Himanjali Sankar’s
Talking of Muskaan(2014), shortlisted for the 2016 Crossword Book Award, is one of the first queer young adult novels in India. It is also the first YA novel by Sankar, who previously wrote
The Magical Adventures of Skinny Scribbles(2012),
The Stupendous Timetelling Superdog(2013), and
Missing:A Magnificent Superdog(2014) for young readers. Sankar is currently Editorial Director at Simon & Schuster India, having previously worked at Bloomsbury India and Scholastic India. She wrote this novel after discussions with her publisher, Duckbill, about the lack of representation of homosexuality in Indian YA fiction when the Supreme Court of India’s re-criminalisation of homosexuality in Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code in 2013 was in the news (Banerjee 169).
2740 words
Citation: Roy, Ritwika. "Talking of Muskaan". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 21 February 2024 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=41198, accessed 26 November 2024.]