Echoing from the gyre of the Indian subcontinent, we bring you Annalemma Number Nine: Outside Looking In.
Arvind Dilawar leads this issue’s nonfiction installment with “Swans.” Peeling through the streets of “the real India” on a motorcycle ride with his cousin, Dilawar unveils a series of tattered images: a butcher’s market infested with flies and dogs, a young girl feeding in a pile of rubbish between two cows, ritualistic bathers in the trash-infused bubbling of the Godavari river.
Murzban F. Schroff headlines our fictional selection with “The Mochi’s Wife.” Charting the spiral of corruption within a family determined to escape its social positioning, admirable artistry transforms into cunning technique. From modest beginnings, a shoe cobbler slithers into late night productions, and hooch-infused stumblings, as shoes make way for false suitcases.
Annalemma interviews Dr. Ana Aspras Steele, President of the Dalit Freedom Network. Dr. Steele provides an introductory explanation of the Dalit people, born into the lowest socio-religious-economic position in India’s caste system, outlining the role of the West in DFN’s mission to eradicate all forms of human trafficking.
Cover art and other flashes of illustrative wonder by Aimee Van Drimmelen.
Featuring non-fiction from Parul Sharma, Mira Desai, Linda Kobert, Paul Kavanagh, and fiction from Tanuj Solanki, Smriti Ravindra, and Patrick Bryson. Art by Topher MacDonald, Mark Lev, David Lemm, Andrea Manica, Laura Wood, Shawn Kuruneru, Karolin Schnoor, and Sergio Membrillas.
We hope to provide a point of entry for the newly acquainted Western reader through reflections of India’s complex beauty. Dropping you through a keyhole, in hopes of a ready expansion.
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