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Samit Basu

@samitbasu.bsky.social
4.2K followers 961 following 342 posts

Novelist. Out next, The Pictures of Darpan Ray, HarperCollins India. I also make films, comics, and other typing-based lifeforms. Currently running a novel-writing workshop. samitbasu.com

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Reposted by Samit Basu
The Ignyte Awards @theignyteawards.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
The #2026IgnyteAwards for Outstanding Anthology/Collected Works goes to WE WILL RISE AGAIN: SPECULATIVE STORIES AND ESSAYS ON PROTEST, RESISTANCE, AND HOPE edited by @drkarenlord.bsky.social @annaleen.bsky.social and @older.bsky.social (Saga Press) See the contributor list in the alt text
2026 Ignyte Award winner in Outstanding Anthology/Collected Works: 

We Will Rise Again: Speculative Stories and Essays on Protest, Resistance, and Hope: EDs. Dr. Karen Lord, Annalee Newitz, Malka Older 

CONTRIBUTORS: Charlie Jane Anders, Samit Basu, Tobias S. Buckell, Reo Eveleth, Jaymee Goh, Nicola Griffith, Alejandro Heredia, Vida James, N.K. Jemisin, R.B. Lemberg, Sam J. Miller, Abdulla Moaswes, Laia Asieo Odo, Kelly Robson, Nisi Shawl, Ursula Vernon, Sabrina Vourvoulias, Izzy Wasserstein. Interviewees: adrienne maree brown, Andrea Dehlendorf, Walidah Imarisha, L.A. Kauffman, Scott Gabriel Knowles, Kendra Pierre-Louis (Saga Press)
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Samit Basu @samitbasu.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
I admire people who can make elegant unboxing videos but that is not how I operate. Author copies of The Pictures of Darpan Ray are here!
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Vajra Chandrasekera @vajra.me · 30/09/2026
My third novel, HERO COME HOME, officially has a cover! Preorderable from the usual places us.macmillan.com/books/978125...
The cover of my third novel, HERO COME HOME. Four human figures centred, the main image being that of a bearded man looking back over his shoulder (that's Oro, the protagonist), with a circle of symbols behind him. We can see a swan and a key. In the foreground are three people: two women, one with a mysterious marking? scar? who knows!? on her cheek and the other carrying a sword, flanking an older, balding man holding up a pistol. The possibly-scarred woman looks ever so slightly amused, and that is certainly very like her. Everybody else is not happy to be here, or indeed, anywhere
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Samit Basu @samitbasu.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
ooooh! congratulations
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Samit Basu @samitbasu.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
ooh!
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Samit Basu @samitbasu.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
Thanks! No, the Indian version of this book isnt scifi.
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Samit Basu @samitbasu.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
Thank you!!!
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Samit Basu @samitbasu.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
Thank you!
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Samit Basu @samitbasu.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
As soon as I have a decent idea for it!
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Samit Basu @samitbasu.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
For readers outside India - there’s another announcement I hope to be making soon, about a different book with a different title in a different genre and a different pub date, because obviously a Bollywood Dorian Gray retelling can’t be expected to take just a single form. Do stick around!
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Samit Basu @samitbasu.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
Should be on shelves in a few weeks! Please spread the word, and I’ll share links and more as soon as they arrive. For more, please visit my newsletter.
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Samit Basu @samitbasu.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
The Pictures of Darpan Ray is my first contemporary novel. It’s a reimagining of The Picture of Dorian Gray, set mostly in Mumbai/Bollywood between the ‘00s and the ‘20s: a twenty-first-century vortex obsessed with youth, beauty, power, art, spirituality and conformity.
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Samit Basu @samitbasu.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
Out soon (by which I mean next month) from HarperCollins India. This is the cover, designed by the amazing Ramnika Sehrawat
Cover for Samit Basus new novel. A wolf-headed suit-clad man lounges on a couch. Bright red background
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Samit Basu @samitbasu.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
Congratulations!!
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Samit Basu @samitbasu.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
Im trying to avoid it, the research is too depressing
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Samit Basu @samitbasu.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
Definitely the latter. Thank you!
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Samit Basu @samitbasu.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
To be honest I didnt think that book was dystopian.
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Samit Basu @samitbasu.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
Thanks!
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Samit Basu @samitbasu.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
Got to put all that judginess somewhere
Samit Basu, Manju Kapoor, Anuja Chauhan are this year's Crossword Award Fiction jury.
