Edited by Minal Hajratwala, Out! is the latest anthology of Queer literature to come out of India. Published by India's first queer publishing house Queer Ink, readers have called it 'One of the best things that happened in the field of queer publication. A collector's item!' Follow this link to get a copy for yourself here.
In Bengaluru, a law student falls in love as the nation’s highest courts decide whether his love is legitimate. In Mumbai, a film star and a parent discuss their own journeys of “coming out” as advocates of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender movement. In rural Kerala, two girls row a small boat and feel their hearts open. These are the lives of queer Indians today: poignant, gripping, and occasionally even hilarious. Through their original and unforgettable stories, penned by the community’s master storytellers as well as emerging writers, Out! offers a glimpse beyond the closet doors – and into the lives and dreams of India’s most misunderstood minority. Editor Minal Hajratwala is the author of Leaving India: My Family’s Journey From Five Villages to Five Continents. The book won a Pen USA Award, an Asian American Writers Workshop Award, a Lambda Literary Award, and a California Book Award, and was shortlisted for the Saroyan International Writing Prize. She spent the 2010-2011 academic year in Mumbai as a Fulbright Senior Research Scholar researching a novel, while also writing poems about the unicorns of the ancient Indus Valley. She is a writing coach, and her own creative work has received numerous awards. As a journalist, Minal has worked for eight years at the San Jose Mercury News and was a National Arts Journalism Program fellow at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism. She is a graduate of Stanford University. Minal spends her time between Bangalore and San Francisco.
