Gloucester Road Books presents Karishma Jobanputra, who will be discussing her scintillating debut short story collection, The Body of the Thing, in conversation with award-winning poet and novelist, Nell Osborne.

One of 2026's most widely anticipated debuts, the stories in The Body of the Thing, at their core, examine the ways in which women negotiate all manner of body politics. Written with great wit and a fierce sensitivity, it's a stunner of a first outing and this is an event not to be missed.

Here's more on the book from its award-winning publisher, And Other Stories:

A lyrical and visceral short story collection, The Body of the Thing unpicks the hierarchies that thrum under our relationships. Moving from bougie neighbourhoods in Manhattan to the sun-drenched piazzas of Italy, from coastal Maine to the bustle of London, these stories chase the fallout when women's bodies are valued for their beauty and youth, dismissed and discarded when ill, or made useful as parents and caregivers. Fluid, sensual, and fearless, The Body of the Thing explores motherhood, body dysmorphia and eating disorders, and celebrates female desire in all its complicated wonder.

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‘Arresting, beautiful, humorous, observant, serious, all at the same time.’ Paul Beatty, Booker Prize-winning author of The Sellout

‘These stories are contemporary portraits of life across continents. Jobanputra’s careful prose depicts all the anxiety and claustrophobia of being alive. I can’t remember the last time I read a collection so compulsively.’ Sarvat Hasin, author of Strange Girls

> ‘Lyrical and specific, eloquent and real.’ Raffaela Barker author of Come and Tell Me Some Lies

> Karishma Jobanputra is a British-Indian writer currently based in London. A graduate of Columbia University’s MFA Fiction Programme, where she was awarded a partial merit scholarship, a Chair’s Fellowship, and the Dean’s Travel Grant, her work has been listed for the Brick Lane Short Story Prize and The Disquiet Literary Prize. The Body of the Thing is her debut publication.
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> Nell Osborne is a poet and novelist. Her poetry pamphlet, Thank You For Everything was published by Monitor Books in 2024, and her next pamphlet, Seances Near Me, is forthcoming from Spite Press in 2027. Her debut novel, Ghost Driver (Moist Books, 2025), jointly won the Queen Mary Small Press Fiction Prize in 2026. Judge Marina Benjamin described the novel as ‘administrative noir in the orbit of body horror, as if Ottessa Moshfegh had written Severance.’
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> Photo of Karishma Jobanputra: credit Grace Shirley