Publications

Essays	Reviews	Reading Lists	Interviews
Columns	Stories	Translations	Other Blogs

NOTES:
1) For all Desi Books interviews, features, essays, etc., please go to https://desibooks.co.
2) I’m working on upcoming book projects, so there are fewer publications this year.

2022 PUBLICATIONS:

— ESSAY: Klara and the Sun vs. The Trees. Tournament of Books 2022 (The Morning News.) March 2022. (more essays)

— REVIEW: Wajahat Ali’s ‘Go Back To Where You Came From’ is biting and funny and full of heart. NPR. January 2022. (more reviews)

ESSAYS:

— ESSAY: Klara and the Sun vs. The Trees. Tournament of Books 2022 (The Morning News.) March 2022.

— Moving Beyond Stereotypes in South Asian Literature. Publishers Weekly. December 2021.

— A Year in Reading: Jenny Bhatt. The Millions. December 2020.

— Writers Recommend: Jenny Bhatt Recommends . . . Poets & Writers. October 2020.

— Craft Capsule: The Writer’s Mind on Music. Poets & Writers. October 2020.

— Craft Capsule: Revising Folktales and Myths. Poets & Writers. October 2020.

— Reading to Each Other, a Woman in Mumbai and a Man in Dallas Turned Their Talks Into Marriage. The Dallas Morning News. September 2020.

— Craft Capsule: The Art of Literary Criticism. Poets & Writers. September 2020.

— Music Playlist for Each of Us Killers. Largehearted Boy. September 2020.

— Craft Capsule: We Are All Translators. Poets & Writers. September 2020.

— On Books and Their Harbors: Public Libraries. Kenyon Review Online. September 2020.

— Can South Asians Only Write One Story?. Lychee Substack Newsletter (run by Meghna Rao). September 2020.

— The Unexpected Politics of Book Cover Design. Literary Hub. September 2020.

— Emerging As a Writer — After 40. Longreads. November 2018.

— How Can Literature (and Publishers) Respond to the Problems of Gender and Power. Scroll.in. November 2018.

— Why India Needs a Professional Association for Writers and Translators. Scroll.in. November 2018.

— But Let Us Cultivate Our Garden. The Millions. November 2018.

— Why we should never give up our quest to find (or write) the Great Indian Novel. Scroll.in. August 2018.

— Letters Between Writers and Editors. Scroll.in. May 2018.

— ‘Have you stopped reading? Here are ten ways to get back to books.’ Scroll.in. February 2018.

— ‘Six High Points of the Jaipur Literary Festival, 2018’ Scroll.in. February 2018.

— “On Domestic Abuse and Saving Our Men.” Hofstra University’s Windmill Online. May 2017.

— “Your Most Formative Literary Passages.” The Atlantic. October 2016.

— “So You’re The Only Woman on the Panel? Now Go In For the Kill.” The Ladies Finger, June 2015.

— “Chandra: A Profile of Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, Nobel Laureate in Physics.” Sulekha Select: The Indian Experience in a Connected World, 2001.

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BOOK REVIEWS:

— Wajahat Ali’s ‘Go Back To Where You Came From’ is biting and funny and full of heart. NPR. January 2022.

— This Surprising Debut Takes Readers To A Crossroads Of Empires And Cultures. (on Vinod Busjeet’s Silent Winds, Dry Seas.) NPR. August 2021.

— ‘Against White Feminism’ Is An Urgent Call To Action For Solidarity And Justice. NPR. August 2021.

— ‘A Passage North’ Is A Quiet Elegy For Lives Lost To Civil War. NPR. July 2021.

— ‘The Startup Wife,’ by Tahmima Anam. Star Tribune. July 2021.

— ‘Curb’ Uses Poetry To Scrub At The Wounds Of Anti-Asian Racism. NPR. April 2021.

— The City of Good Death by Priyanka Champaneri. Star Tribune. April 2021.

— ‘Craft in the Real World by Matthew Salesses’. On the Seawall. March 2021.

— ‘A Swim in a Pond in the Rain’ mines Russian short-story masters for valuable insight. The Dallas Morning News. January 2021.

— Meena Kandasamy Claims Space For Herself In ‘Exquisite Cadavers’. NPR. November 2020.

