South to South: Writing South Asia in the American South

Praise for South to South: Writing South Asia in the American South

“South to South is an exploration of the immigrant experience in southern US, delving into themes of displacement, cultural identity and the toll of racial violence.”
—Manushree Mahat in The Kathmandu Post

— Manushree Mahat

"an intimate, richly articulated expression of what it means to live in the American South as a South Asian immigrant."
—Gemini Wahhaj in Borderless Journal
— Gemini Wahhaj

"To a region much inclined to look backward, the American South, Khem K. Aryal’s anthology offers a vision as contemporary as it is vital and varied. These stories and essays assemble the conflicts and collisions (often literal) of cultures to explore and expose the traditions, mysteries, and wonders of Atlanta and Mobile and Houston and all points in between that South Asian populations have transformed. These writers, of Bangladeshi, Sri Lankan, Nepalese, Pakistani, and Indian descent, are all ones you’ll want to know further as soon as you shut the cover of this magical and necessary book."
—Tom Williams, author of Among the Wild Mulattos and Other Tales
— Tom Williams

"A stellar and much-needed anthology that illuminates a part of American life that has gone unacknowledged for too long. Gloriously written and contextualized in a well-researched introduction, this contribution to South Asian immigrant literature not only brings to life the experience of the writers and characters in the sixteen essays and stories, but offers with breathtaking clarity a vision of the American South from a vantage point that makes an old landscape new."
—Joanna Eleftheriou, Author of This Way Back
— Joanna Eleftheriou

"South to South is a wonderfully varied collection of work, subversively curated to showcase writers inventing their own traditions as they resist and complicate how we imagine South Asia and the American South. If you thought anthologies were here to generalize, let this one prove you happily wrong! With a range of nuanced, surprising essays and stories from voices originating from Nepal to Georgia, this book offers what I’m looking for in any writing about South Asian Americans: ferocious wit, elevation of historically marginalized voices, and a lively interest in critique of society and self."
—V. V. Ganeshananthan, author of Love Marriage
— V. V. Ganeshananthan

"South to South is an extraordinarily timely and utterly compelling literary collection. Staging South Asian claims of belonging in the US South, the sixteen stories and essays, along with Khem Aryal’s excellent introduction, show how much the South has changed its immigrants and how much these immigrants have changed their South. For in writing about the South, they have made it their own. Bold, unique, and inventive: this book will interest anyone reading, writing, and teaching about race, nationality, and immigration more generally and Asians and South Asians in the Southern United States more specifically."
—Pallavi Rastogi, author of Postcolonial Disaster: Narrating Catastrophe in the Twenty-First Century
— Pallavi Rastogi

"South to South enriches the already-rich body of South Asian writing in America today. With its focus on immigrant experiences that are shaping—and are being shaped by—the American South, the book provides a fresh imagining of the complexities of displacement. It’s also a vivid testament to the marvelous diversity and resiliency that is the South Asian diaspora. This is the new South. These are the new Americans." 
—Samrat Upadhyay, author of Arresting God in Kathmandu
— Samrat Upadhyay