For the family of eight walking in front of us, though, it’s a moment of raucous joy. First, a young child, about eight years old, attempts to kick out at the Tahr. The animal seems unfamiliar with this gesture, and quickens its pace.

A few days ago, judge Samrat Upadhyay sent us the shortlist for the third edition of La.Lit’s short story competition, Writing Nepal. So here it is, in no particular order except the alphabetical, the 6 shortlisted entries!

The literary canon of a nation as multilingual as Nepal ought not to consist overwhelmingly of Nepali-language literature, but it does. It ought to include a vast body of literature in national languages other than Nepali, but it doesn’t.

Midnight pools catch the brilliant lanterns

carried by women in procession.

Deep into sleep

I follow them home.

With the untimely demise of Dr Dina Bangdel on July 25, 2017 the world lost an outstanding art historian specialising in traditional Himalayan and modern and contemporary South Asian art.

Before the election, as sexist and racist and consumptive as I know Americans are, I believed we knew what was right even if we didn’t always do what was right.

We can blame climate change for the scattering of our seasons, and the cultures they enable. This is no less than a remoulding of our imaginations. But how do we face up to our rebellion against Mother Nature, and her wrathful, deadly response?

Through her personal history, she exposes how our national, collective history discards women’s experiences by always focusing on paternal family history and lineage.

Twelve years ago it was Isaac who happened to be sitting outside when Ranya showed up at Chavurat Messiah one October night. Only she wasn’t Ranya then; she was Kathleen DiMarco, Kat, twenty-four years old and seven months pregnant.