Namrata Poddar

Profile Photo

Namrata Poddar writes fiction and nonfiction, teaches literature and creative writing at UCLA, and serves as the Interviews Editor for Kweli where she curates a series on Race, Power and Storytelling. Her work has appeared in Longreads, Literary Hub, Poets & Writers, The Kenyon Review, The Best Asian Short Stories, Electric Literature, VIDA Review, and elsewhere. Her debut novel, BORDER LESS, was a finalist for Feminist Press's Louise Meriwether Prize, and is releasing from 7.13 Books in March 2022. Find her on Twitter, @poddar_namrata, and on Instagram, @writerpoddar.

Stories

Cover Photo: Author Amitav Ghosh smiles at the camera, holding an umbrella which is opened behind his head. Collaged on the right-hand side of the image, book covers for all three editions of his new book, The Nutmeg's Curse, appear. In order from left to right, they are the US version, UK version, and India version. The US and India versions depict a volcano erupting, while the UK edition is more abstract, depicting different colored and textured lines and shapes suggesting waves on a beach or a cross section of different types of rock over time.
“The literary challenge of this moment is restoring voice and agency to non-humans”: A Conversation with Amitav Ghosh

“Both non-humans and human Others were represented as being fit to be ‘subdued’ (a word that recurs often in colonial texts).”

Nov 17, 2021
Cover Photo: Aruni's poetry collection, There Is No Good Time for Bad News, which features a photograph of a foreboding cloud of smoke obscuring a road and trees, is pictured next to the author's headshot. Aruni is pictured wearing a suit jacket and shirt patterned with feathers, and is smiling beatifically in front of a brick wall.
“Mainstream US literary culture is hostile to different ways of writing”: A Conversation with Aruni Kashyap

“I am inspired by other bilingual writers, other writers from smaller—I mean in size, not richness and depth—literary spaces.”

Oct 04, 2021