Namrata Poddar writes fiction, nonfiction, and teaches transnational American literature at UCLA. Her creative work as well as postcolonial scholarship on islands have been published worldwide and she serves as Interviews Editor for Kweli journal where she’ll be soon curating a series titled “Race, Power, and Storytelling.” Her collection of connected short stories is a finalist for the Louise Meriwether First Book Prize in collaboration with Feminist Press. She holds a Ph.D. in French Studies from the University of Pennsylvania, UCLA Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowship in Transnational Cultures and an MFA in fiction from Bennington Writing Seminars. More at www.namratapoddar.com