Shahriar Shaams

Shahriar Shaams has written for SUSPECT, Third Lane Mag (forthcoming), Commonwealth Writers’ Adda, Six Seasons Review, and Jamini. Find him on twitter @shahriarshaams.

‘Huckleberry Finn’ through the eyes of Jim

Everett’s breezy, fast-moving retelling of Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884) is about putting in some due respect.

1m ago

Residence

I plead but I know there is nothing I can do. Akbar, in a rare fit of courage, tries to intervene. But the old man does not budge. Maybe he knows about Mina and me.

2m ago

Manufacturing praise

Sometime ago, a writer reached out to me with a request. His debut novel was being published later in the year and he was wondering if I would be open to reviewing it. I was aware of the book, having read it when it was still only a draft. The author was not someone I only knew, either, but a mentor who had supported my writing in many ways, even through monetary means. Refusing him, then, felt tantamount to betrayal. But I had to in the end, and though he understood, I still came out of the exchange feeling guilty of being unhelpful or, worse, ungrateful.

2m ago

A “knockout” debut from Rita Bullwinkel

The eight girls in Headshot clearly hope to escape the chaos of their lives in the ring.

3m ago

Whom is the propaganda on X for?

The disinformation game is now increasingly a part of our political makeup.

3m ago

Rabindranath’s rebellion

“The liberation that comes through sorrow is greater than the sorrow,” says Nikhilesh, in Home and the World. I quote from Penguin’s Modern Classics edition, in Sreejata Guha’s translation.

3m ago

We must never let such an environment of fear reign again

Fear cannot ever lead to forgetting.

3m ago

When death is a performance

Kaveh Akbar’s Martyr! is unruly and endearing. Akbar’s years as a poet has given his debut novel an honesty that shines through the book’s arduous structure. And for all of Martyr!’s exhilarating tone and emotional trek, the difficulties of writing a novel on addiction, martyrdom, death, and meaning is evident when one reads it.

4m ago
October 17, 2024
October 17, 2024

‘Huckleberry Finn’ through the eyes of Jim

Everett’s breezy, fast-moving retelling of Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884) is about putting in some due respect.

September 14, 2024
September 14, 2024

Residence

I plead but I know there is nothing I can do. Akbar, in a rare fit of courage, tries to intervene. But the old man does not budge. Maybe he knows about Mina and me.

August 22, 2024
August 22, 2024

Manufacturing praise

Sometime ago, a writer reached out to me with a request. His debut novel was being published later in the year and he was wondering if I would be open to reviewing it. I was aware of the book, having read it when it was still only a draft. The author was not someone I only knew, either, but a mentor who had supported my writing in many ways, even through monetary means. Refusing him, then, felt tantamount to betrayal. But I had to in the end, and though he understood, I still came out of the exchange feeling guilty of being unhelpful or, worse, ungrateful.

August 17, 2024
August 17, 2024

A “knockout” debut from Rita Bullwinkel

The eight girls in Headshot clearly hope to escape the chaos of their lives in the ring.

August 10, 2024
August 10, 2024

Whom is the propaganda on X for?

The disinformation game is now increasingly a part of our political makeup.

August 10, 2024
August 10, 2024

Rabindranath’s rebellion

“The liberation that comes through sorrow is greater than the sorrow,” says Nikhilesh, in Home and the World. I quote from Penguin’s Modern Classics edition, in Sreejata Guha’s translation.

August 7, 2024
August 7, 2024
July 11, 2024
July 11, 2024

When death is a performance

Kaveh Akbar’s Martyr! is unruly and endearing. Akbar’s years as a poet has given his debut novel an honesty that shines through the book’s arduous structure. And for all of Martyr!’s exhilarating tone and emotional trek, the difficulties of writing a novel on addiction, martyrdom, death, and meaning is evident when one reads it.

June 13, 2024
June 13, 2024

Celebrating the best of Bengali short fiction

Bengali literature has had a rich history of prose, beginning more or less in the early 19th century under the colonial Raj.

May 29, 2024
May 29, 2024

Unseen chains of consequences

When a few boys arrive at the couple’s flat to seek out their college-going daughter, Rekha, the parents are thrown into a whirlwind of adventure.