SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
NON-FICTION
“The best debut novels that subvert the mainstream Western novel,” SHEPHERD, January 2023; https://shepherd.com/best-books/debuts-that-subvert-the-mainstream-westerns
“Becoming a Mother-Writer: Notes on Reconciling the Personal, the Professional, and the Political.” POETS & WRITERS, March/April 2022 print issue, and online; https://www.pw.org/content/becoming_a_motherwriter_notes_on_reconciling_the_personal_the_professional_and_the_political
“A Year in Reading: Namrata Poddar.” THE MILLIONS, DECEMBER 2021; https://themillions.com/2021/12/a-year-in-reading-namrata-poddar.html
“If Fathers Could Breastfeed” (Recycling Gloria Steinem’s semi-satirical essay, “If Men Could Menstruate”). SOUTH ASIAN TODAY, March 2021; https://southasiantoday.com.au/article-9142-if-fathers-could-breastfeed-details.aspx
“New Motherhood, A Dictionary.” RAISING MOTHERS, November 2020; https://www.raisingmothers.com/new-motherhood-a-dictionary-namrata-poddar/
“Return to the MFA: A Call for Systemic Change in the Literary Arts.” POETS & WRITERS (print issue and online), September/October 2020; https://www.pw.org/content/return_to_the_mfa_a_call_for_systemic_change_in_the_literary_arts
“7 Ways to be a Yogic New Mother and 1 More in the time of a Global Pandemic.” LITLLE OLD LADY COMEDY, May 8, 2020; https://littleoldladycomedy.com/2020/05/08/7-ways-to-be-a-yogic-new-mother-and-1-more-in-the-time-of-a-global-pandemic/
“4th annual Boca de Oro gears up to showcase SoCal’s literary and cultural diversity in Santa Ana.” THE LOS ANGELES TIMES—TimesOC (online, and forthcoming in print in the Sunday Times), February 20, 2020; https://www.latimes.com/socal/daily-pilot/entertainment/story/2020-02-20/boca-de-oro-santa-ana
“Curry Up Now brings its ‘disruptive’ Indian food to Irvine.” THE LOS ANGELES TIMES—TimesOC (online and in print in the Sunday Times), February 2, 2020; https://www.latimes.com/socal/daily-pilot/entertainment/story/2020-01-31/curry-up-now-indian-street-food-irvine
“LibroMobile may be O.C.’s smallest bookstore but it’s also a symbol of the county’s diversity .” THE LOS ANGELES TIMES—TimesOC (online and in print in the Sunday Times), January 26, 2020; https://www.latimes.com/socal/daily-pilot/entertainment/story/2020-01-23/santa-anas-libromobile-may-be-o-c-s-smallest-bookstorebut-its-a-symbol-for-the-countys-growing-diversity
“O.C. artist Roxanne Varzi shares her border-crossing work that resists media clichés about Iran.” THE LOS ANGELES TIMES—TimesOC (online and in print in the Sunday Times), January 19, 2020; https://www.latimes.com/socal/daily-pilot/entertainment/story/2020-01-17/o-c-artist-roxanne-varzi-shares-her-border-crossing-work-and-resists-media-cliches-on-iran
"5 Reasons Why a Writer should move to Mumbai." LITERARY HUB, August 2018; https://lithub.com/5-reasons-a-writer-should-move-to-mumbai/
"Of Myopia, White Supremacy, and the Personal Essay." VIDA REVIEW, June 2018; http://www.vidaweb.org/report-from-the-field-of-myopia-white-supremacy-and-the-personal-essay/
"A Storyteller, Unbecoming": On showing, telling, and finding one's way as a literary writer of color. LONGREADS, March 2018; https://longreads.com/2018/03/08/storyteller-unbecoming-writer-of-color/
"5 Reasons Why a Writer should move to Orange County." LITERARY HUB, February 2018; http://lithub.com/5-reasons-why-a-writer-should-move-to-orange-county/
"On Yoga, Diversity Lite, and the Empire of American Wellness." COUNTERPUNCH, November 2017; and republished in THE AEROGRAM, June 2018; http://theaerogram.com/on-yoga-diversity-lite-and-the-empire-of-american-wellness/ and https://www.counterpunch.org/2017/11/03/on-yoga-diversity-lite-and-the-empire-of-american-wellness/
Co-authored with Usha Rungoo. ""Take What You Can." "Give Nothing Back." Words Pirates of the Caribbean stand by." THE PROGRESSIVE, October 2017; http://progressive.org/dispatches/erasure-and-white-supremacy-pirates-of-the-caribbean/
"Climate Change, Global Media, and Neocolonial Storytelling" RESILIENCE, an online publication by the Post Carbon Institute, July 2017; and republished in THE AEROGRAM in August 2017; http://www.resilience.org/stories/2017-07-28/climate-change-global-media-and-neocolonial-storytelling/ and http://theaerogram.com/climate-change-global-media-neocolonial-storytelling/
"Ocean Crossings: South Asian diasporic fiction from beyond the West" THE CARAVAN: A Journal of Politics and Culture, March 2017; http://www.caravanmagazine.in/reviews-essays/south-asian-diasporic-fiction-beyond-west.
