Usha Akella, founder of Matwaala, has been widely recognised for amplifying the visibility of South Asian poets in the USA. She served as Consulting Editor of Diaspora Writing for Muse India. In the special Matwaala Poetry feature in this issue, Usha fondly reminisces about the influence her grandparents had on her. (POETRY)

Shikha Malviya’s poems are an ode to childhood, not merely steeped in nostalgia but attentive to the quiet and often unseen process of growing up. It is a coming of age that unfolds behind the scenes, unprepared for, yet inevitable – a rite of passage.  (POETRY)

“Postmodernist discourses should include a conscious ecological approach at the core of each philosophical and literary system of thought to begin with since it affects every other form of thinking.”  (Labiba Alam in “Charting the Anthropocene – The Ecomystical Turn in Amitav Ghosh’s The Hungry Tide and Gun Island”). (FEATURE)
 

“The truth is Animal’s People as a literary work is also a representative of the colonized, third-world communities, that expound upon their experiences to the oppressor in the oppressor’s language, transformed and infused with a spirit of rebelliousness, of ownership, and a sense of reclamation.” (Pragya Dhiman in ‘Animal’s Tongue – Analyzing the Language of the Colonized in Indra Sinha’s Animal’s People.) (FEATURE)

“By embedding Malayali narratives into the heart of India’s capital, Mukundan and V.K.N. redefined modernism in Malayalam as an expression of alienation, irony, and survival in the postcolonial city,” avers Mukulika Radhakrishnan in her article.  (LITERARY SECTION)

Discussing Nissim Ezekiel’s poetry, Sunanda Sinha says, “Ezekiel’s introspective journey of self-reflection evolves personal anguish into human truths, alchemising his individual into a symbol of everyman.” (LITERARY SECTION)

Invisible wounds are far more traumatic than visible bruises. And if the protagonist were a child, then the healing may be even longer and daunting. Biswabandhu Mohapatra’s ‘The Father on Tour’ exudes the pain in a profound prose. (FICTION)

It takes courage to be what you desire to be, to speak your mind, to enact your words and to be truthful to your spirit. The pain to silently bear everything around us is seen in Parnika Sirwaikar’s ‘To Speak, to be’ (FICTION)

Yater Nyokir writes that Subi Taba’s Tales from the Dawn-lit Mountains is a lyrical and evocative collection of short stories that weaves together myth, memory, and indigenous spirituality to celebrate the cultural and ecological richness of Arunachal Pradesh. (BOOK REVIEWS)

Dr Dipak Giri’s Dalit Autobiography: A Critical Study is a landmark anthology that powerfully reclaims Dalit voices through personal narratives, critically examining caste oppression, resilience, and identity to redefine Indian literary traditions and expand global discourse on marginality and social justice, writes Akanksha Pandey. (BOOK REVIEWS)