Tashan Mehta

In episode two, host Anjali Alappat speaks with author and editor Tashan Mehta. Her debut novel, The Liar’s Weave, is a wonderful mix of myth and magic, chronicling the exploits of a teenage boy in 1920s India who has tremendous power and poor judgement - a potent mix. We discuss relearning how to write, plurality in storytelling, astrology taken very seriously, the desire to shape your own destiny, the complexity of sibling relationships, and the power of lies.
We also touch upon her soon-to-be released book, Mad Sisters of Esi, an epic story that includes god machines, a festival of madness, a museum of collective memory, a whale of Babel, and of course, sisters.
Tashan was shortlisted for the inaugural Prabha Khaitan Woman’s Voice Award for The Liar’s Weave. She was a Sangam House International Writers’ Residency (India) fellow in both 2015 and 2021. Additionally, in 2018 she was the British Council Writer-in-Residence at Anglia Ruskin University (UK). Her short stories have been featured in several anthologies including the Gollancz Book of South Asian Science Fiction Volume 2 and Magical Women.
You can follow Tashan on Twitter @TashanMehta

[@narishadil]

Why, now days, our Indian authors has been writing in present tense? I've seen three other authors by now, only this year.