a pert spring bouquet
Hello, friend. I hope you’re well and warm. Life has been happening at a somewhat breakneck pace for me. I decided that 2023 was going to be a year of less pondering, more doing, and I’ve been trying to deliver on that since.
In February I went back to India, took on a bunch of nonfiction writing assignments in March, went on over to Fairfax and D.C. for speaking gigs, and then spent the last two weeks of April in Oman, where I grew up, and where I hadn’t set foot for the past sixteen years. This is the year that marks a halfway point in my little life—sixteen years in Oman and India, sixteen years in the U.S. (well, nine cherished, but hard to narrativize, months were spent in Canada.)
I went to Oman with one of my close friends and we had a TIME. I touched enormous coral reefs, swam with turtles, saw my family’s old flat, visited my old school, hiked wadis, drove up tall mountains, climbed a two-storey dune in the Empty Quarter aka the largest sand sea in the world, ate dates with a Bedouin mom of three, meaningfully experienced climate change. Not the time to go into it, but I also engaged in lowkey risky gonzo journalism for current-manuscript research, and feel proud of myself for pulling it off. I cried about seventeen times from the sheer emotion of return, of confronting the long past.
You’ll get to read all about it, soon enough. For now, some of my film photos came back (thank you to the cuties at Exposure Therapy!) Here’s a little snack:
new writing
I reviewed Tembe Denton-Hurst’s HOMEBODIES for the New York Times. I’ll also have a feature coming out soon on a poet I love for Lux Magazine. In good time, I’ll have an essay in print about my ridiculous, mostly-fun, breakneck intense adventures in Oman. I’ve been having a very good time writing it all out.
events
Madison, WI: come to this WI Book Fest x UW Creative Writing Dept event. 5/4/23 - 7 pm, Madison Public Library.
NYC: Catch me and Rebecca Makkai, Amor Towles, Tess Gunty and Omari Weekes in conversation on “Novel and Place” for the PEN World Voices Festival. 5/10/23, 6:30 pm, The Strand. P.S. You can check out the full festival lineup here. If you’re a student, please use the special discount code STUWVF23 for 50% off tickets. If you’re having a tight time with $$, use discount code ENJOYWVF23.
NYC: I’ll be in conversation with the insanely talented Ada Zhang for the launch of her debut, the masterly short story collection THE SORROWS OF OTHERS. Come hang out with us. 5/17/23, 7 PM, McNally Jackson Seaport.
classes and teaching
I’ll be a Visiting Assistant Professor at Pratt University in the fall of 2023 (!!) and have accepted a spring 2024 visiting professorship at a place I’m really excited about (!!) —will share more when I’ve signed the contracts and whatnot. The good news is, you don’t need to be enrolled at university to take a class or two with me. Here are three I’m teaching in the coming month:
ON MEMORY with The Museum of Modern Art and The Asian American Writers Workshop
A generative series of writing exercises, using prompts, breathwork, and works of art from MoMA’s collection. 2 sessions, online and in-person. Less of a class / seminar, more of me holding space and bossily giving you writing prompts | In-person is sold out, but online has some slots open | Tuesday, May 15. 6 pm EST | Free
MAKING UNFORGETTABLE CHARACTERS with Writing Co-Lab
How do you write the sort of character who feels like a real person, the kind of character the reader feels like they know, are deeply invested in, will miss when the book is done? This is an interactive and generative craft seminar focused on making memorable, three-dimensional, and compelling major characters, in your fiction or nonfiction. 2 sessions | Monday May 22nd and Monday May 29th | 8pm EST/5pm PST | online | $120
WRITING THE PARENT with Writing Co-Lab
An interactive and generative craft class on representing parental figures in fiction. We will discuss fictionalization of the wounded/ wounding parent, immigrant or otherwise marginalized parent, absent parent, the ideal parent, and the overwhelming or larger than life parent. Note: while this class centers fiction writing, the majority of its craft lessons are applicable to nonfiction. 2 sessions | Tuesday May 30th and Monday June 5th | 8pm EST/5pm PST | online | $150
Au revoir,
STM