Manjushree Thapa
@manjushreethapa.bsky.social
Writer & literary translator from Kathmandu, now based in Toronto. Always, always working on a new book. www.manjushreethapa.com
Thank you to the Middle Ground - Nepal Literature Festival for hosting two days of intense, open-hearted, emotional, & mind-expanding conversations in Berlin. I find it so moving & hopeful that “Nepal” can include Kashmir & Tibet & Bhutan & elsewhere in the world, all the way to Germany.
I realized, after I got here, that I was last in Berlin twenty years ago. Time flies! What a great city. Thanks to the Middle Ground & Nepal Literature Festival for letting me revisit it. I’ll post about some of the dialogues taking place here over the coming days.
“Most displaced families have moved into rented rooms or elsewhere as makeshift shelters become uninhabitable and the government delays resettlement and promised financial assistance.” kathmandupost.com/national/202...
Nepal flood survivors are leaving temporary camps as government delays rehabilitation
Most displaced families have moved into rented rooms or elsewhere as makeshift shelters become uninhabitable and the government delays resettlement and promised financial assistance.
kathmandupost.com
Are Canada’s transnational writers part of CanLit? This is a topic of endless debate among those of us who moved here and those of us born here but who maintain a strong link to other countries. I’m so glad to see this book out—it’s open-source and free. kpu.pressbooks.pub/himalayanart...
The Hazy Himalayas
A first guide to Himalayan voices in Canadian literature
kpu.pressbooks.pub
Timothy Morton is right, you know: "The ecological thought can be highly unpleasant. But once you have started to think it, you can't unthink it. We have started to think it. In the future, we will all be thinking the ecological thought."
I haven’t seen this in the Canadian media—an NYT report on a Canadian writer. www.nytimes.com/2026/09/25/w...
His Novel Had a Shot at a Top Book Prize. Then Someone Ran an A.I. Test. (Gift Article)
“It Was Either That Or Die,” by the Haitian-Canadian author Thélyson Orélien, was the hit of the French literary season. Now it has been pulled from the shortlist for a prestigious prize.
nytimes.com
A Nepali student’s experience with Canada’s immigration system. www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...
FIRST PERSON | Getting my permanent residency should have felt like a win. But I've lost a lot along the way | CBC News
When Areena Shrestha arrived in Canada as an international student, she didn't fully understand how uncertain and emotionally exhausting the journey to permanent residency could be.
cbc.ca
“Most of the people in America are the same as us. When their President is gone, we’ll become friends again, and we’ll go there to meet our friends,” I said to our grandkids, hoping I was correct. (At Niagara Falls).
The mountains have been on my mind. Pictures from the Makalu-Barun, Manaslu, Everest, and Langtang treks I’ve been on over the past decade or so in Nepal.
Done and dusted. I’m voting for a Mayor who can check the Premiere, not support him.
Well, I guess that was summer. Happy autumn equinox, all.
Is it me, or has the Nepali media stopped reporting from the ground in the flood-affected districts? I'm not seeing coverage of what the government is doing on site, in the holding centres, or in its policies to address the ongoing crisis. Post links if you have them? Thanks.
Friends in Berlin, I'll be giving the keynote speech at the Middle Ground: Nepal Literature festival this year. It's a really diverse and interesting line-up of writers at the program. Please share with those who'd be interested. www.hkw.de/en/programme...
To Imagine a Just Future Again | HKW Haus der Kulturen der Welt
Keynote, followed by a conversation with Rajeev Balasubramanyam at Haus der Kulturen der Welt (HKW), a pluri-disciplinary institution in Berlin whose work centers around the practices of visual arts, ...
hkw.de
Not to brag or anything, but I think I’ve figured out how to make a proper आलुको अचार after twenty years of trying. 🍽️
From the department of last (summertime) hurrahs: a sweet group outing with Canadian Geography explorer & author Adam Shoalts to a private park near the Algonquin Highlands. We got to swim! And we saw some mushrooms and teas and creepy-crawly creatures.
Nepal’s Gen Z Is Taking on the World’s Polluters Over Climate Disasters www.nytimes.com/2026/09/19/w...
Nepal’s Gen Z Is Taking on the World’s Polluters Over Climate Disasters (Gift Article)
The young government of Nepal, a nation with a tiny carbon footprint, is seeking reparations from the world’s major economies as it bears the brunt of collapsing Himalayan glaciers.
nytimes.com
No one is allowed to photograph them, so take my word for it—Canada’s largest known site of petroglyphs is well worth a visit! (At the Petroglyph Provincial Park). Some are 6,000 years old. The park also has a rare meromictic lake, McGinnis Lake, with layers of water that don’t intermix. Very cool.
My generation (X) wrested Nepal’s constitution away from the Boomers to make it more progressive. The current constitution is flawed, yes. But if the Millennials think they can improve anything by making the constitution conservative again, they’ve got another thing coming.
Warming Played ‘Very Strong’ Role in Himalayan Floods, Study Finds www.nytimes.com/2026/09/16/c...
Human-Caused Warming Played ‘Very Strong’ Role in Himalayan Floods, Report Finds (Gift Article)
Rising temperatures contributed to the disaster by destabilizing the permafrost and ice around the collapsed rock, scientists concluded.
nytimes.com
A great expose by @artcrimeprof.bsky.social on how one of Nepal’s best-known arts documenters was stealing the art of the Kathmandu valley in the 1960s: www.himalmag.com/mary-slusser...
Mary Slusser’s secret loot of Nepal’s sacred art and heritage
A US scholar made her name as an expert on Nepal’s cultural heritage – while illicitly buying sacred artefacts and smuggling them out to the United States
himalmag.com
I'm always confused when people mistake writers for celebrities who lead glamorous lives when all we do, most days, is sit at a computer and write. Just as confusing is people mistaking us for experts on the topics we write about when the only thing we're trying to be expert at is writing. ✍️
I’m looking forward to being at this year’s Middle Ground festival. Come by if you’re in Berlin. www.hkw.de/en/programme...
Middle Ground: Nepal Literature Festival | HKW Haus der Kulturen der Welt
Literatures from the Himalayas
hkw.de
Currently researching Native performers who were in Paris during the fall of France in 1940, and had to flee the fascists. Here is Molly Spotted Elk’s (Penobscot) 1903-1977, story: She was a vaudeville performer, cabaret dancer, and film actor. After performing
I for one am very relieved to see Nepal's young new government take on the call for justice (environmental justice) in the face of the catastrophe of the Rasuwa flood. One call for justice leads to another. Legal, economic, and social justice are inextricably linked.
Nepal’s media always rises to the call in times of crisis. Kunda Dixit and the team at the Nepali Times have been writing about the challenges of Nepal’s ecology for decades, and they draw on a deep well of expertise. nepalitimes.substack.com/p/lets-lead-...
Let’s Lead, Not Play Victim
Nepali Times ईspecial 4-10 September 2026 #1327
nepalitimes.substack.com
It’s finally out in Canada—and it’s been well worth the wait! Emily Wilson’s thoughts on translation.
