Class of 2022
Class of 2022
Meet the Class of 2023
Usman Ahmad
He/him
Usman Ahmad is a writer and photographer. His work appears in Foreign Policy, The Guardian, Vice and The National. As an activist he works on behalf of Pakistan’s Ahmadi community. Usman will work with mentor Isaac Chotiner on a series of non-fiction essays and a book on the plight of Ahmadis.
Shah Tazrian Ashrafi
He/him
Shah Tazrian Ashrafi is a final year undergraduate student of International Relations in Dhaka, Bangladesh. His works appear in TRT World, The Diplomat, The Caravan, Himal Southasian and The Daily Star. Tazrian is working with mentor Karan Mahajan on a collection of short stories set in Bangladesh.
Rupsa Dey
She/her
Rupsa Dey is a writer from Hooghly, West Bengal, India. She writes about geopolitical strife through subaltern voices. Her stories appear in Muse India, The Dark and Mountain Ink. She contributes nonfiction to The Polis Project and Helter Skelter magazine. Rupsa has a Master’s degree in English Literature from Jadavpur University and is a recipient of a Kulturstudier scholarship for Peace and Conflict studies from Oslo Metropolitan University. She is working with mentor Aanchal Malhotra on a queer Partition novel.
Zainab Ummer Farook
She/her
Zainab Ummer Farook is a poet from Kozhikode, India. Her writing appears in nether Quarterly, The Bombay Literary Magazine, 14 International Younger Poets, and Yearbook of Indian Poetry in English 2021. Zainab is working with mentor Tishani Doshi on a poetry collection.
Kinshuk Gupta
He/him
Kinshuk Gupta is a medical student, bilingual writer, poet, and translator in Delhi, India. He has won the Dr. Anamika Poetry Prize, Ravi Prabhakar Smriti Laghukatha Samman and the 2022 Akhil Bhartiya Yuva Kathakar Alankaran. Gupta edits poetry for Mithila Review and Jaggery Lit and works as an Associate Editor for Usawa Literary Review. His debut book of short fiction, Yeh Dil Hai Ki Chordarwaja, the first modern Hindi LGBT short story collection, is published by Vani Prakashan. Kinshuk is working with mentor Tishani Doshi on a poetry collection.
Meher Hasan
She/her
Meher Hasan is a writer, artist and model from Lahore, Pakistan. She graduated from the Lahore University of Management Sciences with a degree in English. She writes for Newsweek, Pakistan Today and The Aleph Review. Meher is working with mentor Fatima Bhutto on a novel about girlhood, desire and loss.
Fatima Khan
She/her
Fatima Khan is a senior correspondent at The Quint where she covers national politics, hate crimes and social justice. She is a recipient of the International Press Institute award and an UNFPA Laadli award for gender reporting. She was a finalist for the Human Rights and Religious Freedom 'Young Journalist of the Year' award. Fatima is working with mentor Samar Halarnkar on a book about Muslim women in India.
Zehra Shabir Khan
She/they
Zehra Shabbir Khan is an undergraduate student of fine arts in Karachi, Pakistan. She is majoring in painting, printmaking and miniature art. Her artistic interests lies in colonial and postcolonial studies, gender and sexuality. Zehra is working with mentor Aanchal Malhotra on a novel set in India, Bangladesh and Pakistan.
Mayuravarshini M
She/her
Mayuravarshini has a master's degree in English and works as an editorial assistant at a publishing house in Chennai, India. She is working with mentor Arunava Sinha on an English translation of Nakkeeran’s Tamil novel Kadodi.
Sadaf Modak
She/her
Sadaf Modak is a journalist in Mumbai, India. Over the past decade she has reported on the trial courts of the city, covering criminal cases, prisons and juvenile justice. She is a contributor to the anthology “Women, Incarcerated: Narratives from India” (Orient BlackSwan, 2022). Sadaf is working with mentor Taran Khan on a project on Indian courtrooms.
Rishu Nigam
She/her
Rishu Nigam is a writer and documentary filmmaker focussed on environment and climate change. Earlier she was the head of content for The Energy and Resources Institute in New Delhi, India. Rishu is working with mentor Mira Kamdar on a series of reported pieces on the impact of climate change in the Indian Himalayas.
Rishabh Pandit
He/him
Rishabh Pandit translates poetry from many languages including Persian, Urdu, Hindi and Punjabi. He has a postgraduate degree in Political Science from the University of Delhi. Rishabh is working with mentor Arunava Sinha on translating an anthology of Hindi-Urdu resistance poetry
Ashaq Hussain Parray
He/him
Ashaq Hussain Parray was born in Malikpore, a remote hamlet in Bandipora, Kashmir. He has a master’s degree in English and has just submitted his PhD on the English translations of Mirza Ghalib’s ghazals. Ashaq teaches English to undergraduate students at a small college in his home district. His essays and translations from Kashmiri and Urdu appear in The India Forum, Asymptote, Ezra: An Online Journal of Translation, nether Quarterly, Presence: A Journal of Catholic Poetry and Bombay Literary Magazine. Ashaq will work with mentor Marc Herman on “Walking with Ghosts in Kashmir: A Memoir”.
Sherwin S Rodriguez
He/him
Sherwin Rodriguez is a writer and translator from Chennai, India. He is the recipient of a fellowship from the JCB Literature Foundation, which is allowing him to pursue a P.G.D. in Literary Translation at Ahmedabad University. His translation of a Tamil short story was shortlisted for the Mozhi Translation Prize 2022. Sherwin is working with mentor Arunava Sinha on a translation of Tamizh Prabha’s novel, Pettai, from Tamil to English.
Roshini Joanna Ross
They/them and she/her
Roshini Ross is a queer disabled writer from Bangalore, India. They work with left-wing minority social movements and cross-border fisher issues across South Asia. They coordinate Youth for the Coast, a training programme for youth on ocean, coasts and fishworker movements and work with the National Fishworkers Forum, a federation of fishworkers trade unions in India. They have an MA in Sociology from Ambedkar University Delhi and are associated with a progressive left organisation, the Students Federation of India. Roshini is working with mentor Fatima Bhutto on “Lost at Sea”, a book of stories and conversations from fishing communities affected by disasters.
Samin Sayeda
She/her
Samin Sayeda is a writer and editor in New Delhi, India. She writes on sustainability, environment, auto and technology. She takes a keen interest in exploring the ideas of home, identity, migration and displacement through fiction. Samin is working with mentor Mahesh Rao on a novel set in Nagaland, India.
Tanul Thakur
He/him
Tanul Thakur is an independent journalist and a film critic for The Wire in Delhi, India. He’s won the 2015 National Film Award for Best Film Critic and the Mumbai Press Club Award for Best Lifestyle & Entertainment Story. Tanul is working with mentor McKenzie Funk on a nonfiction book about the systemic abuse of the H-1B visa program that exiles American professionals and ‘enslaves’ Indian IT workers.
Aditi Yadav
She/her
Aditi Yadav is a public servant in Lucknow, India. Her works appear in Rain Taxi Review of books, EKL review, Usawa Literary Review, Gulmohur
Quarterly, Narrow Road Journal, Borderless Journal and the Remnant Archive. Aditi will work with mentor Arunava Sinha on translating an
anthology of short stories from Hindi to English.