With apologies, I’ve written about ‘the current situation,’ based on my 🇳🇵 visit this time around. open.substack.com/pub/manjushr...

I had the best weekend. I got to meet Manjul Dai and my friend Susmita, who gave me the Nepali language, and literature from around the world (Garcia Lorca, Nazim Hikmet!), and a lot of love when I was starting out as a young writer. ❤️

Some very happy news this morning! The Board of the Parijat Smriti Kendra has granted me permission to translate one of Parijat’s novels. Toribari, Bata ra Sapanaharu showed me, when I was young & feeling trapped by Nepali womanhood, that women before me had already broken the mould. It freed me.

यस पालीको २-महिने काठमाण्डु बसाईमा मैले धेरै नै बोलें, अब चूप लाग्छु। तर पूरानो मित्र केसांगसंग film & writing बारे कुराकानी गराईदिनु भएकोमा @registandiary लाई धन्यवाद। (This conversation is strictly of interest to creatives—you’ve been warned). 🙂 www.ukaalo.com/news/30535/

💛

A young reader asked me to sign this copy of my book, telling me she bought it second (or third, fourth) hand. How sweet is this. 🩵

there's a moment in PARADISE LOST where Satan arrives in Eden and realizes Hell isn't a place; it's a thing he carries within him and it'll follow him wherever he goes. and i think about that when i see these awful rich men whose monstrous wealth has enriched them not at all

New York City, you’re in for a treat! The Lama’s Son, the latest film by Kesang Tseten, has its North American premiere on Sunday, Nov 16, 2025, at 2:05 PM at Village East by Angelika. A fascinating look at contemporary life in Bon villages in Mustang and Dolpo. Trust me, you want to watch this.

My essay on the word “Nepali” in Granta 173 is part of a symposium on 13 Indian languages. Here’s the link to the symposium for lit & language lovers. granta.com/thirteen-ind...

Granta magazine's latest issue, 173, is out today, and free to read for the next four days. It is on Modi's India. I wrote an essay on the word 'Nepali' for a symposium on thirteen Indian (and in this case also Nepali and Bhutanese) languages: granta.com/nepali/

Congratulations to Omar Khalifa and translator Barbara Romaine. This year's winner of the 2025 National Translation Award in prose. Our first book translated from Arabic!

And the winner is…! Barbara Romaine’s translation of Omar Khalifa’s novel Sand-Catcher. Do read it. It was an honour, and a pleasure, for me to serve on the five-person jury for the National Translation Award in Prose this year.

Caught the last night of the Kartik Nach in Patan/Yala. 🙏🏼

This is on Friday. I’ll be talking to fellow author and former editor at The Kathmandu Post Akhilesh Upadhyay about how Nepal turned me into a writer of socially and politically engaged literature. The session is open to the public, but IIDS asks that you register.

Okay well. Win or lose tomorrow (Ha! The Jays will win!!!) it's been so much fun watching these games in an otherwise gloomy-doomy Kathmandu. Gloomy-doomy because the political crisis following the killings of Gen Z demonstrators--and the arson that followed--remains to be resolved…

Meiselas: As all of this information has flooded the zone, you’d think that would be a good thing—that people would get more educated. But paradoxically, I think it’s brought us back to the Dark Ages and feudal times, because a lot of information doesn’t necessarily mean good information.

Pretty much the platonic ideal of dumplings. #momo

It turns out that Kathmandu time is actually a good time to watch the @BlueJays in the World Series. (The games start at 5:45 am). Two home runs bright and early this morning!

It’s been a strange month in Nepal. (Stranger than usual). I don’t feel like I have any thoughts to share, but I do have some feelings. I’ll see if I can post pictures that capture those feelings.

Yalambar 💙

I finally got a chance to watch this. Recommended! Nepal will be very lucky if it gets political leaders like Ms Bam in the future. youtube.com/watch?v=pbKR...

🪔 🩵

🪔 youtu.be/TJLzWOVaU3s

Gone offline, may be a while.

@openletterbooks.bsky.social @fsgbooks.bsky.social @coffeehousepress.bsky.social @penguinbooksusa.bsky.social @graywolfpress.bsky.social @eulaliabooks.bsky.social @archipelagobooks.bsky.social @worldpoetrybooks.bsky.social @blackoceanbooks.bsky.social

The 2025 NTA shortlists feature authors writing in 8 different languages and books from 13 different presses, celebrating the diversity of literature in translation in English and the large, vibrant community of translators, publishers and readers.

