Chaya Bhuvaneswar is a physician and writer. I read Chaya’s short story collection White Dancing Elephants this spring and really enjoyed it, both because of the way it centered South Asian and women’s stories, and for the complex, complicated relationships at the heart of each story. In our conversation, Chaya and I talked about White Dancing Elephants; about Seamus Heaney, punishment, and complicity; and about whose stories get called “dark.” Then for the second segment, we talked about some of Chaya’s favorite poets, and why poetry is important to her.

(Conversation recorded May 25, 2019.)

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Show Notes:

• Chaya Bhuvaneswar
• Chaya Bhuvaneswar - White Dancing Elephants: Dzanc Books | IndieBound
• ALA Annual Conference & Exhibition - Meet the Authors: Chaya Bhuvaneswar
• Seamus Heaney - “Punishment”
• Bog body
• Keep the Channel Open - Episode 87: David Bowles
• Gloria Anzaldúa
• A. K. Ramanujan
• Cherrie Moraga & Gloria Anzaldúa - This Bridge Called My Back
• Danez Smith
• Kahlil Gibran - “On Children”
• Between the Covers - Chaya Bhuvaneswar: White Dancing Elephants
• Ashis Nandy - The Intimate Enemy
• Jallianwala Bagh massacre
• Diana Abu-Jaber
• Jhumpa Lahiri
• Angie Thomas
• Naben Ruthnum - Curry: Eating, Reading, and Race
• Gina Apostol
• Kiese Laymon
• Seamus Heaney - North
• Derek Walcott
• Marianne Moore
• Native American History and Culture: Boarding Schools
• Chaya Bhuvaneswar - “On Eliot”
• Eavan Boland
• Rabindranath Tagore
• Octavio Paz
• Rainer Maria Rilke
• Kaveh Akbar
• Fatimah Asghar
• Adrienne Rich
• Rupi Kaur
• Maggie Smith
• Chelsea Dingman
• Patricia Spears Jones
• Danez Smith - “summer, somewhere”
• Nicole Sealey
• Tiana Clark
• Terrance Hayes
• Terrance Hayes - American Sonnets for My Past and Future Assassin
• Melissa Febos
• Melissa Febos - “Thesmophoria”

Transcript