Granta 130: India, edited by Ian Jack
Granta 130: India was highlighted in “Books in 2015”, published in Asian Age, 4 January 2015. I am c&p the text. Granta 130 will focus on India to be released in January 2015. It is edited by Ian Jack, former editor of Granta. He had also edited Granta 57: India! The Golden Jubilee (1997) and The Granta Book of India (2004). Granta: 130 contributors include some of the best contemporary Indian writers: Anjali Joseph, Aman Sethi, Hari Kunzru, Raghu Karnad, Arun Kolatkar, Vivek Shanbhag, Vinod Kumar Shukla, Samanth Subramanian, Deepti Kapoor.
The definition of Indian writing seems to encompass writers residing in India (Deepti Kapoor, Raghu Karnad); those writing about India (Sam Miller) and those who of Indian origin but living abroad (Hari Kunzro, Neel Mukherjee). The main thrust is that India has added certain kinds of non-fiction to its literary achievements in English, story-telling that 20 years ago tended to be the preserve of writers from the West — no surprises for you here, but worth remembering that not so long ago “literature” in India meant the novel, the short story, the poem, the play and the critical essay. It didn’t include the memoir, reportage or the travel account. Now it does. All these forms now have their interesting and original practitioners in India.
In this Granta issue they tackle questions ranging from rape in village India to scandal in Mumbai clubs And there is room, as always, for the best of India’s fiction. Some of the contributors in the previous two volumes on Indian were Salman Rushdie, Urvashi Butalia, Amit Chaudhuri, Chitrita Bannerjee, R.K. Narayan, Mark Tully and Hanif Kureishi. Interestingly, these three issues are spread 17 years apart, but Amit Chaudhuri is the only writer who is present in all.
13 June 2015
Aman Sethi Amit Chaudhuri Anjali Joseph Arun Kolatkar Chitrita Bannerjee Deepti Kapoor Granta 130 Granta 57: India! The Golden Jubilee Hanif Kureishi Hari Kunzru Ian Jack India Mark Tully R.K. Narayan Raghu Karnad reportage Salman Rushdie Samanth Subramanian The Granta Book of India travel account Urvashi Butalia Vinod Kumar Shukla Vivek Shanbhag
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