‘Writing from the Solitary’: This anthology on loneliness articulates a feeling that most dread
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In the post-pandemic world of the 2020s, connectivity is no longer something we consciously opt into. It has become the condition of everyday life. Our Wi-Fi connections are stronger than ever. We have apps for food, transport, medicines, work and even other human beings. Everything is just a click or a swipe away.
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And yet, in this hyperconnected world where we are constantly reachable, we are rarely met.
Writing from the Solitary: An Anthology on Loneliness, edited by Semeen Ali and Priyanka Sarkar and jointly published by Yoda Press and Simon and Schuster India, takes shape within this contradiction. Bringing together 26 pieces across genres, in addition to micro fiction, the anthology does not attempt to diagnose loneliness or offer solutions. Instead, it allows the reader to remain with discomfort, grief, and at times, the nothingness of it. Loneliness reveals itself in the opening and closing of doors, in empty chairs, and in the quiet rituals that gather around silence.
Across the anthology, loneliness does not appear as a single emotional state. Some writers return to it from a distance, shaping it into something like solitude. Others remain inside its immediacy, without the relief of hindsight. A third set holds it at arm’s length through fiction. The...