was born into a Syrian Christian family in India and was inspired to write this work by the defiance and authority of his grandmother. In 2011 when the Occupy movement set up camp around St Paul’s Cathedral in London, Canon Giles Fraser was caught between his pastoral care of the protestors, the needs of the church and the demands of the City of London. He suffered a crisis of faith and mental health. In Chosen: Lost and Found Between Christianity and Judaism, Fraser explores his own religious roots, and discovers the healing power of theology for the individual and society. Producer: Katy Hickman
Jeet Thayil, author of Names of the Women, joined Sean on the show. Listen and subscribe to Moncrieff on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts or Spotify. Download, listen and subscribe on the Newstalk App. You can also listen to Newstalk live on newstalk.com or on Alexa, by adding the Newstalk skill and asking: 'Alexa, play Newstalk'.
In Frank Skinner's A Comedian's Prayer Book the broadcaster presents a series of prayers which read like a stand-up routine exploring questions of belief. A practising Roman Catholic, Skinner's questions include the correct way of addressing God, what it means to be humble, and an unpicking of some of the metaphors used in the Bible. Jeet Thayil was born into a Syrian Christian family in Kerala, and his latest novel, Names of the Women, imagines the New Testament from the viewpoint of the women who became followers of Jesus Christ - from Martha and Mary, the sisters of Lazarus, to Lydia of Thyatira, who is regarded as the first documented convert to Christianity in Europe. Yaa Gyasi’s second novel is called Transcendent Kingdom and it tells the story of a woman working in science who is negotiating her relationship both with her mother and with her beliefs and background. Laurence Scott talks to these three authors about how they approached writing about faith in fiction and for a mass audience. Producer: Emma Wallace You can find a playlist exploring religious belief on the Free Thinking website, with speakers including Ziauddin Sardar, Richard Dawkins, Karen Armstrong, Rabbi Sacks, Marilynne Robinson, and Rowan Williams. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p03mwxlp
Two of the greatest living Irish writers - Paul Muldoon & Colm Tóibín - discuss the influence of Joyce and Irish literature with Booker-shortlisted poet and novelist, Jeet Thayil, and explore why ‘Ulysses' still matters, to mark Bloomsday on June 16See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Reading and reviewing Jeet Thayil's Low, Chris Flynn's Mammoth and Sue Monk Kidd's The Book of Longings.
talks about his latest novel ‘Low', his forthcoming book ‘Names of the Women' and takes part in an ‘Ask Me Anything' interaction with the audience See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
"I last saw Jeet at the last public event I attended before the UK’s pandemic lockdown – it was in London, for a memorial. After the service, we drank, and talked; and mingled briefly in the crowd; we parted without saying goodbye. So this book as an object holds layers of meaning: memories of travel and of both happy and sad times spent with friends." Preti Taneja thinks about the writer Jeet Thayil and reads from Fulcrum NO. 4, an edition in which Thayil edited a selection of 56 Indian poets under the (beautiful!) title Give the Sea Change and It Shall Change. Writers Preti references include: Henry Derozio, Nissim Ezekiel, Srikanth Reddy, Mukta Sambrani. She also discusses Threads, by Sandeep Parmar, Bhanu Kapil and Nisha Ramayya and Debt Night, a piece she herself wrote in Detours. Links: FULCRUM No. 4, 2005 http://fulcrumpoetry.com/issues/4/index.html THREADS: https://www.poetrybooks.co.uk/products/threads-sandeep-parmar-bhanu-kapil-and-nisha-ramayya HOTEL CORDEL/ DETOURS (for Debt Night) https://partisanhotel.co.uk/Hotel-Cordel-Detours To find out more about Jeet Thayil, visit: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeet_Thayil And here's a conversation with Preti and Jeet: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/feb/09/jeet-thayil-interview-man-booker-narcopolis-book-chocolate-saints Preti's novel We that are young is available here: https://www.galleybeggar.co.uk/new-page-1
