Other Writing
Essays
- What, to the American Immigrant, Is Your Fourth of July?, Beacon Broadside, July 2025
- Trump’s Second Term is Worse. So, Why Do I Feel Better?, Salon, February 2025
- I Was Too Quick To Call Out Cultural Appropriation, Electric Lit, October 2023
- Judy Blume Taught Me What My Parents Wouldn’t, Electric Lit, April 2023
- Writing with Conscience is a Moral Imperative, Not a Misstep, Beacon Broadside, December 2023
- America’s Obsession with Personal Freedom is Lethal, Beacon Press Broadside, August 2020
- Ellaji and Lakshmiji, Catapult, March 2020
- Lost and Found: On R.K. Narayan’s The Painter of Signs, Tin House, Issue 79, Spring 2019
- You’re Just Too Good To Be True: My On-Again, Off-Again Love Affair with Engelbert Humperdinck, Longreads, February 14, 2019
- Doozy Miller: The Spoiling of Henry James, Off Assignment, January 31, 2019
- Who Gets To Write About Whom: Examining Authority, Authenticity, and Appropriation in Biography Los Angeles Review of Books (2018)
- Recovering My Fifth Sense Longreads (2018)
- Selective Perception of Disinformation Kenyon Review (2017)
- Red Ink of Revisionist History Los Angeles Review of Books (2017)
- A Virulent Privilege Nat. Brut (2017)
- The Perils of Denialism on the Left Los Angeles Review of Books, 2016 Election Round Up (2016)
- Biography: Where White Lives Matter Los Angeles Review of Books (2016)
- Groove Guernica (2016)
- On Parsing VIDA (2016)
- Writers Shouldn’t Romanticize Rejection The Atlantic (2015)
- After Yi-Fen Chou: A Forum The Margins, (2015)
- Jyoti’s Rainbow Guernica (2015)
- Sacred Spaces Within and Without On Being with Krista Tippett (2015)
- Unpopular Opinion: A Defense of Breast Cancer Awareness Campaigns and Pinkification xoJane (2014)
- (Un)American, (Un)Cool The Margins (2014)
- Blue State Blues The Feminist Wire (2013)
- Tramp The Rumpus (2013)
Articles
- Why I Ignore ‘No Gifts, Please’ Requests on Kids Birthday Party Invites, Today Show, December 2024
- In Judy Blume Forever, Blume’s Refreshing Candor Applies to Herself, Lit Hub, 2023
- Reading Beloved Childhood Books To My Daughter Sometimes Means Editing On The Spot, Romper, 2023
- The Risks, Realities, and Rewards of Writing About Social Issues, Catapult, 2022
- Ask Yourself if You’re The Right Storyteller for This Story, Electric Lit, 2022
- In Life, as in Wordle, Success Often Depends on Where You Start, WIRED, March 2022
- I Fell in Love with Saris During the Pandemic and Came Home to Myself, Romper, November 2021
- COVID-19: What White Conservatives Can Learn from Black Americans, Colorlines, June 2021
- I Hope the Meaning of My Daughter’s Name Will Guide Her Life, As Mine Ultimately Did, Romper, May 2021
- Words Matter: Copyediting as a Process for (or Against) Social Change, Poets & Writers, April 2021
- An Indian Mother’s Search for the Toys She Didn’t Have as a Child, Romper, November 2020
- Tolerance Will Never Be Enough, CNN Opinion, June 11, 2020
- Teens Can Help Fight Antivaxxer Sentiment to Support Coronavirus Pandemic Recovery, Teen Vogue, June 9, 2020
- The Antivaxxer Threat Amidst a Pandemic, Newsday, April 12, 2020
- Ravi Shankar Centenary: The Strains of the Master’s Strings, India Tribune April 5, 2020
- The diversity industry is worth billions. But what do we have to show for it? Fast Company (2019)
- India has Changed a lot in 70 Years. But Arranged Marriage Remains the Norm The Washington Post (2017)
- Anoushka Shankar and the New York Philharmonic Is A Debut 35 Years In The Making NBC News Asian America (2016)
- Kriti Festival Rocks South Asian Arts in Chicago The Aerogram (2014)
- Smithsonian’s ‘Beyond Bollywood’ Opens Putting the Spotlight on Indians in AmericaThe Aerogram (2014)
