Prof Sunny Singh
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profsunnysingh.bsky.social
Prof Sunny Singh
@profsunnysingh.bsky.social
8.7K followers 560 following 590 posts
Writer, reader, thinker. Founder & director of the Jhalak Prize
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profsunnysingh.bsky.social
Looking forward to speaking with readers about #Refuge: Stories of War (and Love). Some more dates to be added and tickets are for sale now for most of these. Would be wonderful to see as many of you as possible

(Will add links for events in replies)
Image in green and purple with cover for Refuge on top left, my author photo on top right and a kist of upcoming events below
September 15, 2025 at 5:01 PM
profsunnysingh.bsky.social
Delighted to have spoken with the incredible Melissa Lucashenko at @waterstonesgowerstreet. There are signed copies of Melissa’s book plus my books: the brand new #Refuge and #HotelArcadia at the shop so do pop in to grab a copy.
Photo of me on left and Melissa on the right holding our newest books; Refuge for me, Edenglassie for Melissa Stack of copies of Refuge and Hotel Arcadia on a table
September 3, 2025 at 11:22 AM
profsunnysingh.bsky.social
Last week I spoke at the Edinburgh Book Festival about my new book #Refuge: Stories of War (and Love). Before my event, I made a statement of solidarity with Fady Joudah and all writers who are forced to make impossible choices.
Before we begin, I want to say a few words. One year ago, I spoke at this festival about the three simultaneous genocides unfolding across the world: in Gaza, Sudan and Congo. I want to take a moment today to consider this festival’s complicity, including and especially by exposing Palestinian colleagues to an unsafe environment. Colleagues living in terror and grief have been burdened with an impossible choice: speak alongside those who continue to deny them the right to exist or silence themselves by withdrawing. I also want to extend my solidarity with Fady Joudah who withdrew from this very festival. And to the Palestinian authors who have summoned up courage and strength to continue to speak about the ongoing genocide of their families, communities, people. The festival’s choice is very much White Supremacy in action. Yes, it is this white supremacy that is powering the three genocides: in Gaza, Sudan and Congo, along with war, famine, and ecocide across the world. Does that term bother you? It should. Because White Supremacy deems some lives worth recognising as equal and human, as deserving of life itself. It renders some of us in this room less than each other, less than human. This festival’s choices are White Supremacy in action. No amount of pretty words or diversity surveys will erase those actions and their devastating consequences on too many fellow writers and readers. As Fady said: “A lack of common decency is a genocide’s best friend in a cultural system that continues to endorse the genocide.” I had hoped that this festival would have chosen at the very least, a modicum of that common decency.
August 19, 2025 at 11:34 AM
profsunnysingh.bsky.social
First review of #Refuge: Stories of War (and Love) from India. Thank you Financial Express
Screenshot of review. Text reads: In Refuge: Stories of War (and Love), writer and activist Sunny Singh offers a powerful and poignant collection that examines the enduring impact of war on the human spirit. Spanning continents and decades—from Pakistan to Barcelona, from the heart of conflict zones to the quiet corners of everyday life—these stories centre the voices often left in the margins—women, children, civilians and those who love (and survive) soldiers.
August 18, 2025 at 11:01 AM
profsunnysingh.bsky.social
FIRST sighting of #Refuge: Stories of War (and Love). At the brilliant @stanfordstravel.bsky.social. Thank you as ever for your support 💜.
And yes, there are signed copies….hot off the press. So grab them asap!
#publicationweek #shortstories #inthewild #warstories #choosebookshops
Bookshelf with books with covers facing out with a copy of Refuge
August 6, 2025 at 8:44 AM
profsunnysingh.bsky.social
“In the midst of war, when we are taught too many unbearable lessons, it can be hard to hold onto each other, let alone to hope. In these stories, crafted with care and compassion, Sunny Singh finds a way to hold on. A moving and memorable collection." - @saranahmed.bsky.social

Grateful & awed 🙏🏽
Graphic with green background and text in black font with red and black flowers on the corners. Text reads: “Crafted with care and compassion…A moving and memorable collection.”
August 4, 2025 at 11:20 AM
profsunnysingh.bsky.social
“Sunny Singh possesses the rare ability to infuse the most harrowing depictions of war and loss, with grace, tenacity and perfectly captured moments of hope. This is an incredibly powerful collection of stories which move between place, time and perspective with utter ease.“ - Jan Carson on #Refuge
Book with purple background and white and black identifying text superimposed on red, pink and black flame like flowers placed on a multicoloured patterned background
August 3, 2025 at 10:23 AM
profsunnysingh.bsky.social
“In terrible times, our storytellers need to be tender and steely; Singh is this kind of writer, a necessary interlocutor between evil and possibility. We must read stories just like this in these times: small, beautiful, tough ways to remember love despite the wickedness...“ - Leone Ross
Graphic with a coral backdrop for Refuge: Stories of War (and Love). An image of the book is in the centre. The cover has a purple background with white and black identifying text superimposed on red, pink and black flame like flowers. Above in black: 7th August 2025
August 2, 2025 at 9:22 AM
profsunnysingh.bsky.social
#Refuge: Stories of War (and Love) is out on 7 August. I am terrified of putting this book out into the world. Especially at this time. I am grateful that writers I respect and admire have a positive response to it.

