Writing
As a writer-editor I have worked in mainstream, alternative and on-line journalism, with non-profit organizations, and published fiction and poetry.
In the 1980s, I worked for English-language newspapers and magazines in Bombay/Mumbai, India and came to Canada as Distinguished Visiting Journalist in 1990. I returned to do a Masters and then immigrated.
After working for Canadian environmental and international development organizations, I followed my partner to his hometown, Montreal, and went freelance.
I have been writing fiction since I was eight years old and I published my first short story collection in 2013, followed by a novel, and
my next work, Annapurna's Bounty, Indian Food Legends Retold, something a little different, will be released in June 2025. Says author Alice Zorn about this book: “
Lovers of Indian culture and cuisine will delight in the panoply of characters in these tales where food is the riddle, the salve, the forger of bonds, the wisdom, the life-and-death clincher. Aromatic and flavourful reading! Excellent recipes a happy bonus!
”
My novel, Land for Fatimah, was published by Guernica Editions in 2018 while Bombay Wali and other stories was released in 2013. Land for Fatimah humanizes and enlivens complex issues like the right to land for farmers and the role of international development, through a plot-driven narrative and intertwined stories of four women set in Kamorga, an imaginary, African country. Bombay Wali (A woman from Bombay) is a vibrant portrait of a city with myriad faces, populated by diverse, engaging characters. As a fiction writer, I have received writing grants, published in literary journals and anthologies and read extensively from my work.
I also curate an annual literary event, A Garden of Literary Delights (GOLD), for the multidisciplinary arts organization, Kabir Cultural Centre, Montreal. It showcases the work of Canadian authors of South Asian origin across genres and generations.
|
