Minal Hajratwala's Blog, page 9

Award Roundup

Since not everyone is keeping track of my Facebook updates (I know! What's up with that?), I thought I should do the right thing, marketing-wise, and write up a post about the accolades that my firstborn has been racking up.  Leaving India has won three awards and was shortlisted for a fourth.

Want to know to make a first-time author happy? Give her awards! Yes!

So (drumroll please) … the awards thus far…

Pen Center USAResearch Nonfiction Winner

This is a regional award of the "west of the...

My take on the so-called Ground Zero Mosque

I had an awesome time creating this little fake animation using a transcript of Rush Limbaugh's rant about the so-called "Ground Zero Mosque," in which he says it would be just like putting a Hindu temple near Pearl Harbor.

References:

Limbaugh transcript: "Mosque Issue Shows Us We Have Our First Anti-American President"

William Dalrymple's New York Times op-ed about the Sufi group at the center of the controversy

"Hallowed Ground": Photos of stuff that's near Ground Zero

Free text-to-animation...

Sweet Boy Kitty Seeks Loving Home

*guest blog by Little Clarence*

My person is moving overseas, so I am looking for a new cuddle partner and feeder in the San Francisco Bay Area, starting in early September 2010.

About me: Grey short-haired mestizo, healthy, approximately 6 years old, formerly wild, cleans up well, cross-eyed, pleasantly plump, a little shy at first, very affectionate once I get to know you.

A typical day in my life: Sleeping (93%), cuddling/purring (11%), eating (8%), chasing things (2.5%).  That is...

Immigration and its fictions

Does the Rio Grande know it is a border?(Photograph courtesy Philip Greenspun)

Mary Ellen Hannibal, a writer for The Readers Review, interviewed me ansd asked an intriguing question.

MEH: I have heard you draw parallels between the language around immigration issues today and those of eras we consider far more recidivist. What would be a healthy immigration policy, in your view?

MH: I'm a poet, not a policy wonk, and as Audre Lorde said, "Poetry is not only dream and vision… It lays the...

Fan Girl Meets Famous Writers

I met so many amazing writers this spring and am finally getting around to blogging about it!

At the AWP convention in Denver, I spotted Sapphire

wrapping up what had been a long book signing session for her, with hundreds of

people in line. The movie "Precious" based on her novel Push had just come

out. She seemed exhausted but was very gracious.


I ran up to Sherman Alexie as we were both waiting for Leslie Marmon Silko to start her reading. I think I made him feel like a rock star and

"One heart / One world / One Pride"

Here's the transcript of a webchat I just did, organized by the U.S. Consulate in Chennai (Madras).  It was 9:30pm here in San Francisco, 10am in India. A live audience of about 25 people gathered at the office of the HIV/AIDS group Sahodaran.

I did a few teensy edits for clarity, but I've left all my typos… much as it pains me!…  for that authentic webchat feeling.

Moderator (Brindha): Welcome to the webchat "Coming out in a Culturally Diverse Society" with Indian-American author, poet...

I won a Lammy!

Here's the acceptance speech that Cecilia Tan kindly read for me at the Lambda Literary Awards ceremony in New York on Thursday night.

Thank you so much to the judges and to Lambda. It's a real honor to be the first winner in this brand new category of bisexual nonfiction. And it's a testament to many many people's courageous efforts to tell their truths, over many years, that both of these words – bisexual, nonfiction – can now be taken seriously, one as a sexual identity and one as a...

Writing from the Chakras

"Whatever just happened, it was perfect."

I love my yoga teacher Skeeter Barker because she's always coming up with this kind of amazing statement. She usually says it just after we've done something extra-difficult or extra-weird, involving the left foot up in the air while the right arm is tucked under the something-something, and I'm sure I've done it terribly wrong…

until Skeeter, with her sweet British accent, says something like, "Now lift up the corners of your thighs, and the outer...

Poem: Into the Dark Future

Dashed off a quick poem, below, for those out protesting today on behalf of workers' and immigrants' rights, especially for everyone doing great organizing and protest work in/about what's going on in Arizona.

For more poetry on the topic, Facebook users can see the amazing virtual mobilization going on at Poets Responding to SB 1070.

Images in this post are by Xicana artist Melanie Cervantes.

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Into the Dark Future

In the twelfth generation
when we are no longer Indian
or Japanese, not Mexican
or...

Science Friday: Political Science

This week's science news really had me worried. You know, it's so hard to sort through all those statistics and stuff. I really appreciate it when politicians cut out the smartypants-talk and tell it to us straight.

Food science is a super important field, since we all, you know, eat. So in Bolivia, the president revealed that consuming hormone-enhanced chicken causes men to become homosexual … and bald! How messed up is that? What ARE they putting in our food, anyway?

Strangely, "Morales's...