The Fiction of truth, the truth of fiction

http://happano.sub.jp/happano/kathmandu/copyright.html Click above graphic.

The editors at ECS Magazine asked me to write about the Krishna Temple, and my experience there during the earthquake. This is what I wrote for the December 2016 issue. KRISHNA'S MANDIR Sushma Joshi Lying on the bed of the B and B Hospital, I tried to explain to people what had happened to me in the Patan Durbar Square on the day of the earthquake. But try as I may, I didn’t know what had happened to me. “The Krishna Temple fell on her,” my mother said, by way of explanation. My nose and ears was stuffed full of the dry, dank smell of centuries old dust, making me feel I was encased in burial and death. My head was full of wounds and caked with blood. Doctors and nurses, breezing in and out and injected me with antibiotics via the IV drip, didn’t seem to think the wounds needed cleaning. They said airily: “Oh, don’t worry, that will fall out in a few days.” But in those few days, I slept with a giant ball of hair full of dust. The smell of decomposing blood got strong...

The Kyoto Journal just published two of my poems from my series "Garden Poems". Please buy the journal--its a literary and artistic feast about Asia! You can buy the latest issue here: http://www.kyotojournal.org/ current-issue-digital-edition/ And here is the PDF of my two poems , with beautiful illustrations. Enjoy!

KJ 87 Amazingly,  Kyoto Journal  is approaching its 30 th  anniversary—not bad going for an all-volunteer non-profit publication, in any context. Back in the pre-Internet days of monochrome cut-and-paste layout (art-knife and toxic spray- nori ) we had no inkling that the magazine would last more than a few issues, or that it would continue to evolve over three decades into its current Asia-spanning digital format. Deepest gratitude to each and every one of KJ’s multitude of supporters: our contributors, subscribers, and editorial/production staff! Our soon-to-be released fall 2016 issue, KJ 87(!), features excerpts from three exceptional new books, complemented by a wide-reaching ensemble of encounters with people engaged in extending creative boundaries in Japan, India, Kazakhstan, Cambodia—and North Korea.  Marc Peter Keane’s  forthcoming  Japanese Garden Notes:  a visual guide to elements and design , is a feast for the eyes in explicating ...

The Kathmandu Post's review of "House of Snow" says: The book crisscrosses genres, straddles ages and dissolves the boundaries of nations and cultures to bring together those who are bonded by the common desire to talk about their Nepali experiences. Alongside the works by the gems of Nepali literature (Bhupi Sherchan, Bishweshwar Prasad Koirala, Lakshmiprasad Devkota, and Lil Bahadur Chettri) and popular Nepali authors writing in English (Manjushree Thapa, Sushma Joshi, Samrat Upadhyay) are the accounts of foreigners writing about the country. There is Michel Peissel with his story of Boris Lissanevitch, the Russian émigré who opened the first hotel in Nepal; an excerpt of Jon Krakauer’s bestselling  personal account about the 1996 Mount Everest disaster; and  Michael Palin with his trekking diaries.  http://kathmandupost.ekantipur.com/news/2016-09-24/many-cooks-sweeten-the-broth.html http://bit.ly/2cTK3fu

And if you are into science fiction, do order a copy of the Far Cry Zine , which just published my short story "Orange Peel." Here's their website: http://farcryzine.com/sample-page/

I was thrilled to receive in the mail a jumbo copy of Emanations!  As an earthquake victim buried under rubble for half hour,  with seventeen days in the hospital for various surgeries, then four months on my back as I tried to get up, via physiotherapy, then more months as I realized I needed pins in my ankle if I was to walk, then full body anasthesia again to remove the implement in my broken arm, and to insert pins into my right ankle, and then more post-op recovery, exercise,  and physiotherapy... I was feeling exhausted.   I had had no access to any reading material other than Twitter, and the books that my friends bought me, during all this time. This includes  a tattered copy of world poetry that belongs to Wayne Amtzis, and a book about a dog written by Jack London,  which formerly belonged to Sara Shneiderman's 8 year-old son Sam, if I'm not mistaken.  Both of these were excellent (the Chetan Bhagat and Jhu...

