Please join us for an evening of literary erotica, sex trivia, and other surprises! For your listening (and other) pleasures, Abeer Hoque, Amitava Kumar, Mohan Sikka, Ranbir Sidhu, and Sheba Karim will be reading from their stories in Alchemy: The Tranquebar Book of Erotic Stories 2.

Edited by Sheba Karim, Alchemy: The Tranquebar Book of Erotic Stories 2 features thirteen vivid, well-crafted stories that take the reader on an intimate journey through the alchemies of sex, desire, and love, moving across genres, orientations, genders and continents, from Bolivia to Jharkhand to Kathmandu to the future. Some of these stories will make you hunger. Some will make you laugh. And one or two may even break your heart.

Abeer Hoque is a Nigerian born Bangladeshi American writer and photographer. See more at www.olivewitch.com.

Amitava Kumar is the author of several works of non-fiction and a novel. His latest book, A Foreigner Carrying in the Crook of His Arm A Tiny Bomb, was described by the New York Times as a “perceptive and soulful…meditation on the global war on terror and its cultural and human repercussions.” It was also judged the ‘Best Non-Fiction Book of the Year’ at the Page Turner Literary Award. His debut novel, Home Products, was published by Picador-India and short-listed for the Vodafone Crossword Book Award. Kumar is Professor of English on the Helen D. Lockwood Chair at Vassar College. Find out more at www.amitavakumar.com.

Mohan Sikka’s story “Uncle Musto Takes a Mistress” was selected for a 2009 PEN/O. Henry Prize. His fiction has appeared in the journal One Story, the Toronto South Asian Review, Trikone Magazine, and in magazines and anthologies in several countries. Mohan’s story “Railway Aunty” was published in Delhi Noir, part of the award-winning urban noir series from Akashic Books and subsequently published by Harper Collins India. It was adapted into the 2012 feature film, B.A. Pass. See more at www.mohansikka.com.

Ranbir Sidhu’s collection of stories, Good Indian Girls (HarperCollins India), will be published in the US this fall. His first novel, Deep Singh Blue, will appear in India this summer. He is a winner of the Pushcart Prize in fiction and a New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship, among other awards. Find out more at www.ranbirsidhu.com.

Sheba Karim is the editor of Alchemy: The Tranquebar Book of Erotic Stories 2. Her young adult novel, Skunk Girl, was published in the Denmark, India, Italy, Sweden, and the United States. Her fiction has appeared in 580 Split, Asia Literary Review, Barn Owl Review, Kartika Review, Shenandoah, South Asian Review, Time Out Delhi, and in several published and forthcoming anthologies in the United States and India. She was a 2009-2010 Fulbright-Nehru Scholar scholar and is currently working on a historical fiction novel set in 13th century India and a young adult novel set in 21st century New Jersey. Find out more at www.shebakarim.com.