Appetite: New Writing from Goa Edited By Shivranjana Rathore & Tino de Sa

Appetite: New Writing from Goa, a bold new literary anthology edited by Shivranjana Rathore and Tino de Sa, publishing in January. Bringing together short stories, poems, and essays by some of Goa’s most distinctive voices, spanning generations, forms, and lived experiences within and beyond the state, the book turns the lens inward, away from the tourist gaze, to capture Goa as it is lived, remembered, and contested today.

Across its pages, Appetite explores hunger in its many forms: for food, for intimacy, for belonging, for selfhood, for resistance. From essays reflecting on food, dating, and love written during the isolation of the COVID years, to fiction rooted in domestic spaces and late-night family meals, to poems that trace desire, resentment, and political unease, including a striking contemporary poem on the rise of conservatism in India, the anthology maps both the personal and the public lives of Goans.

Rooted in Goa’s history while sharply attentive to its present, the writing reflects a state in transition. Questions of in-migration and diaspora, shifting cultural norms, sexuality, faith, and political tension surface organically through lived experience rather than nostalgia. What emerges is not a singular idea of Goa, but a plurality of voices that coexist, argue, remember, and imagine.

Created by members of the Goa Writers collective, Appetite resists a single definition of Goan identity. Instead, it foregrounds literary diversity, across form, generation, and perspective, asserting literature as a democratic space where complexity is not resolved, but held.

Appetite is a collection of short stories, poems, and essays by Goan writers that documents contemporary life in the state beyond its postcard image. Moving fluidly between the intimate and the expansive, the anthology explores food and desire, love and sexuality, faith and memory, migration and politics, tracing how different forms of hunger shape both private lives and public realities. Together, these pieces place Goa firmly within contemporary Indian literary conversations around desires, identity, belonging, and cultural change.

What’s Inside the Anthology

Many Appetites, One Place: Stories, poems, and essays explore hunger in its many forms, food, sexuality, love, faith, creative ambition, resentment, and resistance, revealing how desire shapes both personal lives and public realities.
Everyday Goa, Lived from Within: From late-night family meals and domestic spaces to reflections on dating, intimacy, and loneliness during the COVID years, the writing captures everyday Goan life beyond beaches and nightlife.
A State in Transition: Across genres, the anthology reflects how Goans negotiate identity and belonging amid in-migration, diaspora, political pressures, changing social values, and shifting cultural norms.
Contemporary Political and Cultural Undercurrents: The collection includes sharp, present-day responses to India’s socio-political climate, including a poem that confronts the rise of conservatism, situating Goa within larger national conversations.
Collective Voice, Plural Goa: Created by members of the Goa Writers collective, Appetite resists a single idea of Goan identity. Instead, it presents multiple voices that coexist, argue, remember, and imagine, asserting literature as a democratic space for lived complexity.

Early Praise:

“A vibrant polyphony of fiction, poetry, and essays, Appetite captures the pulse of Goa’s cultural and political present. Attentive to a region in transition, the anthology bears powerful witness to how Goa’s cosmopolitanism, traditions, and everyday life are being reshaped today.”— Ranjit Hoskote, poet, cultural theorist, and curator

“A delicious history of habit and habitat — of the mouth, and of Goa.” — Sumana Roy, writer and poet

About The Editors:

Shivranjana Rathore is a writer and artist based in Goa. With a central theme of existentialism, leaning towards the absurd and surrealist, her practice spans across multiple mediums—books, comics, zines, and installations. Currently, devoted to exploring the embodied existence, she is building Sense of a Place, a multi-medium project exploring place-making through the critique of constructed versus the embodied.

Tino de Sa, an IAS officer, is twice winner of the Times of India National Short Story Competition. He has three books to his credit and was shortlisted for the 2025 Commonwealth Short Story Prize. Several of his poems have appeared in anthologies in India and abroad.