Dear readers! Please do order a copy of "House of Snow," newly published by Head of Zeus in London this August. The anthology looks big and fat, and I'm sure there will be something there for everyone! You can also find my short story "After the Floods" in the anthology. All proceeds go to rebuild a school in Gorkha, one of the districts most affected by the 2015 earthquake. Thank you for your support, and I look forward to hearing your feedback!! -- Sushma ___________________ Amazon says:  HOUSE OF SNOW is the biggest, most comprehensive and most beautiful collection of writing about Nepal in print. It includes over 50 excerpts of fiction and non-fiction inspired by the breathtaking landscapes and rich cultural heritage of this fascinating country. Here are explorers and mountaineers, poets and political journalists, national treasures and international stars such as Michael Palin and Jon Krakauer, Laxmi Prasad Devkota and ManjushreeThapa – a...

936   323   2   1265 GET NEWS ALERTS A rain of bricks. I thought somebody was hitting me from behind with bricks. Surprise, anger. What the…!  My instinct was to turn behind, to look, to react. But the earthquake gave me no time. Everything happened in the fraction of a second. The next thing I can remember, I had slid down the stairs midway to Mangal Hiti, and was lying pinned on the ground. A latticework of heavy pillars of wood and bricks, the debris of a temple that had collapsed behind me, pinned me down. It took me a while to register this thought: “This is real. This just happened.” This wasn’t fiction. This was the real deal, the apocalyptic accident of unimaginable horror that we think will lie safely within the pages of books and on the screens of the cinema, but never experience in real life. The incident I’d imagined would never happen to me—until it did. I could raise my head a bit, and I could see the...

(Click on image to enlarge) I made the collage above 20 years ago, as an undergraduate at Brown University. I was taking a class on digital design and art at Rhode Island School of Design. The collage brings together old photographs of Nagasaki after the atomic bombing.  The yellow images at the top are of Fat Man, the bomb that was dropped on the city on August 9th.  The bird is the fallen bird of peace.  The blue gate symbolizes peace. We cannot go in or out of the gate till we have looked at the horrors of the past, and acknowledged our mistakes. 

Download your copy of Art Matters  from Open Learning Exchange's Pustakalaya . Art Matters was published in 2008, with support from the: यसैमा फेरी खोज्ने Alliance française de Katmandou  The book is a compilation of reviews I did for the Nation Weekly Magazine as well as ECS Magazine between 2004-2008. 

To read my short story "Tom's Diner," go to Cerise Press and click on the link on the right.

I found the link to my short story "I woke up last night and I cried" on the New Asian Writing website. It was published in 2010. SHORT STORIES ,  SOUTH ASIA ‘I Woke Up Last Night and I Cried’ by Sushma Joshi (Nepal) 07/09/2010 Short story selected for the 2010 New Asian Writing Short Story Anthology I woke up last night and I cried. This is all too much, I thought. I can’t handle it. My husband’s been gone for six years and he shows no sign of returning. He doesn’t send any money either. Wait till I return, he keeps saying. I’ll return next month, he says. He’s been saying this for a while now. He’s in Saudi Arabia. Jeddah, you ask? Never heard of Jeddah. Bantum? Somewhere. I don’t really know where. His mother comes straight to my  dera  when she comes to Kathmandu. I’m the eldest  buhari , after all. She stays with me for a few days then goes to her daughter’s house. She broke her leg the other week. We brought her down and took her to the hosp...

Inside the Pool Lies Two Dead Bodies  Two white grains of rice are stuck to the man’s forehead, strangely askew. The vermilion that should have colored the rice bright red is absent. You are reminded again of who’s not there.  “The bodies,” he said, “were found inside the pond.” Next to the gurgle of the river, halfway up the hillside, in the heart of a jungle, where the women, seduced, had entered.  Note: The original title of the story was modified by Republica.  - See more at the Republica website.