‘Quality translation is important to increase readership’: AJ Thomas, editor of ‘100 Indian Stories’

100 Indian Stories: A Feast of Remarkable Short Fiction from the 19th, 20th, and 21st Centuries, edited by writer, translator and poet AJ Thomas, is an ambitious collection of Indian short fiction. Thomas has previously edited The Greatest Malayalam Stories Ever Told and is the former editor of Indian Literature, the Sahitya Akademi’s bi-monthly journal. His latest anthology, spanning more than 800 pages, brings together 100 selected stories written by some of the finest writers in various Indian languages, from the 19th century onwards. Thomas notes in his introduction that almost 80 per cent of the stories in this collection have been translated into English from various Indian languages. The collection includes stories from the 20th century and concludes with stories by contemporary writers from the 21st century, offering a wide range of stories from almost every part of the country.

In an conversation with Scroll, AJ Thomas discusses the idea behind the mammoth anthology, the evolution of the short story form from the 19th century onward, the growing need for quality translations and translators of stories published in various Indian languages, and why he believes Indian literature has an “exotic value” in the West.

How did you come up with the idea of this anthology that brings together a diverse...

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