Diaspora literature forms a substantial part of contemporary South Asian literary tradition, especially for Pakistan with authors like Mohsin Hamid, Kamila Shamsie and the late Bapsi Sidhwa all based overseas.
The South Asia Speaks (SAS) literary fellowship, which was previously restricted to applicants resident in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan and Sri Lanka, has now opened its doors to young South Asian voices around the world. Afghan applicants were permitted to apply even if they weren’t living in Afghanistan.
SAS pairs a handful of promising young writers and poets with seasoned literary professionals and journalists to develop a book-length project. Successful applicants are provided one-on-one sessions with an assigned mentor, as well as a range of craft workshops and masterclasses to hone their skills.
Masterclasses and workshops have been conducted by Shamsie, Pankaj Mishra, Vauhini Vara and Taymour Soomro for past cohorts.
Applications for the 2026 cohort will open September 1 and run till Sep 30.
SAS has paired over 100 fellows with mentors over the last five years. Their fellows have gone on to publish books with prestigious publishing houses such as Penguin Random House, Bloomsbury and HarperCollins. The 2025 cohort had eight fellows, one from Pakistan, six from India and one from India-occupied Kashmir.
While the fellowship initially catered to fiction and non-fiction writers, last year saw the introduction of an oral history mentorship programme, helmed by seasoned oral historian Aanchal Malhotra.
Malhotra has won awards for her writings on the lived experiences of Partition and is a co-founder of the Museum of Material Memory — a digital repository tracing family histories and social ethnography through heirlooms, collectables and antiques.
The SAS fellowship was founded by Sonia Faleiro, who continues to serve as programme director. She is joined on the board by Fatima Bhutto, Isaac Chotiner and Julia Churchill.
