The Asian Prizes announces the long list for the inaugural Asian Prize for Poetry 2025, featuring ten works from nine countries exploring the theme “The Earth.” The international jury, chaired by Ukrainian poet Iryna Vikyrchak, selected diverse voices spanning Ukraine, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Botswana, Vietnam, India, Malaysia, and the Philippines.
“Deceptive Murders” is an engaging, fast-paced crime mystery with deceptive twists and a reader-friendly structure. It excels as a focused page-turner, ideal if you enjoy concise thrillers that keep you guessing.
The Asian Literary Agency has announced a notable addition to its editorial board with the appointment of author and cultural curator Nirmala Govindarajan. The writer will take charge of the fiction segment as Literary Editor for subcontinental authors, bringing her extensive expertise in contemporary South Asian literature to the agency’s expanded operations.
Today marks the International Day of Remembrance of the Genocide in Srebrenica, commemorating the victims of this atrocity. The UN General Assembly adopted the resolution establishing 11 July as this day of remembrance in May 2024, despite opposition from Serbia, China, Russia, Belarus, and Nicaragua.
She looked at him, frozen. Everything stopped. There was only this moment when his hand slid down her neck, shoulders, chest, gently and tenderly followed her contours, wrapped her waist and pulled her close. Her body flared under the movement of his hand. She felt his lips, their butterfly touch.
The Asian Review, in collaboration with The Asian Prizes, proudly presents The Asian Writing Lab—an ambitious series of interconnected articles designed to nurture and elevate emerging literary voices across the globe.
Sri Lankan author Shehan Karunatilaka has won the eighth Émile Guimet Prize for Asian Literature for “Les sept lunes de Maali Almeida.” The Booker Prize winner’s novel beat strong competition from Chinese and Korean works. The ceremony also launched the inaugural Inalco Student Prize for Manga, expanding recognition of Asian literary forms.
Mieko Kawakami’s Under the Eye of the Big Bird defies categorisation as part novel, part interlinked stories. Set in humanity’s distant future, this ambitious work explores extinction through fragmented narratives that gradually coalesce. Despite its bleak premise, moments of love and humour shine through, creating something genuinely original and haunting.
Writers can compete for £5,000 in prizes across four categories: Open Poetry, Short Story, Book for Children, and Young Poets. Submit your original, unpublished work by 30 June 2025. Prize winners receive professional recognition worth its weight in gold. Visit wellsfestivalofliterature.org.uk for guidelines.
Seán Ó Faoláin International Short Story Competition opens for 2025 submissions, offering a €2,000 first prize and featured reading at Cork International Short Story Festival. Running until 31st July, the competition welcomes unpublished stories up to 3,000 words from writers worldwide, judged by acclaimed Australian author Laura Jean McKay.
Ethos Literary Festival returns on 7th June 2025 at Ambassador Hotel, featuring prestigious book launches, interactive pitch sessions with leading literary agent Suhail Mathur, and ceremonial presentations by renowned professors. The day-long poetry celebration, organised by Harwal Publishers, concludes with the coveted Ethos Literary Award 2025 presentation ceremony.
We’re launching our inaugural global internship programme for 2026! University students worldwide can join us as moderators, reviewers, social media promoters, event curators, or editorial assistants. This fully remote, six-month programme offers invaluable literary publishing experience. Applications due 31st August 2025. Subject: “Internship 2026”. Join our literary journey!
Kenyan author Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, who transformed African literature by writing in his native Gikuyu language, has died aged 87. The Nobel Prize contender, imprisoned and exiled for his political views, spent decades championing indigenous African voices. His revolutionary decision to abandon English challenged colonial literary dominance forever.
” And this reminds me of a quote attributed to Toni Morrison which goes something like “If there is a book you want to read, but it hasn’t been written yet, then you must write it”.
Arundhati Roy exists as literature’s most uncompromising truth-teller, a writer whose pen serves simultaneously as artistic instrument and political weapon. Her singular career trajectory—from Booker Prize-winning novelist to fearless activist-essayist—represents one of contemporary literature’s most compelling arguments for the writer as public intellectual, refusing comfortable boundaries between art and politics.
The Asian Review has achieved a remarkable milestone, ascending from 13th position in 2023 to 10th in Feedspot’s global literary magazine rankings. Competing amongst 2,500 publications worldwide, this achievement reflects genuine reader engagement from 40 million monthly visitors across 195 countries, establishing the magazine as Asia’s premier literary voice.
Recognising publishers as by-products of writers’ work—as vessels for creative distribution rather than sources of creative legitimacy—would transform Sri Lanka’s literary landscape for the better. It would foster more equitable partnerships, diversify published voices, and ultimately enrich the country’s literary culture.
The Tanzanian-born British novelist, who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2021 “for his uncompromising and compassionate penetration of the effects of colonialism and the fate of the refugee in the gulf between cultures and continents,” crafts narratives that deftly navigate the complex terrain of displacement, cultural identity, and the lingering shadows of empire.
In recent decades, Korean literature has emerged from relative obscurity to claim its rightful place on the world stage, bringing with it distinctive narrative approaches, thematic concerns, and aesthetic sensibilities that have significantly expanded the palette of global literature
Vidya Math is a Cambridge-based author who was born and raised in Scotland. Her background includes scientific discoveries in Microbiology, running a dance school, performing dance, and songwriting with a love for poetry. She has also written “The Book of Stamps” and “The Luminosity of Crystals & Dimensions of the Heart.” Some of her life’s skills are evident in this book such as dancing.
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