Ballerina Viviana Durante discusses her evening of dance celebrating Isadora Duncan, whose radical barefoot dancing shocked and enthralled European audiences in the early 1900s, before she was killed in a freak accident when her scarf got caught in the wheels of a car. Life is beginning to imitate art for a British film crew in northern Italy. Director Nicholas Hulbert discusses the challenges they’re facing from the coronavirus outbreak as they film The Decameron, the 14th century Italian collection of novellas about a small group of young people sheltering in a secluded villa to escape the Black Death. Deborah Annetts, Chief Executive of the Incorporated Society of Musicians, on the impact of the recently announced proposed changes to the immigration system to musicians and others working in the creative industries. Booker shortlisted author Jeet Thayil discusses his new novel Low, which follows one man’s weekend of self-destructive grief in Mumbai. It's a black comedy, a tender portrayal of depression and drug addiction, a love letter to Mumbai and a biting satire of contemporary Indian society. Presenter: John Wilson Producer: Hannah Robins Main image: Viviana Durante Company performing Dance of the Furies in Isadora Now Image credit: David Scheinmann
Join us as we celebrate the worldwide launch of our bookstore’s very own memoir, Shakespeare and Company, Paris: A History of the Rag & Bone Shop of The Heart. “I created this bookstore like a man would write a novel, building each room like a chapter, and I like people to open the door the way they open a book, a book that leads into a magic world in their imaginations.” —George Whitman, founder Drawing on a century’s worth of never-before-seen archives, this first history of the bookstore features more than 300 images and 70 editorial contributions from shop visitors such as Allen Ginsberg, Anaïs Nin, Kate Tempest, and Ethan Hawke. Edited by Krista Halverson, with a foreword by Jeanette Winterson and an epilogue by Sylvia Whitman, the 400-page book is fully illustrated with color throughout. Photographs and ephemera are woven together with personal essays, diary entries, and poems from writers including Allen Ginsberg, Anaïs Nin, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Sylvia Beach, Nathan Englander, Dervla Murphy, Jeet Thayil, David Rakoff, Ian Rankin, Kate Tempest, and Ethan Hawke. With hundreds of images, the book features Tumbleweed autobiographies, precious historical documents, and beautiful photographs, including ones of such renowned guests as William Burroughs, Henry Miller, Langston Hughes, Alberto Moravia, Zadie Smith, Jimmy Page, and Marilynne Robinson. For almost 70 years, Shakespeare and Company has been a home-away-from-home for celebrated writers—including James Baldwin, Jorge Luis Borges, A. M. Homes, and Dave Eggers—as well as for young, aspiring authors and poets. Visitors are invited to read in the library, share a pot of tea, and sometimes even live in the shop itself, sleeping in beds tucked among the towering shelves of books. Since 1951, more than 30,000 have slept at the “rag and bone shop of the heart.”
Jeet Thayil talks to Ted Hodgkinson abot his Booker shortisted novel, Narcopolis.
Listen to an audio interview with Jeet Thayil, 2012 Man Booker Prize shortlisted author on his novel Narcopolis. For more information about the Man Booker Prize visit http://www.themanbookerprize.com/
Listen to audio extracts from the six shortlisted novels for the 2012 Man Booker Prize.
SAJA presents a webcast on Wednesday about contemporary South Asian poetry, from the Diaspora and around the world. Join acclaimed poets and editors Ravi Shankar, Pireeni Sundaralingam, Patrick Rosal, Carolyne Wright, Kazim Ali and literary agent Sarah Jane Freymann to discuss the conception and shaping of the extraordinary anthology, "Language for a New Century: Contemporary Poetry from Asia, the Middle East and Beyond." Hailed by Nobel Laureate Nadine Gordimer as "a beautiful achievement for world literature," two of the co-editors will discuss the project with their agent and a contributor. The collection includes poets from 61 different countries writing in over 40 different languages and include poets such as Vikram Seth, Taslima Nasrin, Michael Ondaatje, Meena Alexander, Faiz Ahmed Faiz and Jeet Thayil. Please join us with your questions and comments.