Aniruddha Mahale—author of Get Out: The Gay Man’s Guide to Coming Out and Going Out—discusses his crush on Rahul Khanna, lying to his dates, sending nudes, and the socio-economic aspects of gay dating in India. By Chintan Girish Modi

Whimsical and wise, reflective and poignant, Nivedita Dey poems are a contrast to the gloomy poetry of our age, even while delving into the darkest recesses. She passionately declares space for poetry’s possibilities and promises. By Dustin Pickering

In a series of poignant poems from Anima: & the Narrative Limits, Nabina Das personifies the feminine energy of ‘Anima’—as she tells stories, observes the social fabric of humanity, poses questions to history, and explains the world through her perspective. By Karan Madhok

Set around the 1919 Jallianwala Bagh massacre, Navtej Sarna’s Crimson Spring is a tragic retelling that details individual lives shattered by this dark chapter in history. By Shreemayee Das

In Vauhini Vara’s debut novel, the story of the eponymous King Rao is part of larger questions of human creativity and meaning in a transhumanist world, where life is data-fied, and sentience, thought, emotion and ethics are mere products of automated and arbitrary calculations. By Paromita Patranobish

Contemporary OTT narratives like Panchayat and Nirmal Pathak Ki Ghar Wapsi are revisiting the rural through the lens of an urban outsider, in an evocation of Sri Lal Shukla’s acclaimed 1968 novel Raag Darbari. By Ananya

Seventy-five years after the subcontinent was lacerated and partitioned, the anthology The Other in The Mirror attempts to bind the fractured reflections of Indians and Pakistanis, using the balm of literature. By Karan Madhok

Spun with compassion and realism, the stories from Varanasi in Vivek Nath Mishra’s collection No One An Outsider ask contrasting questions of belonging, compassion, self-destructiveness, and death. By Dustin Pickering

1946 Royal Indian Navy Mutiny: Last War of Independence adds yet another dimension to the existing accounts on the struggle for Independence. But how does our remembrance of history truly carry over to the present? By Priyanka Chakrabarty

Edited by Farah Ahamed, essays and stories in the anthology Period Matters confront directly with the issues of pain, health care, dignity, and social taboos around menstruation in South Asia. By Shreemayee Das

Kashiana Singh’s poetry collection Woman by the Door is an exquisite intersection of the blossoming, enduring strength of women, the struggle of rebirth, and the existence with death and loss… through which Singh points us to a sure and certain hope: within ourselves. By Melissa A. Chappell

As long the coal remains a major player in the neo-liberal globalized world, the metaphorical and literal fires from Ilyas Ahmed Gaddi’s 1994 novel will keep burning. By Sudeshna Rana