Vamika Sinha

It is impossible to explore the UAE’s literary scene without probing its publishing landscape. Three bookmakers in conversation, Ahmad Makia, Zoe Patterson, and Vamika Sinha, are located at seemingly different ends of this spectrum. In Part 2 of their interview published in Wasafiri 122: The UAE Issue – on engaging place, a text’s lifetime, and the necessity, or lack thereof, of an archive – they expand on these ideas while examining the wider UAE publishing landscape, its history, and their roles within it.

Wasafiri Deputy Editor and writer, Vamika Sinha, spoke with 2025 International Booker Prize winners Banu Mushtaq and Deepa Bhasthi (Wasafiri's inaugural International Translator in Residence) at a live event at Waterstones Islington, London. Read their wide-ranging conversation, where they explored what went into writing, compiling, and producing their winning collection, Heart Lamp.

Wasafiri's Deputy Editor, Vamika Sinha, spoke to Botswana-based writer Lauri Kubuitsile about her novel, The Scattering — a work of historical fiction set against the backdrop of the Herero and Nama genocide and Second Anglo-Boer War in southern Africa. They discussed women's realities during war, Botswana's literary scene, and southern African writing more widely.