— In How to Pronounce Knife, stories of Lao immigrants reveal everyday moments of racism, classism, power, and privilege. The Washington Post. April 2020.

— Night Theater: Surgery, Corruption, and Chekhov. PopMatters. February 2020.

— ‘Waiting’: A Short Story Collection Shows Us the Inner Lives of Women But Doesn’t Ask New Questions. Scroll.in. April 2019.

— Speculation and Responsibility in ‘A People’s Future of the United States’. PopMatters. April 2019.

— ‘All the Lives We Ever Lived’ Finds Comfort in Mourning with Virginia Woolf. PopMatters. February 2018.

— Bringing Forth the Male Gaze in ‘Preeto and Other Stories. PopMatters. January 2019.

— What Commands Your Behaviors? On ‘Rule Makers, Rule Breakers’. PopMatters. December 2018.

— ‘Half Gods’ and Painful Fragments. PopMatters. October 2018.

— On Sound and Rhythm in Literary Texts: Angela Leighton’s ‘Hearing Things’. PopMatters. October 2018.

— On Rainer Maria Rilke’s Letters on Loss: ‘The Dark Interval’. PopMatters. September 2018.

— A. M. Homes’ ‘Days of Awe’ and Mastering the Art of Dialogue. PopMatters. August 2018.

— ‘Alone Time’ and the Joys of Solitary, Mindful Travel. PopMatters. August 2018.

— On Roxane Gay’s Republished Short Stories ‘Ayiti’. PopMatters. July 2018.

— Nowhere Is a Place in Tatyana Tolstaya’s ‘Aetherial Worlds’. PopMatters. July 2018.

— We Go to William Trevor’s Works to Look for Ourselves and to Understand Others. PopMatters. June 2018.

— ‘The Storm’ has Heart, Urgency, and Ambition. PopMatters. June 2018.

— The Many Benefits of Travel: Paul Theroux’s Figures in a Landscape. PopMatters. June 2018.

— ‘Elements of Surprise’ and the Pleasures of Being Had. PopMatters. May 2018.

— Private Habits and Private Selves in Curtis Sittenfeld’s Short Stories. PopMatters. May 2018.

— The Intimate Politics of the Female Self in Danielle Lazarin’s ‘Back Talk’. PopMatters. April 2018.

— Did Women Writers Change the 20th-century New York Intellectual Scene? PopMatters. April 2018.

— The Pragmatic Sorcery of Madeline Miller’s ‘Circe’. PopMatters. April 2018.

— India’s ‘Bos Indicus’ Religion Is Explored In ‘The Milk Lady of Bangalore’. PopMatters. March 2018.

— On the Hidden Lives of Souvenirs in ‘Souvenir (Object Lessons)’. PopMatters. March 2018.

— Cycling Across Small-town India In Nautanki Diaries. The Aerogram. March 2018.

— The Promise of Redemption in ‘All the Names They Used for God’. PopMatters. February 2018.

— Appreciating the Wisdom of Ursula K Le Guin. The National Book Review. February 2018.

— ‘An Incisive Look at Race — And How We Should Be Talking About It’. The National Book Review. February 2018.

— “The Good Immigrant’s UK Voices Resonate With Universal Themes.” The Aerogram. October 2017.

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READING LISTS:

— NPR’s Best Books 2021: Books We Love. NPR. November 2021.
— Silent Winds, Dry Seas by Vinod Busjeet
— The City of Good Death by Priyanka Champaneri
— The Good Girls by Sonia Faleiro
— China Room by Sunjeev Sahota
— Taste Makers by Mayukh Sen
— Curb by Divya Victor
— Against White Feminism by Rafia Zakaria

— South Asian Literature in Translation: A Preview of Notable 2021 Titles. World Literature Today (Spring Issue.) March 2021.

— A Personal Anthology of 12 Work-themed Stories by Writers of South Asian Origin. A Personal Anthology by Jonathan Gibbs. March 2021.

— What to Read When You Want Story Collections About Working Lives. The Rumpus. September 2020.

— 10 Novels About Working Lives in India. Electric Literature. September 2020.

— API Heritage Month: Audiobook Recommendations. Libro.FM. May, 2020.

— #BalanceForBetter: A Short Reading List for International Women’s Day 2019. Scroll.in. March 2019.

