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How to pronounce Shanthi Sekaran: SHAHN-tee SAY-kahr-in
Shanthi Sekaran teaches creative writing at California College of the Arts, and is a member of the Portuguese Artists Colony and the San Francisco Writers' Grotto. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, Best New American Voices and Canteen, and online at Zyzzyva and Mutha Magazine. Her first novel, The Prayer Room, was published by MacAdam Cage. A California native, she lives in Berkeley with her husband and two children.
This bio was last updated on 01/17/2017. In a perfect world, we would like to keep all of BookBrowse's biographies up to date, but with many thousands of lives to keep track of it's simply impossible to do. So, if the date of this bio is not recent, you may wish to do an internet search for a more current source, such as the author's website or social media presence. If you are the author or publisher and would like us to update this biography, send the complete text and we will replace the old with the new.
What inspired you to write this novel and what is the significance of its title?
In 2011, I heard a story on NPR about a Guatemalan mother who was fighting to
get her child back from the American couple adopting him. I sat riveted for the few
minutes that the story ran, but of course, it left many questions unanswered. Afterward, I couldn't get the story out of my head. I wanted to get inside it and know the thoughts and motivations of everyone involved. I'm a fiction writer, not an investigative journalist, and the best way I know to get inside a story is to write it. The book that resulted takes a very different path from the initial news item, but writing it helped explore some of those early questions. Lucky Boy was perhaps the tenth version of the novel's title. The initial impulse is to see it as an ironic title, but I don't see it that way. I see it as a true statement. Ignacio is a lucky boy. He is wanted and loved.
Lucky Boy focuses on the very different immigrant experiences of two mothers. What made you decide to write about immigration?
I've always written about immigration of one sort or another. Even my mystical, fantastical stories have immigrant figures in them. The first novel I...
Novelist, screenwriter, columnist and short story writer Michael Chabon was born May 24, 1963 in Washington, DC. He grew up in the suburbs of Columbia, Maryland with his parents Robert, a physician, lawyer, ... (more)
If you enjoyed:
Lucky Boy
Try:
Telegraph Avenue
by Michael Chabon
Amanda Eyre Ward was born in New York City in 1972. Her family moved to Rye, New York when she was four. Amanda attended Kent School in Kent, CT, where she wrote for the Kent News.
Amanda majored in English and American ...
(more)
If you enjoyed:
Lucky Boy
Try:
The Same Sky
by Amanda Eyre Ward
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