Writing With a Broken Tusk
Writing With a Broken Tusk began in 2006 as a blog about overlapping geographies, personal and real-world, and writing books for children. The blog name refers to the mythical pact made between the poet Vyaasa and the Hindu elephant headed god Ganesha who was his scribe during the composition of the Mahabharata. It also refers to my second published book, edited by the generous and brilliant Diantha Thorpe of Linnet Books/The Shoe String Press, published in 1996, acquired and republished by August House and still miraculously in print.
Setting: Interior Landscapes
There are interior landscapes among us badly in need of just the kind of rewilding that ecologists are calling for in the real world. It’s worth remembering that the Indian subcontinent, like the planet itself, is shared space.
A couple of years ago, right around the first uneasy rumbles of the Covid pandemic, I received a request for a short story from Sehyr Mirza, a Pakistani creative writer and journalist who was planning to edit an anthology of short stories for young readers. Here is the ethereal jacket image now created by Priya Kuriyan for that anthology, The Other in the Mirror: Stories From India and Pakistan, coming soon from Yoda Press in India and Folio Books in Pakistan!
Power and the Silencing of Activists
Mythology and performance play roles in Oonga, the novel version of a 2013 movie with the same name, which won a 2021 Neev Book Award. The real-life dystopia of corporate plunder and the clash of ideologies lie at the heart of the novel, its storyline delivered in fragments that echo the fracturing of the land, torn up and left bleeding by the mining company. Sometimes fiction can help disseminate the truth about real-world events.
Process Talk: Samina Mishra on the Agency of Children
Here’s my continuing conversation with writer and filmmaker Samina Mishra.
Process Talk: Samina Mishra on Being an Ally to Children
I first encountered Samina Mishra’s work when I read Hina in the Old City. It’s a picture book about the life of 10-year-old Hina who lives in the old walled city of Delhi and comes from a family of zardosi, traditional embroiderers. I was struck by the warmth of the writing and the careful attention to the small details of a child’s life. Years later, Samina’s still writing into the heart of reality with compassion and heart. I’m delighted to be talking to her about her latest books from Penguin India.