New Writer 2026: Sukhada Tatke

Sukhada Tatke is an independent journalist and writer from India. She has reported from five countries, writing on a wide spectrum of topics, from art and culture to history and immigration. Her features have been published in Al Jazeera, Wired, BBC, Atlas Obscura, among others. Her essays have appeared in literary magazines such as The Rumpus, Literary Hub, Commonwealth Writers’ adda, and Verseville. She is the recipient of several journalism awards and fellowships.

Writing sample

Turn of the Tide

It was unusual for my friend Dimitri to be watching a wildlife documentary, instead of following the news a day after a historic election. When I showed up at his home on Wednesday evening, he looked up from the television screen, rubbed his eyes and said drily: “Welcome to America.”

His girlfriend, Sarah, sat at a table nearby, staring at maps of the US. The grids representing the country’s states were coloured with crayons in blue and red. On election night, they had played a game with their friends: whoever came closest to the results would win. In the course of the evening, it had become amply clear that their maps bore little resemblance to what was happening across large sections of the country, turning a crimson red. They all lost the game. Donald Trump and his battery of supporters emerged victors.

Almost 24 hours later, the couple kept going over those maps with me, trying to wrap their heads around what had happened. “How did he get Michigan? Pennsylvania? How did we get it so wrong?” Dimitri wondered aloud.

This was in Houston, a city that voted Democrat. But overall in the state of Texas, 53% of the voters went Republican, awarding Trump a whopping 38 electoral votes. Both Dimitri and Sarah, who are in their 50s and were born and raised in Houston, said this was the worst election of their lives. While they were devastated when George Bush took charge, they had never betrayed the kind of despondency they felt this time.

I had moved to the US only two years earlier, but I shared their dejection. On election night, I went to bed way past 3.30 am, long after hearing the President-elect give his victory speech in an uncharacteristically tempered-down tone. I woke up four hours later, with a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach, the kind that bodes ill.

Sukhada says:

'I am incredibly thrilled and honoured to receive this award. In what is often a solitary journey riddled with challenges and self-doubt, it is wonderful to get the kind of recognition that tells you you're on the right path. I look forward to meeting my cohort and the many opportunities this award will bring.'