"Is "show don't tell" a Universal Truth or a Colonial Relic?" LITERARY HUB, September 2016; http://lithub.com/is-show-dont-tell-a-universal-truth-or-a-colonial-relic/
“"Whiny Assholes" or Creative Hustlers? : On Brownness, Diaspora Fiction, and Western Publication” TRANSITION: The Magazine of Africa and the Diaspora, 119, issue titled "Afro-Asian Worlds," 2016; http://hutchinscenter.fas.harvard.edu/transition-119
“Postcolonial Ecocriticism, Island Tourism, and a Geopoetics of the Beach” INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF FRANCOPHONE STUDIES 16.1 & 2, 2013
“The Islands Within: Alterity, History and the Metroport in Mauritian Fiction” DALHOUSIE FRENCH STUDIES 94, in special issue titled ‘Lost Oceans: Indian and Pacific Ocean Women Writers,’ 2011; republished in CONTEMPORARY LITERARY CRITICISM, Volume 450, Edited by Jennifer Stock, Gale/Cengage Learning 2020, pg. 153-163
“La poétique du bateau dans la fiction mauricienne” ITINÉRAIRES: Littérature, Textes, Cultures, 2, in special issue titled ‘Caraïbes et océan Indien: questions d’histoire,’ L’Harmattan, Paris, 2009
FICTION
“Ordinary Love,” an excerpt from Border Less: A Novel, RAISING MOTHERS, August 2023; https://www.raisingmothers.com/magazine/
“Help Me Help You” THE KENYON REVIEW, Volume XLII: Number 4, July/August 2020
“Victorious” NEW ASIAN WRITING, July 2020; http://www.new-asian-writing.com/victorious-by-namrata-poddar-new-asian-writing-short-story-competition-2019-prize-winning-entry/
“Chutney” THE BEST ASIAN SHORT STORIES 2019 anthology, Kitaab books, Singapore, November 2019
"Blue and Brown," THE AEROGRAM, February 2017 ; https://theaerogram.com/blue-and-brown/
"Excursion" NECESSARY FICTION, September 2016; http://necessaryfiction.com/stories/NamrataPoddarExcursion
“Nature, Nurture,” THE FEMINIST WIRE, November 2016; https://thefeministwire.com/2016/11/arts-culture-natrue-nurture/
“9/12,” LITERARY ORPHANS, February 2016; https://www.literaryorphans.org/playdb/912-namrata-poddar/
“Silk Stole” JAGGERY: A DesiLit Arts & Literature Journal, December 2015;
http://jaggerylit.com/silk-stole/
“Ladies Special,” LOWESTOFT CHRONICLES, Fall 2015; https://lowestoftchronicle.com/issues/issue23/namratapoddar/
“Anchor,” THE MISSING SLATE, Story of the Week, October 2014
“Trade Off,” THE BANGALORE REVIEW, March 2014 ; https://www.tbr-olderissues.com/2014/03/trade-off/
INTERVIEWS
"Race, Power and Storytelling: An Interview with Ingrid Rojas Contreras." KWELI JOURNAL, November 2023; https://www.kwelijournal.org/interviews-1/2022/5/4/an-interview-with-felicia-rose-chavez-fdy5n
"Race, Power and Storytelling: An Interview with Erika Wurth." KWELI JOURNAL, April 2023; https://www.kwelijournal.org/interviews-1/2023/4/10/an-interview-with-erika
“The literary challenge of this moment is restoring voice and agency to non-humans”: A Conversation with Amitav Ghosh.” CATAPULT, November 2021; https://catapult.co/dont-write-alone/stories/interview-with-amitav-ghosh-author-of-the-nutmegs-curse-parables-for-a-planet-in-crisis
“Mainstream US literary culture is hostile to different ways of writing”: A Conversation with Aruni Kashyap.” CATAPULT, October 2021; https://catapult.co/dont-write-alone/stories/interview-with-aruni-kashyap-author-of-there-is-no-good-time-for-bad-news-poetry-collection
“We Build It Ourselves: A Roundtable on Race, Power, and Writing Workshop”, with Felicia Rose Chavez, Viet Thanh Nguyen and Mathew Salesses. POETS & WRITERS, online and print, September/October 2021; https://www.pw.org/content/we_build_it_ourselves_a_roundtable_on_race_power_and_the_writing_workshop
“A Seven Year, 9,000-Mile Journey Along India’s Contested Land Borders,” An Interview with Suchitra Vijayan for Midnight’s Borders, ELECTRIC LITERATURE, August 2021; https://electricliterature.com/a-seven-year-9000-mile-journey-along-indias-contested-borderlands-suchitra-vijayans-midnights-borders/
