February 16, 2025
Elaine Nadal looks for the muse in experiences diverse and overlooked, and Sarang Bhand probes within and without for the sake of a single poem.
You Are Worthy
Craft: Elaine Nadal
Excerpt: A writer must also find adventures in the real world.
I wish to write a poem
Craft: Sarang Bhand
Excerpt: It cleared something for me and mulling restlessly overnight, I had this whim and urge to write and so ended up writing this.
February 9, 2025
Nina Miller presents a high-octane espionage thriller, and Ed N. White sings the sensational tale of a furry songster.
A Spy of a Certain Age
Humour: Nina Miller
Excerpt: In the spy business, only the very sexy or the extremely invisible can get prized intel. Ask me how I know.
Fleeting Fame
Humour: Ed N. White
Excerpt: I would explain to the judges that Bob saved his delicate voice for his musical performance.
February 2, 2025
Sarah Masters treats with a tale of culinary tricks, and Frederick Charles Melancon establishes the efficacy of otherworldly intervention.
Trick or Treat
Humour: Sarah Masters
Excerpt: You’re a witch, Jan. A bloody witch. Are those eyeballs?
A Dead Dad’s Confession
Humour: Frederick Charles Melancon
Excerpt: I can’t pick the beer cans up, but I can change the flow of air just enough to knock over whatever I want.
January 26, 2025
Surabhi Katyal recounts struggles with wellness and campus life, and Damayanti Saha hunts for music in memory’s attic.
MIDAS
Culture: Surabhi Katyal
Excerpt: I would never tell anybody about MIDAS and my score. I was sure the result was enough to send me home. And I did not want that.
Ghosts on the Radio
Culture: Damayanti Saha
Excerpt: I could feel Aishwarya Rai’s smile on one note, an eyebrow raised, and excitedly but mistakenly remembered Dola Re.
January 19, 2025
Stuti Sinha recounts gastronomical adventures in the queen city of the desert, and Amlanjyoti Goswami reviews Prabal Kumar Basu’s poetry of changing landscapes in a vivid country.
A sonnet about a 24K gold plated rack of lamb
Culture/Humour: Stuti Sinha
Excerpt: Dubai’s a destination for the rich / to spend their money, all without a twitch.
Fishing without a Bicycle in a Changing Country — Prabal Kumar Basu’s A Fish without a Bicycle
Book Review: Amlanjyoti Goswami
Excerpt: Prabal Kumar Basu’s book of poetry is a book of whimsical fancy, where surreal realities intersperse with romantic yearning.
January 12, 2025
Benjamin Brindise stages a family feud on Christmas, and Michael Fowler recalls rock ghosts of days gone by.
White Elephant
Humour: Benjamin Brindise
Excerpt: “There’s no shame in this family is there?”
There Are Way Too Many Obits for Rock Musicians
Culture/Humour: Michael Fowler
Excerpt: You might say I was born to rock, or at least reached puberty to rock.
January 5, 2025
Areeb Ahmad translates Anupam Singh’s songs of body, soul and bequest, and Asha Krishna reviews V.V. Ganeshananthan’s tale of a woman on a flaming island.
‘Inheritance,’ ‘Women Unveiled’ and ‘Yearnings’
Translation: Anupam Singh (translated from the Hindi by Areeb Ahmad)
Excerpt: Indeed, only father’s left shoe remained. / Made of plastic, it could not rot / and kept waiting for feet that fit.
Books in the Time of War — V.V. Ganeshananthan’s Brotherless Night
Book Review by Asha Krishna
Excerpt: The book opens with an intriguing prologue with a New York dateline. “I recently sent a letter to a terrorist I used to know.”
December 29, 2024
Matthew Johnson muses on sports, spirit and the hopes of a people, and Gary Beck puts on a show featuring wise clowns in a fractured society.
The Sports Writing Voice That Has Stuck with Me the Most: Maya Angelou’s “Champion of the World”
Culture/Craft by Matthew Johnson
Excerpt: Angelou is not just telling the play-by-play of an ordinary sporting event; she invites her readers to experience it.
Clown Show
Humour by Gary Beck
Excerpt: There’s no circus anymore. It closed over a year ago. Don’t you watch the news on TV?
December 22, 2024
Daniel Seifert records the troubles plaguing a pop culture colossus, and Wesley Zurovec illustrates the adventures of a featherweight crusader.
My Name’s Reacher. Jack Reacher. And I Just Want the Violence to Stop
Humour by Daniel Seifert
Excerpt: I carry a little chart of the human body, and I cross off each area where I’ve broken someone’s bone.
Super Squirrel and the Gas Station Goons
Humour by Wesley Zurovec
Excerpt: “I’m Super Squirrel. And I demand you let my poodle go.”
December 15, 2024
Ravibala Shenoy recounts a wife’s maiden voyage to Delhi, and Mitra Samal narrates the further adventures of Anu, Naaz and Rosalin in Bhubaneswar.
