BOMAN DESAI

Interviews, Readings, and Awards


January 28, 2012: "Just Another Cuckoo!!" short story, seed for the novel of the same name, is a finalist in the New Millennium Writing competition.

November 17, 2010: Reading from TRIO 2 at Downers Grove Public Library sponsored by the American Association of University Women.

Novemer 15, 2010: "The Bright White Sky," a poem about Vietnam, is a finalist in the Winning Writers contest for War Poems, poem available at http:/​/​www.winningwriters.com/​contests/​war/​2010/​wa10_desai.php

April 6, 2010: Unpublished novel, BLACK ELEPHANT (which does for elephants what MOBY DICK does for whales), wins Runner-Up for Dana Awards 2009.

March 2, 2009: Reading from TRIO 2 at Cymroza Art Gallery in Mumbai, India.

June 21, 2008: Reading from A WOMAN MADLY IN LOVE sponsored by Northwestern University's School of Continuing Studies.

April 23, 2008: Reading from TRIO 2 at Roosevelt University, Chicago

"The Other Side of the Picture" (Interview with Arnavaz S. Mama), Mumbai, PARSIANA, May 21, 2007

"Writer, Dreamer, Wanderer" (Interview with C. Sujit Chandra Kumar), Mumbai, HINDUSTAN TIMES, April 1, 2007

March 28, 2007: Reading from SERVANT, MASTER, MISTRESS at Oxford Bookstore/​Mumbai

March 21, 2007: Readings from A WOMAN MADLY IN LOVE and SERVANT, MASTER, MISTRESS, The Attic/​New Delhi

March 16, 2007: Readings from SERVANT, MASTER, MISTRESS and SOONAMAI DESAI OF NAVSARI (biographical and autobiographical about my grandmother), Cama Institute, Mumbai, to show the influence of my grandmother on my work

February 24, 2007: Reading from A WOMAN MADLY IN LOVE during Mumbai’s Kitab [Book] Festival, Oxford Bookstore

April 22, 2006, 6:00 PM: Interview on Open Forum Radio Program (AM1110), Houston, Texas; available on zingerbay.com

April 21, 2006, 7:30 PM: Reading from TRIO at the Zoroastrian Center, Houston, Texas

April 21, 2006, 4 PM: Reading from THE MEMORY OF ELEPHANTS at the River Oaks Bookstore, Houston, Texas

March 8, 2006, 7 PM: Reading from TRIO at The Book Stall, Chestnut Court, 811 Elm, Winnetka, Illinois

November 3, 2005: Reading from TRIO at Barbara's Bookstore, Oak Park, Illinois

October 1-10, 2005: TRIO offered as a premium on XLNC1 (Chula Vista, CA) for their pledge drive

September 27, 2005: Interview with Cyrus Bharucha regarding TRIO for broadcast on XLNC1 (Chula Vista, CA) during their pledge drive from October 1-10

December 29, 2004: Reading from A WOMAN MADLY IN LOVE, ZAC, San Jose

“How Sweet Was My 17” (interview with Shana Verghis), Delhi, THE PIONEER, March 25, 2004

“Hello! This Is Boman Dialling … err writing!” (interview with Ziya Us Salam), Delhi, THE HINDU, March 25, 2004

“Teenage Tale” (interview with Mohammed Wajihuddin), Mumbai, THE INDIAN EXPRESS, March 23, 2004

March 20, 2004: Reading from A WOMAN MADLY IN LOVE, Crossword, Mumbai

“Because Love Has No Barriers” (interview with Indira Rodericks), Mumbai, AFTERNOON DESPATCH AND COURIER, March 14, 2004

“Boman’s WOMAN” (interview with Shougat Dasgupta), Delhi, TODAY, February 24, 2004

October 4, 2003: Reading from THE MEMORY OF ELEPHANTS, Darbe Mehr, Hinsdale, Illinois

July 6, 2002: Reading from THE MEMORY OF ELEPHANTS, ZAC, Chicago

March 11, 2002: Reading from THE MEMORY OF ELEPHANTS, University of Illinois at Chicago

“I Belong Among Writers” (interview with Anupreeta Das), THE INDIAN EXPRESS, March 4, 2001

February 28, 2001: Reading from ASYLUM, USA, Turtle Cafe, Delhi

February 22, 2001: Reading from ASYLUM, USA, American Center, Mumbai

“Many Jobs, One Vocation” (interview with Kushalrani Gulab), THE TIMES OF INDIA, February 20, 2001

June 1990: Illinois Arts Council Grant for “Under the Moon” (excerpt from THE MEMORY OF ELEPHANTS)

June 1989: Prize in STAND MAGAZINE’s Fourth International Short Story Competition for “A Fine Madness”

EVENTS

The author addressing the American Association of University Women during a reading of TRIO

The author and friends at the launch of A WOMAN MADLY IN LOVE at the Crossword bookstore in Mumbai

The author in Houston during a reading of TRIO

The author performing "Wino for Your Love" at the Stonecoast Follies. Photograph by Adam Birt.