Please consider preordering the book 💜
Graphic with red background and two quotes in white font. On top by Meena Kandasamy: ‘Sunny Singh uses the short story like a scalpel - clean, brutal, precise and necessary.’ Below, Elaine Canning: ‘Singh’s prose pulses with grace. A must read for our times.’
July 28, 2025 at 9:36 AM
profsunnysingh.bsky.social
“Superb. An incandescent, charged and propulsive work. I inhaled this collection. It's a testament to Sunny Singh's considerable talents as a writer” - Irenosen Okojie on #Refuge: Stories of War (and Love).
Out on 7th October.
Link to preorder in reply.
Purple book with an illustration of red, pink and black flowers against a pale green background and text in black and white. Partial quote and name in black font along the lower edge: “An incandescent, charged and propulsive work.”
July 26, 2025 at 9:27 AM
profsunnysingh.bsky.social
No unboxing video but…..They are HERE!!!! Finished copies of my latest book, #Refuge: Stories of War (and love). And they are GORGEOUS!
Thank you @WeAreFootnote and esp my editor Serena Arthur for the courage and conviction to publish this book 🙏🏽

Out on 7 August!
Cardboard box with copies of Refuge. Book cover has a purple background and an illustration of red, pink and black flowers. Identifying text in white font.
July 25, 2025 at 9:21 AM
profsunnysingh.bsky.social
Cynthia Enloe: Sunny Singh crafts a distinctive woman's voice, an unforgettable atmosphere, revealing wars' myriad rhythms, unpredictable turns. Reading these remarkable stories reminds me to stay ready to be surprised when trying to grasp how any girl, any woman, anywhere makes sense of her own war
Book jacket with purple background and an illustration of red, pink and black flowers. Identifying text in white font.
July 24, 2025 at 8:46 AM
profsunnysingh.bsky.social
I have a book coming out in August: #Refuge - Stories of War (and Love). THE Cynthia Enloe - the pioneer of feminist international relations and geopolitics - has emailed an AMAZING blurb for it.
I am HYPERVENTILATING!!!!! 😱😱😱😱😱
Book jacket with illustration of red, pink and black flame like flowers with superimposed identifying text in white and black against a purple background
July 18, 2025 at 11:38 AM
profsunnysingh.bsky.social
SOUTH London! Jhalak Prize 2025 judge and award winning travel writer, Taran N. Khan is hosting this brilliant panel of shortlisted DEBUT authors at Southwark Council's Festival of Words at Peckham Library on 18th June. Please come support these incredible debuts!
#jhalakprize
Graphic with illustration of books advertising Jhalak Prize event at South Festival of Words. Text: Join some of this years authors, Ashani Lewis, Aniefiok ‘Neef’ Ekpoudom and Varaidzo along with Jhalak judge, Taran N. Khan for an evening to celebrate the Prize with readings and author Q&A. First awarded in March 2017, the Jhalak Prize awards seek to celebrate books by writers of colour in the UK and Ireland. Copies of the attending authors’ books will be available to buy.
June 9, 2025 at 12:30 PM
profsunnysingh.bsky.social
Excited to have proofs of my new book #Refuge: Stories of War and Love. Isn’t it beautiful? And Leone Ross’s quote blew me away. SO grateful🙏🏽.
Available for preorders NOW and out in August 2025
Book on a grey stone table. The cover is bright green with white and black text overlaid over an illustration of pink and red flowers Book on a grey stone table with the back cover showing. The cover has a green background with text in white and green and illustration of pink and red tulips at the bottom. On top a quote Leone Ross: “We must read stories just like this in these times: small, beautiful, tough ways to remember love despite the wickedness. There are terrible things here, necessary truths and unremitting heart."
June 3, 2025 at 8:57 AM
profsunnysingh.bsky.social
Excited to share the COVER for #Refuge: Stories of War and Love.

