Truth Tales
Truth Tales
Edited by Kali for Women
Contemporary Stories by Women Writers in India
Paperback Edition
ISBN: 9781558610125
Publication Date: 11-01-1990
Introduction by Meena Alexander
Here we meet Muniyakka, called “walkie-talkie” because she mutters to herself; Shakun, the dollmaker, an exploited artist who needs to feel that others depend on her; and Jashoda, professional mother to children of the rich, from Mahasveta Devi’s acknowledged masterpiece “The Wet Nurse.”
First published in 1986, this rich collection presents the work of some of India's most skillful contemporary writers, carefully selected from seven of the country's major regional languages. Although each writer is celebrated in her own language, many of the stories are presented here in English for the first time. The authors included are: Mahasveta Devi (Bengali), Ila Mehta (Gujarati), Suniti Aphaie (Marathi), Mrinal Pande (Hindi), Lakshmi Kannan (Tamil), Ismat Chughtai (Urdu), and Vishwapriya Iyengar (English).
"Truth Tales invites us to a feast of rich and varied literature. These stories are riveting, witty, moving, and a wonderful gift to the consciousness: they illumine Indian women's lives and also, across distance and culture, enable us to recognize ourselves. Bravo to the writers, the translators, and The Feminist Press!" —Robin Morgan, editor of Sisterhood Is Global
"This collection of stories—intense, vivid, and varied—ring like truth masquerading as fiction, as the title of the anthology suggests. Although they tell us of suffering, they do not reduce the female protagonists to docile victims, as Indian women are portrayed in colonial fiction. These authentic, unpasteurized, searing stories should bring American readers closer to understanding the conception of power and autonomy in Indian women's tales." —Veena Oldenburg, professor of Indian history, Baruch College
Octavia Saenz (she/her) is an editor and cartoonist who creates visual narratives about queer Puerto Rican diaspora. Octavia grew up in Puerto Rico and has a BFA in creative writing and illustration from Ringling College, as well as a Lambda Literary Fellowship. She has worked as a graphic designer, children’s book editor, and independent zine maker. Her short story about a transgender woman redoing a date, “Overnight,” won the Gold Juror’s Prize in Creative Writing for Best of Ringling. She is based in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
Thayane Brêtas received her PhD from the Global Urban Studies program at Rutgers University–Newark in New Jersey. She graduated from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) with a bachelor's degree in law and a master's degree in contemporary legal theories with an emphasis on society, human rights, and art. Her thesis investigated the working conditions of sex workers in some of the main spaces of sex commerce in the city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. She worked at the UFRJ’s Human Rights Laboratory and on projects at the Prostitution Policy Watch in partnership with Coletivo Puta Davida and the Brazilian Network of Prostitutes. She is based in Westfield, New Jersey and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Monique Prada is the author of Putafeminista, published in 2018 in Brazil. She is a militant defender of sex worker rights, creating the blog Mundo Invisível (Invisible World) in 2012 and participating in popular debates. She also served as president for the Central Única de Trabalhadoras e Trabalhadores Sexuais (CUTS), member of the UN Women Civil Society Advisory Group, and advocated for Bill 4211/2012 by Federal Deputy Jean Wyllys, which sought to regulate the profession in Brazil. She lives in Porto Alegre, Brazil.
Bruna Dantas Lobato is a Brazilian writer and literary translator. Her work has appeared in, among other spaces, the New Yorker, Guernica, A Public Space, The Common, Bookforum, Vogue, BOMB, the Kenyon Review, and the Brooklyn Rail. Her literary translations include Caio Fernando Abreu's seminal story collections Moldy Strawberries (Archipelago Books, longlisted for the 2023 PEN Translation Prize) and No Dragons in Paradise (Archipelago Books), Stênio Gardel’s novel The Words that Remain (New Vessel Press), Jeferson Tenório’s novel The Dark Side of Skin (Charco Press), and Giovana Madalosso's novel Tokyo Suite (Europa Editions). She regularly teaches at Catapult, serves on the board of directors of the American Literary Translators Association, and works as a freelance editor and translator. She is based in Grinnell, Iowa.
Sarah Fonseca is a self-taught writer from the Georgia foothills living in Brooklyn, New York. Fonseca has held writing fellowships with Film at Lincoln Center, Lambda Literary Foundation, and People for the American Way. In addition to publications in Museum of the Moving Image’s Reverse Shot, Kenyon Review, and the Los Angeles Review of Books, her work has been recognized for its literary merit by Black Warrior Review, Sundress Publications' Best of the Net, and the Association of LGBTQ Journalists.
Amara Moira is a writer, academic, and self-described “travesti putafeminista.” She is a columnist at Buzzfeed Brasil and UOL Esporte. Moira received her PhD in literature from Universidade Estadual de Campinas, wrote her dissertation on James Joyce, and became the first trans woman to graduate using her chosen name. She has given two TEDxBrazil talks: “Who’s Afraid of Trans Women?” and “The World of Trans Words.” She is the author of So (What If) I’m a Puta? and the poetry collection Neca + 20 Poemetos Travesso, and a co-contributor to the collection Vidas Trans: A Coragem de Existir (Trans Lives: The Courage to Exist). She lives in São Paulo, Brazil.
Betsy Golden Kellem is a scholar of the unusual. Her writing on circus and entertainment history has appeared in venues including The Atlantic, Vanity Fair, Washington Post, Public Domain Review, Smithsonian, Atlas Obscura, and Slate. A board member of the Barnum Museum and the Circus Historical Society, Betsy is an Emmy winner for her Showman’s Shorts video series on P. T. Barnum. She is a columnist for JSTOR Daily and regularly teaches and speaks for academia and industry. If you ask nicely, she will juggle knives for you. She lives in North Haven, Connecticut.
Demree McGhee earned her BA from the University of California San Diego. Her work has been published in Lunch Ticket, Wax Nine Journal, Prose Online, and more. Sympathy for Wild Girls is her debut short story collection. She is currently an MFA student at San Diego State University. She lives in San Diego, CA.
Roisin Dunnett holds a degree in English literature from Clare College Cambridge and an MA in creative and life writing from Goldsmiths, where she was longlisted for the Pat Kavanagh Prize in 2022.
Gabriela Jauregui is the author of the novel Feral, the poetry collections Many Fiestas, Leash Seeks Lost Bitch, and Controlled Decay, and the short story collection La memoria de las cosas.