RAWALPINDI: When he realized that too many doors were closed for South Asian storytelling in Pakistan and abroad, Lahore-based Arslan Athar decided to help fellow young writers strike out into the world of letters by establishing The Desi Collective (TDC).
Founded in 2019, TDC is not only a magazine where aspiring authors can have their poetry and prose published but also a safe space where their writing is reviewed by fellow writers, discussed and supported. The magazine has recently released its third volume, “Letters to My Inner Child.”
"A lot of writers who haven't been published or are new to their career say they have few avenues of recognition, encouragement, validation, even experimentation in a way that is fruitful for them," Athar told Arab News.
"We as a society do not encourage writing enough and despite that attitude, there is heaps of talent," he said. "We don’t celebrate our own literature or culture enough."
TDC’s volumes feature poems and stories about Partition, love found, love lost, surviving abuse and assault, and finding oneself. All of them are connected by the shared identity of being South Asian.
“Having new writers who are South Asian tell their stories bravely and without concern about prejudice is important," Athar said, “This way our stories, our way of life, our world view is put across in literature too.”
Sajeer Shaikh, 25, editor at MangoBaaz and SheSha, who contributed “Whiskey,” a story about feelings, to TDC’s first edition, says that it is a “welcoming safe space.”
“TDC allowed for vulnerability in my writing,” she told Arab News.
Another TDC author, Toronto-based M. Nazar Syed, 24, who used to write for the Express Tribune Blogs to “tell stories about Pakistanis to Pakistanis” said that when his columns stopped, he had no place to write.
"We have no literary magazines or literary outlets. We have so many stories to tell but not enough avenues to tell them," he told Arab News.
His “The Balloons” about a father in Karachi rushing to his son’s birthday is featured in the third volume of TDC.
"I am very proud that I was given a chance to contribute for what may eventually become the renaissance of Pakistani literature."