Click here for performance video of WINO FOR YOUR LOVE created by Alison McMahan
Click here for "The Bright White Sky" (poem)

Publications

"Between the Mosque and the Temple" (excerpt from THE MEMORY OF ELEPHANTS), FEZANA JOURNAL, Fall 2007

“A Woman in 19C India” (article), AFTERNOON DESPATCH & COURIER, March 7, 2007

TRIO 2 (nonfiction novel), AuthorHouse, Indiana, October 2006

SERVANT, MASTER, MISTRESS (novel), Delhi, IndiaInk/​Roli Books, December 2005

“Pretty Boys and Fat Girls” (article), THE PIONEER, June 14, 2004

TRIO, BOOK ONE (nonfiction novel), 1stBooks Library, Indiana, June 2004

A WOMAN MADLY IN LOVE (novel), Delhi, Roli Books, March 2004

“The Boy Brahms” (article), University of California/​Davis, 19TH CENTURY MUSIC, Fall 2003

“Bridget Allworthy Speaking” (paper), Delhi, THE ATLANTIC LITERARY REVIEW, April-June 2001

“The Rules of Court” (paper), Delhi, THE ATLANTIC LITERARY REVIEW, April-June 2001

“Jane Austen and the Lord’s Prayer” (paper), Delhi, THE ATLANTIC LITERARY REVIEW, January-March 2001

THE MEMORY OF ELEPHANTS (novel, revised), University of Chicago Press, 2001

“Dear John: (an Exploration of Morality in John Fowles’s novels, THE FRENCH LIEUTENANT’S WOMAN and DANIEL MARTIN)” (paper), Delhi, THE ATLANTIC LITERARY REVIEW, October-December 2000

“This Thicket” (excerpt from ASYLUM, USA), Mumbai, GENTLEMAN, April 2000

ASYLUM, USA (novel), HarperCollins/​India, October 2000

THE MEMORY OF ELEPHANTS (novel, revised), HarperCollins/​India, October 2000

“A Taste of Tokyo” (travel and food article), Mumbai, GENTLEMAN, July 1999

“The Cover of Modern Bride” (short story), Mumbai, GENTLEMAN, May 1999

“A Journey to the Deccan” (travel article), Mumbai, GENTLEMAN, January 2000

“Goa on the Go” (travel article), WEBER STUDIES, Ogden, UT, Winter 1998

“Meeting of the Twain” (article), THE TIMES OF INDIA, December 1998

“Pandora’s Box,” VOX 2; SEVEN STORIES, Mumbai, The GENTLEMAN Collection of New Fiction, 1997

“A Fine Madness,” VOX; NEW INDIAN FICTION, 1996

“This Thicket” (excerpt from ASYLUM, USA), LIVING IN AMERICA, Boulder, CO, Westview Press, 1995

“Uncle Gottschalk’s Legacy,” SHORT STORIES, Mumbai, The Raymond GENTLEMAN Collection (Original Fiction by Indian Authors), 1994

THE MEMORY OF ELEPHANTS (novel), Penguin Books India, 1992

THE MEMORY OF ELEPHANTS (novel), London, Sceptre Books (Hodder & Stoughton), 1990

“Under the Moon” (excerpt from THE MEMORY OF ELEPHANTS), ANOTHER CHICAGO MAGAZINE #19, 1989

“A Fine Madness” (short story), Newcastle upon Tyne, UK, STAND MAGAZINE, Autumn 1989

“Because of a Baby” (short story), Mumbai, DEBONAIR, April 1988

THE MEMORY OF ELEPHANTS (novel), London, Andre Deutsch, 1988

“Beauty and the Beast” (short story), Mumbai, DEBONAIR, June 1987

“Ratilal” (short story), Mumbai, DEBONAIR, January 1987

“Across the Ocean” (article), Mumbai, DEBONAIR, November 1986

“A Mother Who Played Mozart” (memoir), Mumbai, DEBONAIR, June 1986

“The Blond Difference” (short story), Mumbai, DEBONAIR, February 1986

“A Mother Who Played Mozart” (memoir), CHICAGO TRIBUNE, 1982

“Bridget Allworthy Speaking – With Hindsight” (paper), Tucson, AZ, SONORA REVIEW #2, 1981

“A Modern Fairy Tale” (short story), serialized in 12 issues of GAY CHICAGO MAGAZINE, Volume 2, Numbers 17 – 28, April 26-July 12, 1979

Selected Works

Fiction
Trio 2 picks up the story of Trio, bringing it to a close with the deaths of Clara Schumann and Johannes Brahms in 1896 and 1897, respectively – bringing to a close as well the largest work I have ever undertaken or will ever undertake. Germany grows in the hinterland from a conglomeration of 400+ principalities to one nation under Bismarck following the wars with Denmark, Austria, and France. The two books together have occupied me in one form or another from 1988 to 2006.
Sohrab Sanjana, the spoiled son of a wealthy Parsi family, marries Daisy Holiday because she is English. She marries him out of desperation, pregnant and stranded in Bombay, having arrived from London the day before World War II closes the seaways. Her deceit catches up with her in the shape of the Sanjana servant, Alphonse Gracias. Adding to the excitement is a tiger in the compound of the Sanjana bungalow and a family secret from the days of the Great War, perhaps more dangerous than the tiger.
A betrayed woman falls in love with a boy half her age only to find she has betrayed herself further. The novel probes the nature of love in its many forms, between husbands and wives, parents and children, friends and lovers, through the story of a woman who comes to terms with her strengths – and, more importantly, her weaknesses.
An epic portrayal of 19th Century Germany through the lives of its musicians, primarily the Schumanns and Brahms, but also Berlioz, Mendelssohn, Chopin, Liszt, and Wagner among others when their lives intersect those of the trio. A narrative of love, insanity, suicide, revolution, politics, war, and music. A great read for the beach, the summer, the winter, a holiday, a holiday in itself, a book in which one may live for a while.
Facing deportation, a naive Indian immigrant marries a lesbian and lives with her and her girlfriend and two dogs and four cats in a one-bedroom apartment. A romp and meditation with a rainbow of unusual characters (a witch, a stripper, a runaway, a conman, and a kleptomaniac among others) in the Chicago of the 70s.
A science nerd invents a machine capable of reactivating memory traces within his brain to relive the night he lost his virginity to an artist’s model (who subsequently dumped him) – only to have the machine malfunction. It leads him instead into the multi-generational saga of his own family, spanning three continents and a hundred years.

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