Talking with Boys

by Tayyba Kanwal

Overview

In a collection of linked tales filled with irony, humor, and magic, Talking with Boys introduces an unforgettable cast of characters in the Pakistani diaspora in Houston navigating crises of their own making and beyond their control.

Via generations and geographies, the stories expand from Houston into tales from the characters’ pasts in Dubai and Lahore. A community of Pakistani immigrants distract ICE with unlikely bait. A housekeeper in a Dubai mansion plots to liberate her fellow indentured workers. In Lahore, an empty nester finds herself bound by more than a jinxed bracelet. Throughout, Tayyba Kanwal’s remarkable characters navigate economic upheavals, political turmoil, and personal betrayals to pursue love, plot for survival, and play subtle power games to triumph against patriarchal forces of all genders.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781625571793
Publisher:	Black Lawrence Press
Publication date:	01/06/2026
Series:	Immigrant Writers
Pages:	186
Product dimensions:	(w) x (h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

Tayyba Kanwal is a Pakistani-American writer from Houston, TX. Her work appears in journals such as Witness, Gulf Coast, and Meridian. She holds an MFA from the University of Houston where she was an Inprint C. Glenn Cambor Fellow. Her awards include the Inprint Donald Barthelme Prize in Fiction, Black Lawrence Press 2023 Immigrant Writing Prize, shortlisted for C&R Press’ 2023 Fiction Award and runner-up in Witness Magazine’ s 2022 Literary Award. She serves as Director of Workshops at Inprint, Associate Fiction Editor at Cutleaf Journal, and Assistant Fiction Editor at Conjunctions.

Table of Contents

THE GIRL WHO RAN

THE RENAMING OF TOOTI SADAK

A LEGAL ALIEN

TALKING WITH BOYS

MEHR

HUMA AND THE BIRDS

TOP NANNY, SEASON

MAILEE AND THE SAINT OF HORSES

LITTLE MOTHER

A SHADE FOR THE WINDOW

I BREATHED YOU FIRST

TELLING TALES

MRS. T RECEIVES A GIFT

ROTIS

BUNGALOW

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Editorial Reviews

Talking with Boys is an astonishing story collection that spans decades and is set in various locales, including Houston, Lahore, and Dubai. With deep insight and humor, Tayyba Kanwal explores the diverse range of the Pakistani and Pakistani American experience, as well as the complexities of a Muslim identity. Readers are introduced to a big cast of rich and memorable characters, many of whom are navigating new beginnings and places. Whether writing about family dynamics, generational conflicts, immigration, socioeconomic class, and notions of home and belonging, among other themes, Kanwal’s stories speak to the human condition with breathtaking power. A remarkable debut." —Ghassan Zeineddine, author of Dearborn

“Talking with Boys is a magical and riveting collection that will make you reassess what you know about the three very different worlds in which the stories are set. Kanwal's agile, multifaceted characters are at once hilarious and heartbreaking. They'll shock you and infuriate you and amaze you. They'll linger in your imagination long after you've turned the last page.” —Chitra Divakaruni, American Book Award-winning author of Independence and Mistress of Spices

“An intimate collection of stories, Talking with Boys spans time and place while depicting a group of souls who are determined, hilarious, and complex. Kanwal knows this world better than anyone, which is why the collection is consistently full of provocation and delight. This book is the introduction of an exciting new literary voice that readers will be sure to enjoy.” —Maurice Carlos Ruffin, author of The American Daughters

“There is something wonderfully disarming about all the people in these stories. Kanwal narrates their lives in sentences that are poignant, their plans, faults and longing always at the center, their utter humanness laid out on the pages.” —Farah Ali, author of The River, The Town

From the Publisher