Nonfiction

Recommended Reading for the End of the World, Alta Journal. October 20, 2021
Jai Chakrabarti’s A Play for the End of the World, The Washington Post, September 4, 2021
Brave New World (on Nawaaz Ahmed’s Radiant Fugitives), Alta Journal. July 26, 2021.
Let’s Talk About Sex, Alta Journal. July 8, 2021.
The Wonder Test is a Beguiling Mix of the Speculative and the Familiar, San Francisco Chronicle. July 6, 2021.
Rajiv Mohabir’s Antiman is a Memoir that Refuses Genre, The Washington Post, July 6, 2021.
Secondhand Desire: On Sanjana Sathian’s Gold Diggers, Los Angeles Review of Books, May 28, 2021
New and Forthcoming Books by Writers from the Diaspora, Electric Lit, May 14, 2021
Brenda Peynado’s The Rock Eaters is Dazzling, Weird, and Real, San Francisco Chronicle, May 11, 2021
Containing Multitudes: Rachel Kushner’s The Hard Crowd, Alta, April 19, 2021
How Do We Write a Better Story of Asian America, The Juggernaut, March 11, 2021
Joshua Mohr’s Spiral Fuels Powerful Memoir, San Francisco Chronicle, March 8, 2021
Bomb Under the Table: On Kazuo Ishiguro’s Klara and the Sun, Los Angeles Review of Books, March 5, 2021
Sonia Faleiro’s The Good Girls: an Ordinary Killing, On the Seawall, February 16, 2021
In “The Prophets,” Robert Jones Jr.tells a story that feels descendant of Toni Morrison, San Francisco Chronicle, January 5, 2021
Jess Walter Returns with His Seventh and Best Novel “The Cold Millions,” San Francisco Chronicle, October 6, 2020
The Border Between Magic and Annihilation: On Laura van den Berg’s “I Hold a Wolf by the Ears,” Los Angeles Review of Books, October 6, 2020
Yaa Gyasi’s ‘Transcendent Kingdom’ prods faith, science, addiction, San Francisco Chronicle, September 1, 2020
‘Winter Counts’ tells a Hard-boiled Crime Story on the Reservation, San Francisco Chronicle, August 25, 2020
In ‘The Color of Air’ Community Bonds are Forged, San Francisco Chronicle, July 15, 2020
Strange Cosmic Entertainment: On Charlie Kaufman’s Antkind, Los Angeles Review of Books, July 7, 2020
In ‘A Burning’ A Terrorist Attack Exposes a Broken Political Situation in India, San Francisco Chronicle, June 22, 2020
‘A Song From Faraway’ tests myths surrounding colonist men, San Francisco Chronicle, May 20, 2020
The Story is Her Ancestors in ‘That Hair,’ Los Angeles Review of Books, April 23, 2020
Self-Discovery flourishes through second chances in ‘It’s Not All Downhill From Here,’ San Francisco Chronicle, April 1, 2020
‘Henna Artist’ Paints a Dramatic India, If Not Entirely Historical San Francisco Chronicle, March 11, 2020
Hilarious ‘Interior Chinatown’ skewers Asian American stereotypes, San Francisco Chronicle, January 23, 2020
Review: Old wounds span generations in E.J. Koh’s ‘Magical Language of Others’, San Francisco Chronicle, December 29, 2019
A Year in Reading, The Millions, December 16, 2019
On ‘Pigs,’ a novel by Johanna Stoberock, On the Seawall, October 22, 2019
How I’ve Changed as a Parent in the Wake of My Multiple Sclerosis Diagnosis, Catapult, September 23, 2019
Research Notes: Chimerica, Necessary Fiction, September 6, 2019
Susan Straight’s ‘Country of Women’ describes ‘true America’, San Francisco Chronicle, August 29, 2019
‘Sing a Rhythm’ is a visionary manifesto for the education of black and brown girls, San Francisco Chronicle, August 15, 2019
12 Books That Prove the Literary/Genre Distinction is Bogus, Electric Lit, August 16, 2019
How Rachel Khong Built The Ruby, a Coworking Community for San Francisco Creatives, Catapult, May 16, 2019
On Tears of the Truffle Pig, a novel by Fernando Flores, On the Seawall, May 14, 2019
13 Asian American & Pacific Islander Authors On The First Time They Saw Themselves In A Book, Bustle, May 1, 2019
Review: ‘Naamah’ reimagines Noah, his ark and his unconventional wife, San Francisco Chronicle, April 10, 2019
Sui Generis: Helen Oyeyemi’s “Gingerbread”, LARB, March 5, 2019
On Binstead’s Safari, a novel by Rachel Ingalls, On the Seawall, February 19, 2019
Dark days: A review of ‘The Collected Schizophrenias,’ by Esmé Weijun Wang, San Francisco Chronicle, February 14, 2019
‘The Atlas Of Reds And Blues’ Was Inspired By Author Devi Laskar’s Frightening Experience With Law Enforcement, Bustle, February 6, 2019
Weighed down by our past: ‘Heavy: An American Memoir,’ by Kiese Laymon, San Francisco Chronicle, December 17, 2018
