09/10/2026
Don’t miss two opportunities to explore the work of Indian writers across genres—memoir, short stories, and a novel—in person at The Center this month! Register to attend at the links below.
🗓️ In “Writing from South India,” a 3-session reading and discussion group led by Tara Maria Fernandes, participants will dive into MOTHER MARY COMES TO ME by Arundhati Roy and HEART LAMP by Banu Mushtaq, translated from the Kannada by Deepa Bhasthi.
Roy’s memoir is a powerful account of her relationship with her mother, the acclaimed educator Mary Roy. It is also a book about place, community, and what we owe the people who make us—themes we’ll return to when considering the work of Banu Mushtaq.
Heart Lamp won the 2025 International Booker Prize—the first Kannada work and the first short-story collection to win, with the honor shared between Mushtaq and Bhasthi. Mushtaq’s short stories showcase the quiet lived realities of marginalized Muslim women in South India; this course will focus on the titular story “Heart Lamp” and “Red Lungi.” tinyurl.com/29y4ns6r
🗓️ We’re also excited to co-host “An Artist's Trail,” a conversation between bestselling author Alka Joshi and screenwriter Sabrina Dhawan (‘Monsoon Wedding,’ ‘Cosmopolitan,’ ‘Ishqiya’) with JLF New York, an international edition of the Jaipur Literature Festival. tinyurl.com/y5t89kxd
Set against the vibrant backdrop of 1930s Bombay and a Europe on the brink of war, SIX DAYS IN BOMBAY is a tale of friendship, identity, self-discovery, and the search for home. When a young Anglo-Indian nurse is drawn into the mystery surrounding the sudden death of a celebrated painter, she embarks on an extraordinary journey across continents in search of answers and herself.
