WHAT ARE THE DEFINING ELEMENTS OF SHORT FICTION BY CONTEMPORARY WOMEN WRITERS? HOW DO THEY NAVIGATE THE WORLD AROUND THEM TO CREATE LITERATURE? These questions gave shape to the idea of The Punch Magazine’s inaugural anthology, comprising 18 short stories, selected from the pool of submissions by women writers in India and around the world, that showcase just how culture, besides the past, informs and illuminates literature., The stories featured in this anthology reflect a certain kind of sensibility and sensitivity. It takes us along the pathways these writers forge to create art out of the rhythms and ruptures of life, dwelling on their characters’ experiences and memories of a thousand pleasures and pains suspended in the continuum of time. Steeped in the cultural moorings of the places they are set in—from Kashmir to Kerala, and from Washington and London to Rome—these stories portray the concerns and preoccupations of individuals both within and outside the precincts of home. They speak of our times—the way we live, the way we love.