The Indian literary landscape is etched with a young crop of writers who are willing to experiment and share their deep personal stories with their readers. Their books feature in bestsellers lists and often they don several caps, like the writer, the celebrity and even the agony aunt. Today, the bookshelves are no longer dominated by western authors. Indian writers’ books are increasingly elbowing for space with their western counterparts. Among the young breed of Indian authors include Ravinder Singh, Arvind Adiga, Amit Chaudhuri, Anuja Chauhan, Jeet Thayil, Kiran Desai, Sachin Garg and many more. Which young Indian authors should you start following? We focus on 5 Indian authors you should start following.
1. Ravinder Singh
Ravinder Singh, the author of the novel I Too Had a Love Story was born and brought up in a lower middle class family. He quit his job with a multi-national firm to write full-time. He says, “My dream was to get into a job where I can earn Rs. 10,000 a month and get a LML Vespa, just because one of our neighbours had one. I wanted little things and I never got them…and because I am a small-town boy, there is a different league of writing that I do.”
2. Sachin Garg
An engineer from Delhi College of Engineering, Sachin Garg has been described by MTV as an “author worth checking out.” His stories resonate well with his readers as they are thought-provoking. His novel I Am Not Twenty Four… I’ve Been Nineteen for Five Years garnered critical acclaim for depicting an unusual tale of a Delhi girl who lands in a small village.
3. Jeet Thayil
The first Indian writer to win the DSC prize for South Asian literature, Jeet Thayil is one writer you should follow. His debut novel Narcopolis blends fantasy and reality to create a powerful narrative in a world of opium dens and heroin addiction. The novel is based on his own personal experience as he had to struggle with addiction earlier in his life.
4. Anuja Chauhan
The author of The Zoya Factor (2008), Battle For Bittora (2010) and Those Pricey Thakur Girls (2013)., Anuja Chauhan worked in the field of advertising for more than 17 years before she quit her job in 2010 to pursue a full-time writing career. Her writing has won praise for her Hinglish-laced dialogues and in-depth characterization.
5. Nikita Singh
A novelist born in Patna, Nikita Singh wrote her first book entited Love @ Facebook when she was a student, aged 19. Currently, Nikita has 7 books to her name; two of these are The Promise and Right Here Right Now. She is also a collaborative author, and has co-written books such as If It’s Not Forever Its Not Love with Durjoy Datta.
These new authors have a fan following in metros and in smaller towns. They are carving their own space and their own niche, thus bringing in a different renaissance of Indian literature. The spurt in the number of Indian authors seems to say that memories of flying kites in the air are more appealing and evocative than the unknown willows of the west!
Image credit: vijay chennupati on flickr and reproduced under Creative Commons 2.0[author] [author_image timthumb=’on’]https://writingtipsoasis.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Smitha-Abraham.jpg[/author_image] [author_info]I’m Smitha Abraham. I love traveling in my flights of imagination and use these flights to craft short stories and poetry. I am a budding writer from India. My passions are reading, creative writing, listening to music, learning new languages, meeting new people, getting acquainted with different cultures and traveling. Authors like Isabel Allende, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Carlos Ruiz Zafón, genres like magic realism, historical romance, and writing styles that are imaginative and flow effortlessly fascinate me. I love to unwind with a book curled up on a sofa or by gazing at the stars by the sea shore. I am a nature lover and spending time admiring the sunset and sunrise is relaxing for me.[/author_info] [/author]