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
Jessica Nydia Pabón-Colón is a diasporic Puerto Rican feminist activist scholar living in the Hudson Valley on the unceded lands of the Munsee Lenape people.
Margot Atwell (she/her/hers) is a writer, editor, publisher, speaker, and community funding expert.
Amanda De Lisio is an Assistant Professor of physical culture, policy and sustainable development in the School of Kinesiology and Health Science, Executive Member of CITY Institute, and Co-Director of the Critical Trafficking and Sex Work Studies Research Cluster at the Centre for Feminist Research at York University. Her research is broadly interested in health, informality, and urban development in mega-event host cities, as informed by women (cis and trans*) in popular economies in the Global South. Her work has been funded by the Economic and Social Research Council in England, Mitacs Canada, and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, and published in academic and popular presses in English and Portuguese.
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.
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.