Ankit Raj Ojha is a poet, writer, editor, and translator from Bihar, India. His poems, short stories, essays, reviews, and academic articles are published in twenty countries. A PhD from IIT Roorkee, Ankit is an assistant professor of English with DHE, Haryana. He edits The Hooghly Review, has two poetry collections, and is a consulting editor with Routledge and Springer Nature. 

He is the editor of THE BARE BONES BOOK OF HUMOUR. In this interview, he discusses the what-why-how of the project.

What is this book about? What is its USP?

It is a collection of humorous short stories with a literary bent. It features twenty-four writers from eight countries—ranging from debutants to award-winning bestselling authors, all at the height of their comedic powers. 

The book stands out in that it is one of the few of its kind in the market. We do have full-length novels in the humour genre. But when it comes to an anthology of humour, joke books and children’s humour (to take nothing away from the genres) prevail in bookstores. This anthology seeks to be on that almost empty bookshelf in stores where a collection of literary humour stories should be.

Why did you think of curating this book?

I curated this book with the above in mind. As a reader, I had also felt the need to experience humour from diverse cultures and narrative styles in a single volume—something the current market lacks and, I believe, needs.

What experiences do you bring to this subject? 

I have been a lifelong lover of people, situations, and ideas, both in life and literature. And my sense of humour derives from that; so do, in part, my poetry and prose writings. I have been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and the Best of the Net for a humour poem and was also among the top 1% in the 2023 Wergle Flomp Humour Poetry Contest. As for the editing part, I am a founding editor at The Hooghly Review, an international magazine of literature, culture, and arts. I have also curated a poetry anthology featuring emerging poets and industry veterans, and a special issue of an indexed academic journal. I also serve as a consulting editor with several Routledge and Springer Nature journals.

Why does this book matter?

This book is something I have been looking for as a reader for a long time. A book of good humour stories—humour not at the expense of literariness, for humour is often sidelined as “genre writing”—is something I believe the world needs. For the voracious reader, this book can serve as another window to savour the many colours of human follies and eccentricities. And for those discovering the love of reading for the first time, it might be “the” book that makes them readers for life.

How does this relate to similar books?

As I have said before, I could not find many books of this kind in online and offline stores. A favourite that comes to mind is Ruskin Bond’s BOOK OF HUMOUR, a book I mentioned while pitching the idea to my publisher. But this one, again, is a single-authored collection of Mr Bond’s stories. What I wanted was many “senses” of humour within the same volume, so that there would be something inside the pages for every reader. And I am happy to have served exactly that, thanks to my publisher and the contributing writers.

Three words to best describe you.

Casual. Curious. Sociable.