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Shreya Ila Anasuya - THE POISON PALACE @thresholdrose.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
THE POISON PALACE is a historical myth-retelling rooted in ancient folklore, about the true cost of Alexander the Great's empire-building, and what happens when a poison maiden gets to tell her own story. Dead women do tell tales. Coming Jan 2027. Preorders live! #BookSky linktr.ee/shreyaila
Yellow and white text against a green background reads "A story of power, love, survival and resistance, meticulously researched, lyrically written and structurally ambition. A stunning debut. Samit Basu, author of The City Inside" On either side of the quote are crumbling pillars resembling the Pataliputra capital, covered with green leaves and white and yellow flowers. Below the quote is the cover of The Poison Palace, surrounded by blue snake heads. The cover shows many of the same elements, the pillars and snakes, alongside the back of a figure of a person with dark brown skin and black hair, wearing golden ornaments in their hair, ears and around their neck.Yellow and white text against a green background reads "The Poison Palace is a dazzling debut... Shreya Ila Anasuya has entwined fantasy with myth and history to give us a novel as rare as the fabled snake-jewel. It will doubtless snag readers in both East and West. Annie Zaidi, author of Bread, Cement, Cactus" On either side of the quote are crumbling pillars resembling the Pataliputra capital, covered with green leaves and white and yellow flowers. Below the quote is the cover of The Poison Palace, surrounded by blue snake heads. The cover shows many of the same elements, the pillars and snakes, alongside the back of a figure of a person with dark brown skin and black hair, wearing golden ornaments in their hair, ears and around their neck.Yellow and white text against a green background reads "A gorgeous, sensual, completely captivating novel that immerses the reader in an ancient world and history, at once recognizable and utterly remote from our own. Elizabeth Hand, author of A Haunting on the Hill." On either side of the quote are crumbling pillars resembling the Pataliputra capital, covered with green leaves and white and yellow flowers. Below the quote is the cover of The Poison Palace, surrounded by blue snake heads. The cover shows many of the same elements, the pillars and snakes, alongside the back of a figure of a person with dark brown skin and black hair, wearing golden ornaments in their hair, ears and around their neck.Yellow and white text against a green background reads "A graceful, fiery verisimilitude both intimate and mythic - it resounds in time, and sings to the present with a singular voice. Don't miss it. Indra Das, author of the Devourers" On either side of the quote are crumbling pillars resembling the Pataliputra capital, covered with green leaves and white and yellow flowers. Below the quote is the cover of The Poison Palace, surrounded by blue snake heads. The cover shows many of the same elements, the pillars and snakes, alongside the back of a figure of a person with dark brown skin and black hair, wearing golden ornaments in their hair, ears and around their neck.
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Clarion West @clarionwest.bsky.social · 07/07/2026
If you're daydreaming this summer of alien worlds and fantastical alternate histories, here’s an opportunity to indulge. For 2023's Summer Reading Series, we had Samit Basu, Cat Rambo, Mary Anne Mohanraj, and Benjamin Rosenbaum share their perspectives. You can watch them on YouTube: bit.ly/4xVA1hv
From the Clarion West archives: Summer of Science Fiction and Fantasy Reading Series, 2023. Conversations with Samit Basu, Cat Rambo, Mary Anne Mohanraj, Benjamin Rosebaum. Revisit the series.
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Samit Basu @samitbasu.bsky.social · 24/06/2026
So happy to see Simoqin in this list www.aol.com/news/greates...
aol.com
The greatest sci-fi novels ever written, according to readers - AOL
Drawing from The New York Times Best Seller lists and Goodreads fan votes, Stacker has rounded up 100 of the best science fiction novels of all time.
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Samit Basu @samitbasu.bsky.social · 01/06/2026
So thrilled to read this! Congratulations all.
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Samit Basu @samitbasu.bsky.social · 21/05/2026
Congratulations! Really enjoyed this
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Reposted by Samit Basu
Ada Palmer @adapalmer.bsky.social · 17/05/2026
Paris has transformed more than 300 streets outside schools into pedestrian-only “garden streets,” replacing traffic and parking with trees, benches and light-coloured paving. Torched buff.ly/ILvaxmw #ShareGoodNewsToo
buff.ly
Cool streets
Paris's school streets are effectively sculpting out instant parks in the locations where they'll provide immense public health benefits to the city's most vulnerable populations
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Reposted by Samit Basu
Martha Wells @marthawells.com · 13/05/2026
So this made my day!
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Reposted by Samit Basu
Doctora Malka Older @older.bsky.social · 14/05/2026
don't miss any of the perspectives @globalvoices.org brings you from humans - no ai slop - from around the world: subscribe to our whatsapp channel and get every article at your fingertips: whatsapp.com/channel/0029...
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Samit Basu @samitbasu.bsky.social · 13/05/2026
Popping up to remind you that the writing workshop's application deadlines are May end. Ok, return to your doomscroll. open.substack.com/pub/samit/p/...
open.substack.com
Off to the moon, then
(also, workshop app deadline soon)
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Samit Basu @samitbasu.bsky.social · 01/05/2026
