WEALTH OF IDEAS

Today we are featuring a literary interview Sunil Sharma [ right ] did with the celebrated Pakistani-Parsi-American writer Bapsi Sidhwa [ left ] about culture, society, art and the craft of fiction-writing. In the words of Sunil Sharma, "The brilliant mind of the writer is summed up in this long dialogue, just beautiful, perceptive and crystal-clear." Sharma is an Indian associate-professor, freelance journalist and writer. Here he is in conversation with a senior author whose works have been made into cinema by the internationally-known Indian director Deepa Mehta. [ Please note that the series of 2010 readings lists and interviews is still going on, but while waiting for interview response, I thought you may enjoy this interview of an inspiring writer ]. The Interview: Sunil Sharma and Bapsi Sidhwa Sharma: What does it mean to be Bapsi Sidhwa in a globalized and de-radicalized world of 2010, a world where literature, like culture, has been grossly commercialized? Sidhwa: Gl...

This post features an excerpt from Sunil Sharma's introduction to a new international journal called New Fiction Journal (NFJ). Here, in Sunil Sharma's words, is the information about this new journal: NFJ is all about fiction and fiction writing. Old fiction written in a new way and challenging/defying our pre-existing conceptions about this most popular form of the world literature. It is dangerous stuff being composed by very mobile imaginative minds across a fast-shrinking globe by some very talented writers---old and emerging. The NFJ wants screaming fiction: a piece of writing that is unhappy with the deterministic narrow framework of story-telling decided by previous generation(s) of writers, literary editors and academics---that is all the arbiters of tastes for you. The ideal New Writer (NW) for us at NFJ is typically impatient---the way our beloved Derrida was with the western logos and everything foundational, metaphysical and fixed. He was, as his comrades gleefull...

Sunil Sharma, a writer and scholar based in India, has published his first novel, The Minotaur . I featured Sunil's short story, "The Cacti", in the July/August 2009 issue of Munyori Literary Journal . He was also instrumental in the conception of the idea of the Indian-Zimbabwean short fiction anthology, which I am going to co-edit with him. Here are more details about the new publication: The Minotaur is a chilling but familiar account of the rise and fall of a third-world despot. Riding the tidal wave of popular support, Caesar the Marxist, soon turns into a dictator and plunges his impoverished, exploited nation into a bloody civil war. Fleeing from his burning nation, he lands up in a remote island and declares himself the King. Then the personal descent of a once charismatic doctor-turned-guerilla leader into personal hell begins. The Minotaur is born and finally finds his nemesis, in the form of a radicalized native, on that remote island… A dark tale of power-cra...

This post was created by Sunil Sharma, an Indian scholar and writer with whom I am planning to compile an anthology of Indian-Zimbabwean short stories. An Indian publisher has expressed interest in taking up this project, but before we make a call for submissions, here is a short writing on the project. Sunil Sharma is currently Vice-principal and Reader in the English department of Model College, which is affiliated to the University of Mumbai—MIDC, Dombivli (East), in District Thane,state of Maharashtra, India. He is a bilingual critic, poet, literary interviewer, editor, translator, essayist and fiction writer. Some of his short stories and poems have already appeared in journals like New Woman (Mumbai), Creative Saplings , Muse India (both of them e-zines), Munyori Literary Journal, the Seva Bharati Journal of English Studies (West Bengal), Indian Literature (of Sahitya Akademy, New Delhi), Indian Literary Panorama (Mumbai), Contemporary Vibes (Chandigarh), The Plebian Rag (USA),...

The following is the second installment of my interview with Sunil Sharma, an Indian scholar and writer, who contributes to Creative Saplings . The interview was posted at the Creative Saplings Forum , but I reproduce it here in full: Does poetry still appeal to a culturally diversified mass audience? No. There is no mass audience for poetry anymore. The mass audience does not buy poetry books, or come to poetry events in record numbers. This partially explains why publishers are reluctant to publish poetry, and why the poetry section in book stores is dwindling. More and more, poets are becoming their own audience, so fellow poets are the greatest market for poetry. Is it possible to create a symmetry, consonance and harmony in a language headed for elliptical, fast SMS mode, inverting traditional categories of grammar? As an English teacher, I say it is possible to do so, because part of my job is to make sure that there is harmony and consonance in the language. Symmetry even. It i...

The current issue of Munyori features the following writers: Jennifer Armstrong, answering questions about Dambudzo Marechera Georgia Ann Banks-Martin, poetry Doeba Bropleh, with a short story entitled "Foya's Moon" NoViolet Mkha Bulawayo, with a short story entitled "The Watcher", which is already a big hit on the site. Memory Chirere, leading scholar on Zimbabwean literature, talks about the Dambudzo Marechera Celebration held at Oxford University in May Aleathia Drehmer, poetry Arabella Grayson, creative non-fiction Sushma Joshi, who was longlisted for the 2009 Frank O'Connor Short Story Award Salisu Ahmed Koki, a poet based in Kano, Nigeria Anish Kumar, poetry Joseph Masanga, a Congolese poet based in Hungary Colwin Mhlahlo, with a long poem tracing Zimbabwean history since 1980 Jennifer Pickering, Sacramento-based poet and artist Sunil Sharma, with a short short entitled "Cacti"

I am featured in an interview on India's Creative Saplings forum , under the topic, "Voices: near and far-off". Very thoughtful questions from Sunil Sharma, a writer and scholar based in India. Here, in part, is the interview: Sunil --Do you think writing is important in to-day’s global world? Emmanuel: Writing is more important now than it has ever been. For one, there is increased literacy in the world and more access to technology, and with the internet, we read about places we would known about otherwise. Our world abounds with news of disasters and sometimes it seems that as we draw closer to each other we are still in many ways separated by the specificity of our experiences. For this and many reasons, writing can be used to help us understand each other as we work together in the global world. As cultures interact, it is important to gain literacy about them, and one way to ensure that this happens is through writing. Who knew that HBO, for instance, would be runni...