A Literary Look at Pakistan

Heavyweight literary quarterly Granta devotes its Autumn 2010 issue to the nation of Pakistan, with a range of fiction, reportage, poetry, and visual art that is highly recommended for anyone looking to go beyond today's inescapable headlines about terrorism and natural disasters.

Granta's website also features an online exclusive, "How to Write About Pakistan," that should be required reading for American commentators and journalists trying to grapple with the country at an especially vexed moment in its relations with the United States. ("Pakistan is just like India, except when it’s just like Afghanistan.")

Meanwhile, it's worth noting that several of Granta's featured writers have recently made appearances at the Asia Society (see list, below), and the visual artists represented include Imran Qureshi and Rashid Rana, both of whom appeared in the Asia Society Museum's 2009 exhibition Hanging Fire: Contemporary Art from Pakistan.

Granta contributors featured on AsiaSociety.org
Fatima Bhutto (September 2010)
Basharat Peer (April 2010)
Daniyal Mueenuddin and Mohsin Hamid (February 2009)