“Spanning decades and continents, Refuge shines a light on those who are often overlooked in stories about war.”
#coverreveal
Book cover in bright purple with identifying text in white and back font superimposed on a black, red and pink illustration of flowers. It is ser against a coral background with sprigs of purple flowers on two corners
April 3, 2025 at 9:12 AM
profsunnysingh.bsky.social
Have you seen the news? #Refuge: Stories of War (and Love) will be published this summer:
Screenshot of Bookseller article with my photo and headline: Footnote Press acquires Sunny Singh's 'often overlooked' stories of war Screenshot of article text: This collection focuses on the "often overlooked" stories of war. From Marie who keeps the women of her village from giving birth to children of war, to an ageing MI6 official who discovers that the woman he meets every day may not be what she seems, the collection and those that feature in it are celebrated as "an ode to humanity's ability to endure". It will be published on 7th August 2025. Singh said: "The stories in this collection explore a mystery that has intrigued me since childhood: how do humans find courage, strength and love in the most brutal and horrific circumstances? And I am absolutely delighted to be working with Footnote again, this time on fiction." Arthur said: "Sunny has written such a beautiful depiction of persevering through war, trauma and occupation in this carefully crafted collection. While the writing is stunning and lyrical, Refuge: Stories of War (and Love) doesn't shy away from the horrors at all. It's character-driven, emotive, distinctive and powerful." Susijn said: "These powerful and expertly crafted stories show both the best and worst of human nature."
April 1, 2025 at 7:19 AM
profsunnysingh.bsky.social
My January reading has been heartbreaking, challenging, awe-inspiring, thought provoking, illuminating and enlightening. I can’t recommend these four books enough.
Four books on a grey fabric. Clockwise from top: If I Must Die, Perfect Victims, Forest of Noise and One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This
January 31, 2025 at 5:47 PM
profsunnysingh.bsky.social
We did not celebrate Christmas this year. Instead I sought serenity and calm in this old favourite place. Timely reminder of what it means to be ephemeral and yet endure; that karmic law of consequences applies to us all; and so…तस्मादुत्तिष्ठ कौन्तेय युद्धाय कृतनिश्चय॥
Image shows a deep rocky canyon with green pool of water from which a stream falls deep below into another pool
December 26, 2024 at 9:31 PM
profsunnysingh.bsky.social
Christ remains amidst the rubble.
And those wishing to adore him can not reach him.
The regime that ensures this is an abomination!
Gif with a bright star separated by a tall concrete wall from the three wise men. Two remain on camels watching the third trying to dig a tunnel under the wall
December 24, 2024 at 4:25 PM
profsunnysingh.bsky.social
I keep thinking of the numbers of Western colleagues (and friends) who denied this was true, gaslit, harassed, bullied those of us who spoke up. SO many have been complicit if not active participants and perpetrators of this century long horror
Screenshot with text: "A new commander came to us. We went out with him on the first patrol at six in the morning. He stops. There's not a soul in the streets, just a little 4-year-old boy playing in the sand in his yard. The commander suddenly starts running, grabs the boy, and breaks his arm at the elbow and his leg here. Stepped on his stomach three times and left. We all stood there with our mouths open. Looking at him in shock ... I asked the commander: "What's your story?" He told me: These kids need to be killed from the day they are born. When a commander does that, it becomes legit."
December 24, 2024 at 3:53 AM
profsunnysingh.bsky.social
There is nothing SO glorious as a gorgeous book. This has everything: fabulous literary conceit, brilliant writing, incredible illustrations and it is beautifully produced!! Congratulations @doctoryasmin.bsky.social and Fahmida Azim for this stunning, terrifying, AMAZING book.
Book on a dark wood table. The cover is eerie and gothic with a partially obscured grey face beneath identifying text
December 18, 2024 at 2:52 PM
profsunnysingh.bsky.social
Finally finished reading #TheViralUnderclass by the brilliant
@thrasherxy
An absolute #mustread for our times, it connects dots on how inequality, disease, oppression intersect in deadly ways. You need to read this!!! #readingrecommendations
Book with white cover with black text and a red and black ‘virus’ design in the centre on grey stone background
December 14, 2024 at 2:45 PM
profsunnysingh.bsky.social
Most white people don’t realise that that this kind of racism in publishing is not a once off. That it isn’t one book and never was. This pic is of the tweet that kicked off national, public bullying with nearly 300 articles in UK press against me. I stand by and am saying it again:
Screenshot of my tweet dated 4 August 2021: Or perhaps a good moment - including the publishing chain - to stop and reflect how such crudely racialised language made it into a book in 2019? Also why noting this is being framed as an attack instead of being considered as a learning moment for all involved?
December 13, 2024 at 5:40 PM
profsunnysingh.bsky.social
Just arrived: Refaat Alareer’s collected poetry and prose #IfIMustDie, compiled by Yousef M. Aljamal with a foreword by susan abulhawa.
Beautiful and heartbreaking!
Book on a patterned maroon and cream background. Book cover has a fiery red base with a single white kite flying across it snd identifying text in white
December 9, 2024 at 1:19 PM