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“The Best Desi Short Stories
What exactly is ‘Desi’ fiction? For one, it’s a catch-all for stories that are produced by authors in the region of South Asia — which covers India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, Nepal, the Maldives, and Afghanistan — as well as authors around the world coming from the South Asian diaspora.
And for another, it’s a genre that’s in the midst of a fantastic boom. You probably already know, for instance, about Mindy Kaling’s autobiographical Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns)! But the depth and breadth of Desi stories stretch far beyond that. There’s Jhumpa Lahiri’s The Namesake, a generational classic. There’s everything by Salman Rushdie. There’s Adiba Jaigirdar bursting onto the YA and LGBTQ+ scene with The Henna Wars, and Samit Basu’s mind-boggling GameWorld Trilogy over in the realm of fantasy. In short, Desi fiction’s got every kind of story — and also the perspectives that makes it a lot more.
Looking for some of the best Desi stories?
Well, we’ve got good news for you! Our directory’s got some of the best Desi stories written by the next great Desi authors. They’re collected from the stories submitted over the past few years to our weekly short story competition. And if you go to the top of the page, you’ll find the shortlisted stories that stood out the most to our panel of judges. We also anthologise the best stories in our new literary magazine, Prompted, which you can download for free.
If you find a Desi author who you just click with, there’s even more good news: you can get instant notifications that alert you to any of their new stories, just by clicking ‘follow’! Don’t forget that you, too, can submit a short story to our competition. Who knows? It might be you walking away with the cash prize next time.