This is an amazing book and I hope you get to read it soon!
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Gailey 🍉 @sarahgailey.bsky.social · 09/04/2026
Want to read an excerpt from MAKE ME BETTER? Welcome to Kindred Cove, where nothing is ever lost.
reactormag.com
Read an Excerpt From Make Me Better by Sarah Gailey - Reactor
An eerily seductive look at the desire for community connection and self-improvement—and the darkest places inside us all…
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Doctora Malka Older @older.bsky.social · 05/04/2026
If you're hype about Artemis, there's a new, annotated version of Jules Verne's truly batshit speculation about what would get humans to the moon, edited by @anaklimchy.bsky.social with essays and annotation by me, @samitbasu.bsky.social, and more!
"From the Earth to the Moon Annotated for Our Spacefaring Age
Edited by Anastasia
Klimchynskaya
Essays by Samit Basu, Jordan Bimm, Erika Nesvold, Adam Oyebanji, Malka Older, Adam Roberts, and Asif Siddigi" [the graphics on this are pretty low-key: a side-bar with a pale moon and stars image, and the cover of the book which is basically the title and two circles representing Earth and Moon in white on a dark background]
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Samit Basu @samitbasu.bsky.social · 25/03/2026
Congratulations!!
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Samit Basu @samitbasu.bsky.social · 15/03/2026
Thank you!!
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Samit Basu @samitbasu.bsky.social · 10/03/2026
Congratulations and happy book birthday @lavanya.bsky.social !!
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imaginationasu.bsky.social @imaginationasu.bsky.social · 27/02/2026
This week's #FreeFictionFriday story is "What would Akanda do?" by Samit Basu from Issues magazine. Find the link to read the story here: issues.org/futuretensef...
issues.org
What Would Akanda Do? | Future Tense Fiction
Samit Basu’s story examines deepfake technology, celebrities, and what happens when fame is weaponized as propaganda.
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OSAWA, Hirotaka/大澤博隆/慶應SFセンター所長/💙💛 @hiroosa.bsky.social · 01/03/2026
3/14(土) 日本時間18:30からオンラインで、日本南アジア学会 第3回社会連携イベントとして、慶應義塾大学サイエンスフィクション研究開発・実装センター(SFRDC)共催による「日印SF交流ワークショップ」を開催します! ラヴァンヤ・ラクシュミナラヤン著『頂点都市』の出版背景を東京創元社の石亀航氏が解説し、サミ・アフマド・カーン氏とSF評論家の海老原豊氏がSFの検討をします。SF小説家でNetflix映画でも知られるSamit Basu氏が、SF作家藤井太洋氏と対談します。週末の夜のインドSF対談。ぜひぜひご参加くださいませ! keio-sfrdc.jp/archives/630
keio-sfrdc.jp
日印SF交流ワークショップ開催のお知らせ
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Samit Basu @samitbasu.bsky.social · 28/02/2026
new newsletter: Future Tense short story link and a quick novel workshop update. samit.substack.com/p/new-near-f...
samit.substack.com
New Near-future Short Story
and a workshop update
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Samit Basu @samitbasu.bsky.social · 27/02/2026
Many thanks for the lovely art @reysagcal.bsky.social!
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Samit Basu @samitbasu.bsky.social · 27/02/2026
Also, Moira Shourie's response essay to What Would Akanda Do? It's called The Dividing Towers of Mumbai. issues.org/futuretensef...
issues.org
The Dividing Towers of Mumbai | Future Tense Fiction
”Mumbai is a conjured-up city”: In the birthplace of Bollywood, different visions for a city’s future collide, writes Moira Shourie.
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Samit Basu @samitbasu.bsky.social · 27/02/2026
Had a really great time working with the editors at Future Tense on a new short story: What Would Akanda Do? out now in issues.org. It's about a Bollywood star who signed away his likeness to AI, and now has some thoughts: issues.org/futuretensef...
issues.org
What Would Akanda Do? | Future Tense Fiction
Samit Basu’s story examines deepfake technology, celebrities, and what happens when fame is weaponized as propaganda.
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Samit Basu @samitbasu.bsky.social · 06/02/2026
Congratulations!!
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Tashan Mehta @tashanmehta.bsky.social · 06/02/2026
Happy (belated) publication day to Les Soeurs Dementes d'Esi, the French translation of Mad Sisters of Esi done by the wonderful Mathilde Montier 🐋✨
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KJ Charles @kjcharleswriter.com · 03/02/2026
Oh check it out, Reactor review!
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Veena's Booksky @mswocreader.bsky.social · 02/02/2026
The world is on fire and everyone is going through it right now but if you wanna help a Black Author this month, please donate to RSA Garcia's Go Fund Me. It's tough writing a book series while also undergoing cancer treatments. #booksky #blacksky gofund.me/3c25c5376
gofund.me
Donate to Help R. S. A. Garcia Pay for Cancer Expenses, organized by Arula Ratnakar
Hi everyone, I'm Rhonda, also known as R. S. A. Garcia, a speculative … Arula Ratnakar needs your support for Help R. S. A. Garcia Pay for Cancer Expenses
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Samit Basu @samitbasu.bsky.social · 02/02/2026
First applications have started coming in! Thanks so much everyone who shared.
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Samit Basu @samitbasu.bsky.social · 30/01/2026
Thank you so much Divya!
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Samit Basu @samitbasu.bsky.social · 30/01/2026
Thanks for the share!
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Samit Basu @samitbasu.bsky.social · 30/01/2026
Thank you so much Indra! Fair warning I intend to lure you into some kind of instructory thing
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Samit Basu @samitbasu.bsky.social · 30/01/2026
♥️♥️♥️ thank you!
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Samit Basu @samitbasu.bsky.social · 29/01/2026
Thanks so much Ronnie!
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