South Asian Literary Showcase and Launch Party

South Asia Institute is proud to bring a group of writers, who will be sharing their works of different genres. The reading will be followed by the launch of Mary Anne Mohanraj's newly released book, 'Tornado: A Breast Cancer Memoir'.

Join us for an afternoon of literary readings and music on Saturday, October 21 from 3:00 P.M. to 5:00 P.M.

Featured reader: Dipika Mukherjee

Singers: Tina Bhaga and Alex Yu

Rapid-fire readers: Ami Kaye, Gulnaz Saiyed, Zara Imran

Kathak Dance: Aanya Sood

Intermission

Rapid-fire readers: Arnav Sibal, Samina Hadi-Tabassum, Angeli Primlani

Singer: Tara Swaminathan

Featured reader: Mary Anne Mohanraj

Participating writer bios

Tina Bhaga began writing music in 2019 with friends from the MBT Creative Writing workshop. Tina's inspired by goth, new wave, dance pop, and folk. She’s currently a singer and songwriter with two bands: Sona Umbra and Venus by Air. Tina will be accompanied by Alex Yu on guitar.

Samina Hadi-Tabassum was born in Hyderabad, India; her first book of poems, Muslim Melancholia (2017), was published by Red Mountain Press. She has published poems in the Journal of Postcolonial Literature, Papercuts, Main Street Rag, Tin House and Souvenir. Her poems were performed on stage in 2017 as a part of the Kundiman Foundation and Emotive Fruition event focusing on Asian American poetry. For short stories, “Maqbool” was published in New Orleans Review in June 2018 and was a chapter in the New Moons Anthology edited by Kazam Ali; “Lateef” was published in Another Chicago Magazine; “Khalid” was published in Louisville Review; “Adnan” is being published in the William and Mary Review; and “Sajid” won the distinguished award in the Best American Short Story Collection 2021 and was originally published in Chicago Quarterly Review. Her micro essay titled “Hair/Baal” was nominated for a Pushcart from an anthology of non-western women writers through Woodhall Press.

Zara Imran received her undergraduate degree from Habib University in Karachi, Pakistan. She majored in Social Development and Policy and minored in English and Comparative Literature. She is a Critical English Studies P.h.D student at UIC. Her research interests, broadly speaking, are in the fields of Gender and Sexuality Studies, Poetry and Poetics, Disability Studies, and Postcolonial Studies.

Ami Kaye is the founding editor of Glass Lyre Press, Pirene’s Fountain, and the Aeolian Harp Series. Her poems, reviews, and articles have appeared in various journals and anthologies, including Kyoto Journal, The Comstock Review, Naugatuck River Review, The Cartier Street Review, Diode, and the Pandemic Puzzle Anthology. Her new book Flutesongs of Tanjore is forthcoming from Salmon Poetry. She published Carrying the Branch: Poets in Search of Peace; Sunrise from Blue Thunder in response to the Japan 2011 disasters; and Collateral Damage, an anthology for disadvantaged children. She enjoys music and watercolor painting.

Mary Anne Mohanraj is author of Tornado (a breast cancer memoir), Perennial (a cancer romance), A Feast of Serendib (a Sri Lankan cookbook), Vegan Serendib, Bodies in Motion, The Stars Change, and twelve other titles. Mohanraj founded Hugo-nominated and World Fantasy Award-winning speculative literature magazine Strange Horizons, and serves as Executive Director of both DesiLit (desilit.org) and the Speculative Literature Foundation (speclit.org). She’s Clinical Associate Professor in English and Global Asian Studies at the University of Illinois at Chicago, and was elected in 2021 to the Oak Park – River Forest D200 school board. Mohanraj has recently opened a small business, Serendib House, offering books and handmade art pieces; find it as part of the Sprout Incubator Project, at 7129 Cermak Road, Berwyn, IL, or online at www.serendibshop.com. To learn more about Mary Anne, visit www.maryannemohanraj.com.

Dipika Mukherjee’s collection of travel essays, WRITER’S POSTCARDS (Penguin Random House SEA), will be published in October 2023. Her work is included in The Best Small Fictions 2019 and appears in World Literature Today, Asia Literary Review, Del Sol Review, and Chicago Quarterly Review, Newsweek, Los Angeles Review of Books, Hemispheres, Orion and more, and she has been translated into French, Portuguese, Bengali and Mandarin Chinese. She is the author of the novels SHAMBALA JUNCTION (Aurora Metro, winner of the Virginia Prize for Fiction) and ODE TO BROKEN THINGS (Repeater Books, longlisted for the Man Asia Literary Prize), and the story collection, RULES OF DESIRE (Fixi). Her latest poetry collection is DIALECT OF DISTANT HARBORS (CavanKerry Press, winner of Quill and Ink Award).

Angeli Primlani is a Chicago-based playwright, director, producer and actor. She was culture and features writer and online editor for The Prague Post in the Czech Republic. She was the founding Artistic Director of Accidental Shakespeare Theatre Company. Her play "The Black Knight" premiered in spring of 2022. The Marlen of Prague is her first novel.

Gulnaz Saiyed is a full-time mother, writer, editor, sensitivity reader, and content marketer living outside of Chicago. She has a master’s degree in journalism from Northwestern University, and is a drop out of the university’s doctoral program in Learning Sciences (life happens). Her personal essays have been published by Catapult, the Georgia Review, Brain Mill Press Voices, and the Huffington Post. Her journalistic work has appeared in the Washington Post, Shondaland, and Popular Mechanics. She is currently seeking representation for her first book, a YA novel drawing from her experiences growing up in Kentucky.

Arnav Sibal is an author and poet. He is currently pursuing an MA in English Literature at UIC. At the age of 17, his debut anthology Wildflower Sea, an exploration of love and coming of age, was published by Hay House India. Five years later, he released Dirstkin. The spoken word album drew on Sibal's experience growing up in four countries. It earned him multiple shows across the New York City circuit, including the Nuyorican Poets Café, The Bitter End, and three features for Mike Geffner Presents the Inspired Word. Sibal's sophomore album is due for release later this year.

Aanya Sood is a current third-year student studying Information Decision Science and Management Information Systems at UIC. Outside of school, she’sworking to complete my postgraduate education in the Indo-Arab classical dance called kathak through the education of the late Pt Birju Maharaj taught by Gurmeet Marhas, founder of the Chicago Kathak Institute: Dancing Petals, and getting my certification through the Imperial Board of Dancing Teachers.

Tara Swaminathan is a classically trained singer in Indian Music and has performed for many charity events in the span of 40 years. She has directed and produced and acted in two movies, featuring her as the protagonist. The first, Path to Freedom won three awards and accepted at many festivals; the second I am not Disabled was accepted by CSAFF. She serves on the Board of the IMACF .