Mayank Bhatt worked as a journalist in Mumbai, India prior to resettling in Canada in 2008. Unable to find employment in the journalism field, Bhatt worked at a series of jobs including a security guard, administrator and arts festival organizer. Bhatt was a regular presence at cultural and business events organized by the Indo-Canadian community in the GTA (Greater Toronto Area.) His final essay, reflecting on living and dying with cancer, was published days after his death on August 1, 2022.
Fiction
Belief
Toronto: Mawenzi House, 2016.
PS8603 .H388 B45 2016
Publisher’s Synopsis (From its website)
An upright and modest Muslim family in Mississauga, Ontario, discovers by accident the plans to bomb public places in Toronto on their son Rafiq’s computer. Belief tells the story of the family’s escape from Bombay to Canada following the communal violence of 1993; their small success, epitomized by their proud ownership of a house; and Rafiq’s attraction to fundamentalist Islamic ideas. Rafiq, it appears, has rejected the planned act of terrorism, organized by an evil charismatic genius, but how can he explain its details found on his computer? Told simply, impartially, and with understanding and empathy, Belief describes the trauma of a family unable to understand their child as they anxiously await his fate.
Anthology (Short story)
Tok. Book 5
Bhatt, Mayank. “The New Canadians.” In Tok. Book 5, edited by Helen Walsh. Toronto: Zephyr Press, 2010, 109-119.
Selected Criticism and Interpretation
Chilana, Rajwant Singh. “Mayank Bhatt.” In South Asian Writers in Canada: A Bio-Bibliographical Study. Surrey, BC: Asian Publications, 2017, 224.
Z1376 .S68 C45 2017
Links
Mayank Bhatt personal website
Publisher Mawenzi House
Mayank Bhatt’s blog Generally About Books