P&P Live! No One Actually Speaks Indian | Gujarati-Origin Writers on Culture and Books

Politics and Prose welcomes Jenny Bhatt, Saumya Dave, Amit Majmudar, Sameer Pandya, Rani Shah, Sejal Shah, and Madi Sinha for a unique panel discussion in which Gujarati-origin writers discuss their shared culture and new books!

Jenny Bhatt is a writer, literary translator, and literary critic. She is the host of the Desi Books podcast. Her debut story collection, Each of Us Killers (7.13 Books, Sep 2020) was listed as a most anticipated book of 2020 by Electric Literature, The Millions, and Literary Hub. Her literary translation of Gujarati short story pioneer Dhumketu’s best short fiction will be out in late-2020. Her writing has appeared or is forthcoming in various venues including The Atlantic, NPR, BBC, Washington Post, Literary Hub, Longreads, Poets & Writers, The Millions, Electric Literature, The Rumpus, Kenyon Review, PopMatters, Scroll.in, and more. Her fiction has been nominated for Pushcart Prizes and the 2017 Best American Short Stories. She was a finalist for the 2017 Best of the Net Anthology. Having lived and worked her way around India, England, Germany, Scotland, and various parts of the US, she now lives in a suburb of Dallas, Texas. https://jennybhattwriter.com.

Saumya Dave is an author, psychiatrist, and mental health advocate. Her debut novel, Well-Behaved Indian Women, was named a most anticipated book of summer 2020 in Elle, Marie Claire, Ms. Magazine, Bustle, and more. Her essays, articles, and poetry have been featured in The New York Times, ABC News, Refinery 29, and more. She is a practicing therapist, co-founder of the mental health nonprofit thisisforHER, and an Adjunct Professor at Mount Sinai. She lives in New York City with her husband and son. www.saumyadave.com.

Amit Majmudar is a novelist, poet, translator, essayist, and diagnostic nuclear radiologist. Majmudar’s latest books are the poetry collection What He Did in Solitary (Knopf, 2020) and Godsong: A Verse Translation of the Bhagavad-Gita, with Commentary (Knopf/Penguin Random House India, 2018) as well as two novels published in India, Soar (Penguin Random House India, 2020) and Sitayana (Penguin Random House India, 2019). His novel Partitions (Holt/Metropolitan, 2011) was shortlisted for the HWA/Goldsboro Crown Prize for Historical Fiction and was named Best Debut Fiction of 2011 by Kirkus Reviews, and his second novel, The Abundance (Holt/Metropolitan, 2013), was selected for the Choose to Read Ohio Program. His poetry has appeared in The Best of the Best American Poetry 25th Anniversary Edition, numerous Best American Poetry anthologies, as well as the Norton Introduction to Literature, The New Yorker, and Poetry; his prose has appeared in The O. Henry Prize Stories 2017, The Best American Essays 2018, and the New York Times. His first poetry collection, 0′,0′, was shortlisted for the Norma Farber Poetry Award from the Poetry Society of America, and his second collection, Heaven and Earth, won the Donald Justice Award. He also edited an anthology of political poetry, Resistance, Rebellion, Life: 50 Poems Now (Knopf, 2017). Winner of the Anne Halley Prize and the Pushcart Prize, he served as Ohio’s first Poet Laureate. He practices diagnostic and nuclear radiology full-time in Westerville, Ohio, where he lives with his wife, twin sons, and daughter.

Sameer Pandya is the author of the novel Members Only and the story collection The Blind Writer, which was long listed for the PEN/Open Book Award. He is also the recipient of the PEN/Civitella Fellowship. His fiction, commentary, and cultural criticism has appeared in a range of publications, including The Atlantic, Salon, Sports Illustrated, ESPN, and Narrative Magazine. He is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Asian American Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Madi Sinha is a writer and practicing physician who loves the nervous system, bookshops, tea with milk, and snarky conversation (but not necessarily in that order). Her debut novel, White Coat Diaries, is about a young doctor’s struggle to survive residency, love, and life. She lives in New Jersey with her husband and two children. https://www.madisinha.com/.

Rani Shah spent a good part of her childhood imagining she could talk to animals. She is the founder of Fuss Class News, an online South Asian-American satire news site. Her energy sources include chocolate chip cookies, making Gujarati jokes, and quite literally, the sun. Her debut book, Wisdom From a Humble Jellyfish, is at once charming and scientific, packed with essential wisdom and practical tips worth borrowing from our plant and animal friends for life-changing self-care. She lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Sejal Shah is the author of the debut essay collection, This Is One Way to Dance (University of Georgia Press, 2020). Her stories and essays have appeared in Brevity, Conjunctions, Guernica, the Kenyon Review Online, Literary Hub, Longreads, Poets & Writers, and The Rumpus. The recipient of a 2018 NYFA fellowship in fiction, Sejal recently completed a story collection and is at work on a memoir about mental health. She teaches in the Rainier Writing Workshop low-residency MFA program at Pacific Lutheran University and lives in Rochester, New York.

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