🎉 We are delighted to announce the shortlists for the 2025 National Translation Awards (NTA) in Poetry and Prose! 2025 marks the 27th year for the NTA, and the 11th year to award separate prizes in poetry and prose. View the lists here: literarytranslators.org/the-2025-nat...

No prizes for guessing where we were this evening. 🩵

Read Love and Garbage. Read My Golden Trades. Read everything Ivan Klima wrote. www.nytimes.com/2025/10/04/w...

I picked up these books today, and expect to be a lot more intelligent by the time I’m done reading them—Tsering Wangmo Dhompa’s The Politics of Sorrow and (ed) Benjamin Linder’s Kathmadu: A Reader. 📚

“Each one of these groups can by themselves take the nation down, but none of them can by themselves build it up again”—my favourite analysis about Nepal as we go into the festivals. 🇳🇵

As it did after the 2015 earthquake, the Government of Nepal has established a reconstruction fund following the widespread destruction of the Gen Z movement of Sept 8 & 9. Anyone can donate from anywhere in the world. (Screenshot from X).

Is anyone else feeling overwhelmed by the analysis-to-action ratio in Nepal? So much language around what has happened, and what will/will not. It really brings to mind the Lacanian framing of language as the main means through which we understand and address psychic wounds.

The Kathmandu Post kathmandupost.com/national/202...

What do you do with a democracy that refuses to serve the demos – the people? For 75 years now, following Nepal’s short-lived experiment with democracy in 1950, each generation has had to answer this question anew. My view on where Nepal stands now: www.theglobeandmail.com/gift/b6403fe...

Lots to read in the latest issue of Nepali Times. nepalitimes.substack.com/p/nepkids-to...

Nepal’s New Government Calls Elections. Its Critics Cry Foul. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/13/w... Gift article

We’ve read this? (Gift link) Nepal’s Social Media Ban Backfires as Citizens Nominate New Leader in Chat Room www.nytimes.com/2025/09/11/w...

Every generation has to fight the permanent establishment of Nepal anew. (Thank you forever to CK Lal for giving us that term—the PEON). Does Gen Z really want to help the Hindu caste-based order, the monarchy, and an undemocratic system return?

My observations on 🇳🇵from afar: the next few days are very crucial, as is the main question before the Gen-Z leadership: do they want to stay within the current (2015) constitution or not? And if not, how do they plan to ensure that Nepal remains a democracy?

Okay, Boomer. Over 2 turbulent days, & at the sacrifice of many young lives, Gen Z in Nepal has succeeded in ousting the country’s top political leaders. Here’s hoping the change they usher in takes Nepal towards more democracy, rule of law, and civil and human rights. 🕊️🇳🇵

Police open fire on demonstrators across Nepal killing 19. That death toll will rise, I'm sure. Banning WhatsApp was the inciting incident but government corruption lies at the heart of unrest. kathmandupost.com/national/202...

The KP Oli government has murdered 19 people open.substack.com/pub/kalamwee...

Good graphics! It’ll be interesting to see how this goes.🇳🇵 Source: x.com/enoughisenou...

I’m surprised by how much people buy into what are essentially marketing categories—Boomers, Gen X, Millennials, Gen Z, etc.. it seems like a way to avoid acknowledging that we all have universal experiences/sufferings, with different technologies/times of course.

Kalam Weekly has a good explainer on Nepal’s social media ban. And on Nepal’s plan to track all foreign visitors through digital portals and mobile apps. And on other plans to forbid public disturbance. All pretty idiotic. Do read if you haven’t already. open.substack.com/pub/kalamwee...

4 Arabic Titles Longlisted for 2025 National Translation Awards The American Literary Translators Association (ALTA) today announced the longlists for the 2025 National Translation Awards in two categories: Poetry and Prose. Three novels translated from Arabic were on the prose longlist, while one…

The Wayzgoose 2025, where I got to chat with my Toronto go-to @shawnmicallef.bsky.social, and hang out with my wonderful agent Carolyn Forde—and got to follow the entire printing process at Coach House Books. What fun. 📚🙏🏼📚

This year’s prose judges are @unpoetaloco.bsky.social, @rekognition.bsky.social, @ilzeduarte.bsky.social, @manjushreethapa.bsky.social, and Peter Constantine. This year’s judges for poetry are Conor Bracken, Dongshin Chang, and Rachel Galvin.