Join the Churn

At Samudra Books, we seek manuscripts as vast and restless as the ocean itself—work that emerges from the tension between opposing forces. We welcome voices from across the South Asian subcontinent and its global diaspora.

What We Publish

We publish fiction, nonfiction, and poetry that embodies:

• Dissonant Voices: Stories of friction between generations, between “home” and “host” countries, between self and collective
• Historical Depth: Work that interrogates cultural memory, migration archives, and lived realities of South Asian history
• Genre-Blurring Forms: Manuscripts that refuse singular narratives and push beyond traditional boundaries—hybrid memoirs, lyric essays, documentary poetics
• Language & Liminality: Work that plays with the spaces between languages—English braided with regional dialects, mother tongues, and transliteration

How to Submit

1. Cover Letter
Tell us why your work belongs at Samudra. How does it engage with the tensions and complexities of South Asian or diaspora experience? Briefly introduce yourself and your manuscript.

2. Synopsis
Provide a one-page summary of the work, including its core themes and how it fits into the current literary landscape.

3. Sample Pages

• Fiction/Nonfiction: First three chapters or 50 pages
• Poetry: 10–15 poems

Manuscript Length

• Fiction/Nonfiction: Up to 100 pages
• Poetry: Collections of 40–100 pages

4. Submission Process
Send all materials in a single PDF or Word document to thesamudrabooks@gmail.com with the subject line:
SUBMISSION: [Genre] – [Title] – [Author Last Name]

Response time: 8–12 weeks. We read every submission with care.