- Remembering Lakshmi Shankar, the Grammy-Nominated Indian Singer Colorlines (2014)
- Lakshmi Shankar: A Life That Echoes Indian Music’s Journey to the WestSmithsonian Indian American Heritage Project Blog (2013)
- All About Family: Anoushka Shankar’s New Single ‘Traces of You The Aerogram (2013)
- Any Practice of Yoga That Isn’t Spiritual Isn’t Really Yoga Quartz (2013)
- A New Initiative Seeks to Restore Yoga’s South Asian Heritage The Aerogram, Reprinted in Decolonizing Yoga (2014)
- Lakshmi Shankar Shares Her Memories of Uday Shankar, Recalls His Legendary Film, Kalpana The Aerogram (2013)
Interviews
- A Queer Pakistani Teenager Forges Her Own Path in 1980s New York City, Electric Lit, December 2022
- The Trauma of Partition: A Conversation with Anjali Enjeti, Los Angeles Review of Books, May 2021
- ‘We are Always Revising Our Stories – and Ourselves”: A Conversation with Maya Shanbag Lang, Los Angeles Review of Books, June 2020
- Mama’s Writing – Kavita Das Interviewed by Deesha Philyaw, Raising Mothers, Summer 2020
- Uddin Takes the Helm at AAWW, Poets & Writers, April 2020
- Kavita Das Wants You to Think About Why You’re Writing in the First Place, Kavita Das Interviewed by Jessica Zimmerman, Electric Literature, February 2020
- ‘Either Hyper-Visible or Invisible’: An Interview with Jaquira Diaz, Los Angeles Review of Books (2019)
- Struggling with a Puzzling Illness, Then Living with Its Answer: A Conversation with Porochista Khakpour Los Angeles Review of Books (2018)
- This Group Shares Oral Histories to Help Readers ‘Better Understand the World NBC News Asian America (2017)
- Immigration and Infertility: Talking with Shanthi Sekaran The Rumpus (2017)
- Good Girls Marry Doctors’ Curates Stories on Family, Obedience, Rebellion NBC News Asian America (2016)
- Thanu Yakupitiyage Is Amplifying Sounds, Immigrant Voices NBC News Asian America (2016)
- Tanwi Nandini Islam Is Crafting ‘Bright Lines’ and ‘Beautifully Universal Scents NBC News Asian America (2016)
- From Red Carpets to Banana Peels, Rebecca Louie Is Paving Her Own Path NBC News Asian America (2016)
- Envisioning and Enacting Racial Justice: The Force Behind Race Forward NBC News Asian America (2015)
- Force for Good: Angie Wang on Waging Peace and Forging Hope NBC News Asian America (2015)
- Drawing Inspiration: A Conversation with Visual Artist Chitra Ganesh The Aerogram (2015)
- Behind the Scenes with Film Composer Gingger Shankar The Aerogram (2015)
- Turning Today’s Immigrants Into Tomorrow’s Leaders NBC News Asian America (2014)
- Curating the Indian American Experience for the Smithsonian: Q & A on ‘Beyond Bollywood’ with Masum Momaya The Aerogram (2014)
Book & Movie Reviews
- 90% of Americans Still Think Geniuses Tend to be Men, Fast Company, February 2020
- Passing and Being Passed Over in the United States Los Angeles Review of Books (2017)
- Lion Shares Compelling Story of Transnational Adoption The Aerogram (2017)
- Your Heart Is A Muscle The Size of A Fist By Sunil Yapa The Rumpus (2016)
- A Bad Character By Deepti Kapoor The Rumpus (2015)
- The Sleepwalker’s Guide to Dancing By Mira Jacob The Rumpus (2015)
- Bhaji on the Beach at 20: How ‘Bout a Remix? The Aerogram (2014)
- Kavita Das: The Last Book I Loved, The All Of It The Rumpus (2012)
Other Writing
- Mountains In Her Eyes Jaggery (2018)
- An Open Letter to Magazine Editors on the Best Times to Send Rejections McSweeney’s (2016)
- Feeling Truth Take Shape SPECS, Issue 7, March 2016.
- Named Finalist for New Delta Review’s 2015 Ryan R. Gibb’s Flash Fiction Award
- There Are No Free Lunches Apogee Journal (2015)
- Peek-a-Boob: A Sari Condition The Aerogram (2014)