Usawa
Usawa Literary Review is headquartered in Mumbai, India.
PIN Code: 400050
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The Usawa Literary Review

Usawa Literary Review is a feminist literary magazine based in Mumbai, India.

Founded in 2018 by Smita Sahay and Lavanya Shanbhogue-Arvind, Usawa – meaning equality in Swahili – publishes poetry, fiction, nonfiction, translations, book reviews, and interviews by and about underrepresented communities.

It produces two publications: ULR, a bi-annual themed journal, and Matchbox, a monthly digital magazine that includes regular columns and special issues focused on specific regions and communities, including the Northeast and Afghanistan.

Usawa is part of an ongoing global movement toward a more equitable world.

Team Usawa

About Smita

SMITA SAHAY served as Associate Editor for ‘Veils, Halos & Shackles: International Poetry on the Oppression and Empowerment of Women’. Her works have appeared in national and international journals, newspapers and anthologies. She is the Editor-in-Chief of Usawa Literary Review, and the Poetry Editor for SPEAK, the Magazine. A visiting faculty of Creative Writing at Whistling Woods International, Mumbai, she is an ISB alumna, class of 2015. 
A survivor of C-PTSD, she is also the founder and Somatic therapist at Calm Space Healing, a trauma-informed therapy and healing practice.

About Mandakini

Mandakini Pachauri is an India born poet and nonfiction writer living at the edge of the Viennese Woods. Presently, she interrogates the contradictions and rifts in her personal history within geopolitical regions. Sound, image, codes and languages are expressive modes of her movements in the body, mind and in writing. In a state of whiplash, entangled perhaps in broken and remembered structures – she reaches not just for terra firma but also to imagine emergent realities.

About Sonakshi

SONAKSHI SRIVASTAVA is a writing tutor at Ashoka University, Sonepat, India. 
She is one of the recipients of South Asia Speaks mentorship programme (cohort 2021), working on translating the Hindi novel, “Titli” into English under the mentorship of Arunava Sinha. She was the contributing translator columnist at “The Bilingual Window’. She was longlisted for The Stinging Fly Translation Bursary 2022, and was awarded the Katharine Bakeless Nason scholarship for the Bread Loaf Translators’ Conference 2023.  Her works have previously appeared in or are appearing in ASAP art, Usawa, Proseterity, The Monograph, Alipore Post, Hakara, potluck zine, orangepeel mag, Qissa mag, and Rhodora among others. 

About Nithya

Nithya Mariam John is a poet, academician and translator. A fortnightly columnist in a national daily, she was nominated for the Pushcart Prize, was semifinalist at Sundress Poetry Broadside Contest and shortlisted for The Brown Critique Poetry Prize. Her latest collection of verses is titled Kitchen Poems. Her scribblings have found space(s) in journals and newspapers including Sahitya Akademi Indian Literature, Malayalam Literary Survey, The Year Book of Indian Poetry, The New Indian Express, Times of India, Last Leaves, Muddy River Review, Qissa and the Alipore Post, among the others.

About Sivakami

SIVAKAMI VELLIANGIRI has been included among the women  poets in the History of Indian Writing in English (1980).Her online Chapbook In My Midriff https://tinyurl.com/nzk7db78 was published by Lily Literary Review. ‘How We Measured Time’ https://tinyurl.com/h38tpfz5 is her debut poetry book. Her poems appear in The Penguin Book of Indian Poets April 2022 edited by Jeet Thayil.

Former Editors

Usawa would not be what it is today without the editors who have nurtured its pages, championed new voices, and helped shape its editorial vision over the years. We are deeply grateful for their time, care, and contributions to the magazine’s journey.

  • Lavanya Shambhogue-Aravind — Founding Co-Editor; Fiction Editor
  • Suneeta Balakrishnan — Translation Editor
  • K. Srilata — Translation Editor
  • Vinita Agrawal — Poetry Editor
  • Kinshuk Gupta — Fiction Editor
  • Kabir Deb — Interviews Editor
  • Shobhana Kumar — Associate Non-Fiction Editor
  • Babitha Marina Justin — Poetry Editor
  • Ankush Banerjee – Reviews Editor

Our Collaborations

Testimonials

Usawa is a highly welcome addition to the online literary landscape—especially so at a time when a disheartening number of online magazines have been downing their shutters. The magazine’s title clear-sightedly sets out its purpose and ethos, and its contents fulfil its promise abundantly. Curated with taste and discernment, Usawa, despite being just 10 issues into its journey, already hosts writing from some of India’s best contemporary writers, and its themed issues are a special delight, housing troves of thought, analysis and first-rate writing. It looks all set to be a pivotal and vibrant figure on the literary scene, and has my very best wishes for enduring success.
Rohit ManchandaProfessor, IIT Bombay
Reading Usawa has always been an eye opener for me. The writings explore a range of works from gender, power dynamics, and the varied experiences of women in our society. It is so remarkable to come across such a great body of work that highlights women's experiences, perspectives, and struggles and helps spark discussions for the need to change. Also, examining how different marginalized identities intersect, you start developing a comprehensive and nuanced understanding of the multifaceted nature of oppression in our society today.
Samantha MenacherrySenior Operations Specialist, Bank of Montreal
As a young, queer Indian woman—it’s been such a blessing to have come across the lovely and relevant Usawa magazine. Not only does the zine make an immensely valuable addition to the poetry, art and culture scene in India, but also gives a platform to such interesting, daring and exciting work. It has been nothing short of joyous to explore the many feminisms of this literary oasis—I hope you will take the time to dive in, too!
Trisha Dhar MalikWriter & Theatre Creator

We are an unfunded, independent feminist publication. We need your support to continue our work.

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