There is such a clichéd romance in the idea of being an artist’s model. All these women who made it to eternity by posing for the greats. In reality, there was nothing romantic about it. It was tedious and demanding. The body begins to ache from the effort to keep still. The face stiffens from the attempt to preserve the same expression.
Haliru Ali Musa has emerged as the winner of the inaugural Alexander Nderitu Prize for World Literature. The revelation was made on 4 April 2025 via The African Griot Review, an avant-garde arts magazine edited by the founder of the prestigious new prize. Haliru’s beautifully structured and stylishly told story, The Pregnant Ghost, beat out 71 other entries.
Perhaps most significantly, physical books offer a rare commodity in contemporary life: genuine escape from digital surveillance and commercial imperatives. Unlike e-readers that track reading habits, collect data, and interrupt with advertisements or notifications, paper books provide an untraceable, unmonitored intellectual refuge.
I sat in the graveyard, merging effortlessly in the background. When you have crossed your seventies, and you have mastered the art of sitting quietly without taking much interest in your surroundings, letting the hours slip away, it is easier to overlook you. In my case, I was worried the occasional visitor to the graveyard might think I was one of the inhabitants, taking a stroll to free their legs, cramped from lying in the grave for too long!
This is not about teaching her how to walk. This is about cheering her to run in life’s race. Failure isn’t an option, neither for me nor for her, because her accomplishments ultimately become my progress report. Consequently, just like the vast majority of the Singaporean parent population, I interfere unapologetically in my child’s education.
Manu Dash is a bilingual poet, editor, translator, publisher and director of the Odisha Art & Literature Festival. An author of almost thirty books, Dash joined the Anam Writers Movement—an anti-establishment movement in Odia literature—shortly before the imposition of Emergency in India in 1975. He is the founder of Dhauli Books, which won the prestigious Publishing Next Industry Award for the Best Printed Book of the Year (Indian Languages) in 2018.
Lily Tang believes that storytelling has the power to transcend cultures and build the critical connections we need to make the world a better place and has spent the past two years building a youth storytelling fellowship program to empower Indigenous students in Taiwan. Through her writing, Lily explores the transnational Chinese experience and the complexity, beauty, and pain of immigration and diasporic identity.
The Asian Journal of Literature is an annual publication by The Asian Group, the published edition of The Asian Journal, which is located in Gargaon, India. The Asian Journal offers two distinct editions: one for Literature and another for Science. The Journal for literature is now open for submissions.
Pulau Pulau was a matchmaking initiative created for writers by writers to find a writing partner. The aim of the project was finding a writing partner to co-write something together that goes beyond what either could create on their own. It was organised by the archipelago collective, a transnational community of writers and artists. From across the world approx. 80+ writers have participated from 30+ different countries whose are generally writes in 50+ different languages.
Addonia’s emphasis on the body as the primary site of both oppression and liberation distinguishes his approach. Unlike the cool intellectual distance that characterizes much postcolonial critique, Addonia insists on the primacy of physical experience.
The future belongs to those who can integrate the digital fluency of Generation Z with the deep reading capacities of previous generations. In that integration lies our best hope for citizens capable of both technological innovation and ethical wisdom—the combination our unstable world most desperately needs.
In Delhi, there lived a critic- his name was Venkat Swaminathan. I was in touch with him from the time I first moved to Delhi in 1978 until 1982. In 1979, he sublet a room in his house to me. Generally, I don’t ask anyone the usual ‘Indian’ questions, such as, where they work, if they are married, how many kids they have, or whether they own or rent their house.
Dominique Lapierre’s City of Joy transforms statistical poverty into visceral human experience through meticulous research and compelling storytelling. Yet this powerful narrative of Calcutta’s slums raises uncomfortable questions about Western perspectives on Eastern suffering, embodying both the possibilities and profound limitations of cross-cultural understanding in contemporary literature.
NoViolet Bulawayo’s Glory transforms fictional Jidada—populated entirely by animals—into a devastating mirror of postcolonial African governance. This Booker-shortlisted novel tears through liberation mythology with surgical precision, revealing how revolutionary heroes become the very tyrants they once fought, creating a ferocious political allegory that transcends any single nation’s borders.
The Asian Group of Literature is pleased to announce the launch of The Aisan Prize for Poetry’s inaugural edition. The Asian Prize for Poetry is a non-monitory award that aims to create a global platform of appreciation for the outstanding work of poetry by writers around the world.
I dream of lakes again. Not lakes, but of a specific lake. Roopkund Lake. Strange to dream in such vivid details about a place one has never visited. This time, my buddh dadda, my Hari, also makes an appearance. I have not thought of my paternal great-grandfather for ages.
The Asian Group of Literature has immense pleasure in announcing that the secound edition of The Asian Prize for Short Story is now open for submissions. The Asian Prize for Short Story is introduced in order to create a global platform of appreciation for outstanding work of short stories written by writers around the world.
Besides the nominations by the affiliated bookclubs of The Asian Group, the Prize is now open for submissions by the publishers. The submissions will be accepted till 15th February 2025.
The novel traces the remarkable life of Geumbok, a woman who rises from abject poverty to become a powerful entrepreneur in a remote coastal village. Her journey spans decades of Korean history, from the Japanese occupation through the Korean War and into the nation’s rapid industrialisation period.
The Asian Group plans to launch the translations of the books selected for the super shortlist in the year 2025 itself, while the rest of the books made to the shortlist will come to Sihala in early 2026.
The Asian Review 