Annie Zaidi: A Brief Bit of Magic
In conversation with Annie Zaidi about her love for theatre and playwriting, where 'The Comeback' came from, and the trust and solidarity that the arts require.
Win a Sponsored Entry to the Desperate Literature Prize 2025
Helter Skelter will sponsor five promising Indian writers for the Desperate Literature Prize 2025.
Alina Gufran: A Sacred Private Practice
In conversation with Alina Gufran about her debut novel 'No Place to Call My Own' and how her experience as a filmmaker helps her write better.
Experimenta 2024: New and Old Discoveries
In conversation with Shai Heredia, founder of Experimenta, on the film festival's role in taking Indian experimental cinema to the world.
The 27-Step Skincare Routine
What is the cost of beauty? When did skincare become so complicated, and is all of it really necessary?
In the Insect Colony
Helter Skelter is a proud partner of the Desperate Literature Prize for Short Fiction. This story by J L Bogenschneider was one of the final shortlisted entries for the prize in 2024.
The Decade of the Indian Internet Novel
Not only is the Internet Novel in India an experiment with contemporary form, but also a sign of a difficult political moment.
Open Worlds, Organic Truths
A man tends to his flock of clouds. A beehive’s queen finds herself threatened by members of her royal court. A woman sees messages in the murmurations of starlings. Gigi Ganguly’s Biopeculiar: Stories of an Uncertain World is a collection of twenty-two short stories that explore the natural
The Promises of Possibility
Think back to a moment when you made a split-second decision. What if you had chosen differently? What if you could rewrite your life? In Dharini Bhaskar’s Like Being Alive Twice, we explore this possibility through two diverging timelines---the life that Poppy actually leads, and the life she could
Win a Free Entry to the Desperate Literature Prize 2024
[The window for submissions is now closed.]Helter Skelter is a proud partner of the Desperate Literature Short Fiction Prize. The Desperate Literature Short Fiction Prize celebrates the best of new short fiction from around the world. In addition to cash awards and writing retreats, Prize-winning and shortlisted authors have
Time and Space and a Complicated Place
In Tashan Mehta’s Mad Sisters of Esi, islands are alive, memories are dimensions we can navigate, and the universe is a sea on which ships of discovery sail. Two sisters---Laleh and Myung---live within the whale of babel, which houses unimaginable worlds. But Myung wants to leave. Her journey leads
Fever Dreams and Buried Truths
Four defining moments in India’s past and present weave together in Siddhartha Deb’s The Light at the End of the World, an expansive, sweeping novel of fever dreams and buried truths. Real-world history bleeds into the speculative as we follow its characters back in time. In a near-future