Paimaam Brings His Wife to Delhi
Humour by Ravibala Shenoy
Excerpt: Except for this one weakness, Paimaam was a simple man.
A Writing Escapade
Humour by Mitra Samal
Excerpt: When Naaz says something seriously it gains weightage, because she rarely does.
December 8, 2024
Michael Smith shows life in a handful of dust, and J.D. Isip ponders what we live, root and write for.
The Mayfly
Culture Essay by Michael Smith
Excerpt: As a schoolboy I was shocked, outraged even, that a creature could have its entire existence limited to just one day.
Writing Against Oblivion
Culture Essay by J.D. Isip
Excerpt: If we are honest, we all want to be ghosts.
December 1, 2024
Marie Cloutier channels grief to fuel her quill, and Mary Buchanan dissects the world’s favourite house mouse.
Writing through Disenfranchised Grief
Craft Essay by Marie Cloutier
Excerpt: I purchased a notebook and a pen and thought how I might fill the book.
The Sorcerer’s Apprentice
Culture Essay by Mary Buchanan
Excerpt: The only question left for you to consider now is what happens when Mickey shows his shadows—his deeper, fallible, more steeped-in-sin-human qualities—over what audiences have been conditioned to expect.
November 24, 2024
Mathieu Cailler versifies the surreal and the absurd, and Billie-Leigh Burns descends into the pantry downstairs.
‘The Astronaut Missed the Moon,’ ‘After the Ghost of Relationships Past Told the Truth’ and ‘Vanishing Point’
Humour by Mathieu Cailler
Excerpt: In his spacesuit, he fetched the morning paper and grabbed a Grand Slam at Denny’s.
Hell’s Kitchen
Humour by Billie-Leigh Burns
Excerpt: Steve Irwin takes his place in the cafeteria line. I ask him what he’s doing down here.
November 17, 2024
Parul Desai Shah encounters the invidious immigrant experience, and Jahnavi Gogoi discovers discrimination close to home.
Smells Like Home
Culture Essay by Parul Desai Shah
Excerpt: “A buyer said the house smelled. Like spices,” Nina stated with dramatic condemnation. This was a bullet wound to my family’s soul.
Satyanarayan Katha
Culture Essay by Jahnavi Gogoi
Excerpt: At one point in my childhood, I declare that I am an atheist. I do not believe in god. Everyone is horrified.
November 10, 2024
Shikha Valsalan travels, parties, yawns and cares in verse, and Miss BayLeaf paves the road to armageddon.
‘Jobless Evil Eye,’ ‘Only Controlled Disasters’ and ‘Darkness, My Old Friend’
Humour by Shikha Valsalan
Excerpt: I am the ultimate / jumbo jinx retardant…
Count Down the Way to Hell
Humour by Miss BayLeaf
Excerpt: Did Israfil blow the trumpet of doom or is it the constant ringing in my ears?
November 3, 2024
Daniel Fitzpatrick follows life along a loafing leaf’s locus, and Mark McConville traces a whirlwind of emotions through Holding Absence’s rock masterpiece.
Leaves
Humour by Daniel Fitzpatrick
Excerpt: It is tempting, when an oak leaf / falls into your empty cup…
Hunting for Joy through Music — Holding Absence’s The Noble Art Of Self-Destruction
Music Review by Mark McConville
Excerpt: To create art, you must be ambitious, and Holding Absence shows they’re masters of melancholia while breaking ground.
October 20, 2024
Katha Haldar and Sarthak Das traverse the heart of Bengal, and Anita Nahal breathes in Daipayan Nair’s earthy haiku.
Salt, Shadows and the Tempest — A Drifting Odyssey
Travelogue by Katha Haldar and Sarthak Das
Excerpt: As we gazed out of the bus window, the road unfolded before our eyes. Sometimes it veered, entering the heart of a distant village.
Heart-touching and resplendent haiku — Daipayan Nair’s the ten hands of a fuchka seller
Book Review by Anita Nahal
Excerpt: As Santōka Taneda, Japanese author and haiku poet, expressed quite rightly, “Haiku is not a shriek, a howl, a sigh, or a yawn; rather, it is the deep breath of life.”
October 13, 2024
Rachel Kitch recounts battles with personal demons and her unforgettable wedding, and Neera Kashyap reviews Lakshmi Kannan’s poetic offering to water goddesses.
auguri, auguri!
Culture Essay by Rachel Kitch
Excerpt: Only one thing was slightly off, and that was the bride. My dress—a custom Anne Barge—was slightly too big.
Riverine Verses — Lakshmi Kannan’s Nadistuti
Book Review by Neera Kashyap
Excerpt: Divided into five segments, Nadistuti is an interconnected riverine flow of poems that reflect each other in a brilliant kaleidoscope of mirrors.
The archive currently links to the old website. They will be uploaded to this website in due course.