India, Oct. 11 -- Dear Reader, It has been years since I last looked at picture books. Then two things happen. My friend Anna starts a library for the children of migrant workers in Manali. She need... Read More
India, Oct. 4 -- Dear Reader, I am at a writing retreat in Spain, in Romanya de la Selva, a small village on the Costa Brava near Barcelona. It is run by the writers Priscilla Morris and Melissa Fu. ... Read More
India, Sept. 13 -- A literary magazine is like a lucky dip - you never know what will come your way. This is what draws me to these publications. I subscribe to the New Yorker, the Mekong Review and ... Read More
India, Sept. 6 -- Dear Reader, I never wanted to be a teacher. I'd read To Sir, With Love and was touched by this story of a teacher in London's impoverished East End changing lives. Later I read Te... Read More
India, Aug. 30 -- Dear Reader, I started telling my brother stories when he was about five. He was a picky eater, and as the eldest girl in the family, I was sometimes assigned the job of feeding him... Read More
India, Aug. 23 -- Dear Reader, Two days after returning from the hospital, I fall violently ill with a cough and fever. "It's your immune system finally collapsing now that the adrenaline and cortis... Read More
India, Aug. 9 -- Dear Reader, My bag is full of books. Only I cannot read. In the waiting room of the intensive care unit, people stand in groups, talking quietly amongst themselves. A man across fr... Read More
India, Aug. 2 -- Dear Reader, Recently, I've taken to pairing my reading, and it feels like a compounding of pleasures. Much like combining a cappuccino with a croissant. Or food with wine. Whether ... Read More
India, July 26 -- Dear Reader, I want to write about protest poetry, about protest memes and protest satire. About the power of words, and about naming that-which-should-not-be-named. All week at ho... Read More