— 20 Debut Works of Fiction by Women Over 40. Literary Hub. November 2018.

— Top 5 Stories That Shaped the World. BBC Culture. May 2018.

— “After ‘Dunkirk’, A Starter List of 10 Engaging Books (and a Bonus) on India’s Role in the Great Wars.” Scroll.in. August 2017.

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INTERVIEWS (CONDUCTED OF OTHER WRITERS):

— Anjali Enjeti: Politics and Possibility. Guernica Magazine. June 2021.

— The Hazards of Immersive Journalism: A Conversation with Sonia Faleiro. Los Angeles Review of Books. June 2021.

— South Asian Literature in Translation: Interview series with 27 South Asian literary translators. Global Literature in Libraries Initiative. December 2020.

— Stories About the Worst Things Possible. Shruti Swamy on A House Is a Body. Electric Literature. August 2020.

— Take It Apart by the Seams: Vera Tobin on Your Brain on Fiction. PopMatters. May 2018.

— “Hope and Rebellion Are Inextricably Linked”: An Interview With Author Anjali Sachdeva. PopMatters. March 2018.

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SHORT STORIES COLUMN:

— Short Stories: Solitude and Loneliness. PopMatters. April 2020.

— Short Stories: Beginnings and Endings. PopMatters. January 2020.

— Short Stories: Siblings. PopMatters. July 2019.

— Short Stories: Later-life Relationships. PopMatters. May 2019.

— Short Stories: Journeys. PopMatters. April 2019.

— Short Stories: Animals Part II. PopMatters. March 2019.

— Short Stories: Animals. PopMatters. February 2019.

— Short Stories: Women in the Workplace. PopMatters. January 2019.

— Short Stories: The 12 Best Short Story Collections of 2018. PopMatters. December 2018.

— Short Stories: Parties. PopMatters. November 2018.

— Short Stories: American Writers of South Asian Origin. PopMatters. October 2018.

— Short Stories: Characters in Politics. PopMatters. September 2018.

— Short Stories: Women in Translation. PopMatters. August 2018.

— Short Stories: Refugees. PopMatters. July 2018.

— Short Stories: Surprises and Twists. PopMatters. June 2018.

— Short Stories: Fiction from ‘Sharp’ Women Writers Known for Their Non-fiction. PopMatters. May 2018.

— Short Stories: Casualties of War. PopMatters. April 2018.

— Short Stories: Souvenirs. PopMatters. March 2018.

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SHORT STORIES:

ONLINE

— ‘The Secret Lives of Yoga Instructors’ (introduced by Elizabeth McCracken). Electric Literature. September 2020.

— “Disappointment.” Jet Fuel Review. December 2017.

— “Each of Us Killers.” Kweli Journal. December 2017. [Nominated for the Pushcart Prize and The Best American Short Stories]

— “Her Solitary Domain.” Five:2:One Magazine. May 2017.

— “The Weight of His Bones.” The Nottingham Review. March 2017.

— “The Golden Amulet.” Amazon’s Day One Literary Journal (Kindle). December 2016.

— “The God of Wind.” Gravel Magazine. December 2016.

— “The Waiting.” Lunch Ticket Amuse-Bouche: Spotlight. August 2016 [2017 Best of the Net Anthology Finalist]

— “The Symphony of a Future Memory.” York Literary Review. May 2016.

— “Time and Opportunity.” Litbreak. March 2016.

IN PRINT

— “Life Spring.” Windmill: The Hofstra Journal of Literature and Art. May 2017.

— “The Prize.” Litro UK #160: Changes. March 2017.

— “Mango Season.” Eleven Eleven Journal. September 2016.

— “Neeru’s New World.” NonBinary Review. September 2016. [Nominated for the Pushcart Prize]

— “The Plinko Watch.” The Indian Quarterly. July 2016.

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TRANSLATIONS:

— ‘Nameless’ by Dhumketu. Translated from Gujarati to English. Asymptote Journal. July 2021.

— ‘Rupali Ba’ by Jhaverchand Meghani. Translated from Gujarati to English. Waxwing Magazine. June 2020.

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OTHER BLOGS:

— Images as Writing Prompts. Writing Workshops Dallas Blog. April 2020.