“Race, Power and Storytelling: An Interview with Sonora Jha." KWELI JOURNAL, May 2021; http://www.kwelijournal.org/interviews-1/2021/5/17/an-interview-with-sonora-jha
“Race, Power and Storytelling: An Interview with Morgan Jerkins." KWELI JOURNAL, November 2020; http://www.kwelijournal.org/interviews-1/2020/11/17/an-interview-with-morgan-jerkins
“Simplicity is Radical and Empowering” : A collaborative conversation between Gayatri Sethi, Sejal Shah, and Namrata Poddar, THE WOMAN INC., October 2020; https://thewomaninc.com/2020/10/10/simplicity-is-radical-and-empowering/
“The Kenyon Review Conversations: Namrata Poddar,” July 2020; https://kenyonreview.org/conversation/namrata-poddar/
“Race, Power and Storytelling: An Interview with Chitra Bannerjee Divakaruni." KWELI JOURNAL, April 2020; http://www.kwelijournal.org/interviews-1/2020/3/8/an-interview-with-chitra-bannerjee-divakaruni
“Race, Power and Storytelling: An Interview with Porochista Khakpour." KWELI JOURNAL, April 2020; http://www.kwelijournal.org/interviews-1/2020/4/30/an-interview-with-porochista-khakpour
"Race, Power and Storytelling: An Interview with Chaya Bhuvaneswar." KWELI JOURNAL, September 2019; http://www.kwelijournal.org/interviews-1/2019/9/7/an-interview-with-chaya-bhuvaneswar
"Race, Power and Storytelling: An Interview with Anita Felicelli." KWELI JOURNAL, September 2019; http://www.kwelijournal.org/interviews-1/2019/9/7/an-interview-with-anita-felicelli
"Race, Power and Storytelling: An Interview with Angie Cruz." KWELI JOURNAL, September 2019; http://www.kwelijournal.org/interviews-1/2019/9/4/an-interview-with-angie-cruz
"Q & A: Baker Seeks Multiplicity of Voices." POETS & WRITERS, September/October 2018; https://www.pw.org/content/qa_baker_seeks_multiplicity_of_voices
"Race, Power and Storytelling: An Interview with Shenaz Patel." KWELI JOURNAL, June 2018; http://www.kwelijournal.org/interviews-1/2018/6/15/an-interview-with-shenaz-patel
"Race, Power and Storytelling: An Interview with Tiphanie Yanique." KWELI JOURNAL, January 2018; http://www.kwelijournal.org/interviews-1/2018/1/31/an-interview-with-tiphanie-yanique
"Finding Eastern and Western Selves through Eastern and Western Stories: An interview with Gish Jen" ELECTRIC LITERATURE, January 2018; https://electricliterature.com/finding-eastern-and-western-selves-through-eastern-and-western-stories-5b9b60e32cdc
"Race, Power and Storytelling: An Interview with Gish Jen." KWELI JOURNAL, December 2017; http://www.kwelijournal.org/interviews-1/2017/11/30/an-interview-with-gish-jen
"The Other Side of the Island: An Interview with Ananda Devi." LOS ANGELES REVIEW OF BOOKS QUARTERLY JOURNAL. No. 13, March 2017, pgs. 114-119; https://lareviewofbooks.org/edition/quarterly-journal-no-13-fiction-issue/
TRANSLATION
"Story of Ashok and Other Characters of Lesser Importance." My translation of an excerpt from Amal Sewtohul's novel, Histoire d'Ashok et d'autres personnages de moindre importance (Gallimard, Paris, 2001). French to English, HAYDEN'S FERRY REVIEW, themed issue on the marginalized Avant-Garde, Spring /Summer Issue 60, 2017
“Vagão Rosa.” Translation of my short story “Ladies Special” (first published in LOWESTOFT CHRONICLE) by Tiago Silva and Roland Walter. English to Portuguese. SOCIOPOÉTICA 16.1, themed “Convivência”/"Living Together," Universidade Estadual da Paraíba (The Paraíba State University), Brazil, 2016. http://revista.uepb.edu.br/index.php/sociopoetica/article/view/3427
"The Sad Ambassador" My translation of the title story from Ananda Devi’s story collection, L'Ambassador triste (Gallimard, Paris, 2015). French to English, THE MARGINS, August 2015. http://aaww.org/sad-ambassador/
BOOK REVIEWS
Byron Caminero-Santangelo and Garth Myers (Eds). “Environment at the Margins: Literary and Environmental Studies in Africa” RESEARCH IN AFRICAN LITERATURES 44.1, 2013
Neil Bissoondath. “La Clameur des Ténèbres” Novel. CULTURES SUD 168, trilingual issue titled ‘Caraïbes: un monde à partager,’ 2008