Anita Felicelli and Huda Al-Marashi Discuss Diaspora, Breaking the Rules, and Reality vs. Likability, The Millions, November 27, 2018
Research Notes, Love Songs for a Lost Continent, Necessary Fiction, October 19, 2018
‘Washington Black,’ by Esi Edugyan, San Francisco Chronicle, October 9, 2018
Anxiety-based Insomnia Nearly Tore My Life Apart, Slate, September 24, 2018
‘Heartland,’ by Sarah Smarsh, San Francisco Chronicle, September 15, 2018
‘Sea Prayer,’ by Khaled Hosseini, San Francisco Chronicle, September 10, 2018
Satire and Subversion in Ishmael Reed’s “Conjugating Hindi”, LARB, September 8, 2018
‘The Incendiaries,’ by R.O. Kwon, San Francisco Chronicle, July 25, 2018
Falling in Love with Eve Harrington, The Rumpus, July 12, 2018
‘Elsie Piddock Skips In Her Sleep’ Is A Kids’ Guidebook To Resistance, Romper, July 9, 2018
8 Books About the Eerie, Awesome Connection Between Identical Twins, Electric Lit, June 29, 2018
When The Connection With Your Baby Is Slow In Coming: A Lesson In Twin Love, Romper, June 28, 2018
Elaine Castillo’s “America Is Not the Heart”, San Francisco Chronicle, May 25, 2018
Missed Connections: Review of Hanne Ørstavik’s “Love”, Los Angeles Review of Books, April 10, 2018
Shobha Rao’s “Girls Burn Brighter”, San Francisco Chronicle, March 21, 2018
Mary Beard’s “Women & Power: A Manifesto”, San Francisco Chronicle, December 14, 2017
Louise Erdrich’s “Future Home of the Living God”, Los Angeles Review of Books, December 12, 2017
Isabel Allende’s “In the Midst of Winter”, San Francisco Chronicle, November 9, 2017
Ayobami Adeboyo’s “Stay With Me”, San Francisco Chronicle, October 11, 2017
Nancy McLean’s “Democracy in Chains”, Los Angeles Review of Books, September 8, 2017
Durga Chew-Bose’s “Too Much and Not the Mood”, San Francisco Chronicle, August 3, 2017
Interview with Arundhati Roy, San Francisco Chronicle, June 27, 2017
Outside Language and Power: The Mastery of Arundhati Roy’s “The Ministry of Utmost Happiness”, LARB, June 21, 2017 ( mentioned by The Atlantic )
Laleh Khadivi’s “A Good Country”, San Francisco Chronicle, June 1, 2017
Immigrant voices: Fiction by Unnikrishnan, Tharoor, Alomar, San Francisco Chronicle, May 4, 2017
Min Jin Lee’s “Pachinko”, San Francisco Chronicle, March 31, 2017
The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane by Lisa See, San Francisco Chronicle, March 22, 2017
Roxane Gay’s “Difficult Women”, San Francisco Chronicle, January 12, 2017
Tana French’s “The Trespasser”, San Francisco Chronicle, October 14, 2016
The Cauliflower: Deconstruction of a Hindu Mystic’s Spiritual Legacy – Review of The Cauliflower, Los Angeles Review of Books, August 19, 2016
Yaa Gyasi’s “Homegoing”, San Francisco Chronicle, June 3, 2016
Shobha Rao’s “An Unrestored Woman”, San Francisco Chronicle, April 29, 2016
A Sense of a Real Home – Review of The Year of the Runaways and The Association of Small Bombs, Los Angeles Review of Books, March 24, 2016
Nayomi Munaweera’s second novel “What Lies Between Us”, San Francisco Chronicle, Feb 19, 2016
Idra Novey’s fantastic “Ways to Disappear”, San Francisco Chronicle, February 12, 2016
Eli Horowitz’s The Pickle Index, San Francisco Chronicle, December 25, 2015
Joshua Mohr’s All This Life, San Francisco Chronicle, July 16, 2015
Vendela Vida’s The Diver’s Clothes Lie Empty, San Francisco Chronicle, May 28, 2015
The Memories of Elephants – Review of The Tusk That Did the Damage, Los Angeles Review of Books, May 23, 2015
Interview with Xiaolu Guo, Los Angeles Review of Books, October 29, 2014
Does Fan Service Ruin Television? PopMatters, June 16, 2014
Of Course She’s Pretty, Salon, May 22, 2014
Boy, Snow, Bird, The Rumpus, March 3, 2014
Traversing Anupam Chander’s The Electronic Silk Road” Verdict, October 9, 2013
The ‘Moment’ in Jhumpa Lahiri’s “The Lowland,” Los Angeles Review of Books, October 9, 2013
Is She Yours? Brain, Child, June 15, 2013
The Sacred and the Profane, The Rumpus, April 25, 2013
You’re Getting Very Sleepy, Babble, March 6, 2013
Stepping Out From Behind The Email, The New York Times, January 31, 2013
The Magic Bullet, The Rumpus, November 2, 2012
Jeet Thayil on Courting Controversy, Challenging Convention in Narcopolis, Publishing Perspectives, June 21, 2012
Interview with Santhosh Daniel About The Light Thief, PAIFF, September 15th, 2011