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Pallavi Sharma Dixit holds a BA and an MA (history) from the University of Pennsylvania and an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. She has been the recipient of grants and fellowships from the Jerome Foundation, the Minnesota State Arts Board, and others. Her debut novel, Edison (Third State Books, June 4, 2024), won the Asian American Writers' Workshop's Pages in Progress Prize, and is an entertaining masala film in the guise of literary fiction. She has taught creative writing at the Loft Literary Center in Minneapolis, where she lives with her husband, two children, and their dog.
Handsell readers your book in 25 words or less:
Brimming with song, dance, action, comedy, villains, star-crossed love, and cameos by stars, Edison is a Bollywood-inspired ode to the Indian community in New Jersey.
On your nightstand now:
I'm almost done with The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store by James McBride, which I'm absolutely loving. I am in awe of its combination of history, mystery, and humor used in telling the story of these beautiful characters. It's such an entertaining read you almost don't realize the sad truths it lays bare. I loved McBride's Deacon King Kong for similar reasons, and I have his short story collection, Five-Carat Soul, already on my nightstand to read next. Also on my nightstand is Cheiro's Guide to the Hand, the now-classic manual of palmistry. I've always been interested in the subject and may work it into my next book in a more serious way than I have in Edison (in which a character pretends to be able to read palms).
Favorite book when you were a child:
I loved Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell as a child. I'm guessing I would find it problematic now, but at the time I was so taken by the idea of this young woman being alone on an island for 18 years. Maybe it was because I'm a big fan of taking time for myself to recenter and replenish and that story seemed to me, at the time, to be about some serious "me time."
Your top five authors:
I don't have a favorite author, simply because I jump around a lot with what I read, rather than diving deep into an author's entire oeuvre. I'd love to be able to do both, but I would have to become a much faster reader. But I do have favorite books. I am just enchanted by Gabriel García Márquez's Love in the Time of Cholera, more so with every read. The language, the mood, the obsession, the meditation on the passage of time--it just ravages me every time. I love White Teeth by Zadie Smith, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon, and The Russian Debutante's Handbook by Gary Shteyngart, all of which are riotously funny and tell stories of specific communities. The poetry collection Dog Songs by Mary Oliver is a new favorite, because of the way it so perfectly and economically captures the joy and heartbreak of having a dog in one's life.
Book you've faked reading:
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami. It's just so long! I've loved every Murakami book I've read, and I know I'll love this one too, but I'm intimidated by its length. I'm sure I've been in conversations in which I've pretended to have read it, simply because I'm embarrassed that I haven't!
Book you're an evangelist for:
I know The Netanyahus by Joshua Cohen doesn't need a boost from me, having won the 2022 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, but I don't personally know anyone who has read it. I always recommend it as a smart, funny, and unexpected book about a little-known corner of history. I even contributed it as a white elephant gift for my book club's annual holiday exchange. No one tried to steal it away.
Book you've bought for the cover:
The cover of Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart, with the little boy lying next to his mother, his hand cradling her head as they look into each other's eyes, just destroyed me. I knew the story involved this little boy's devotion to his troubled yet loving mother and it made me think of my own babies and how heartbreaking it would be for them to take care of me and carry this burden. I bought the book for its cover and loved it for everything that was inside.
Book you hid from your parents:
I think I hid Tiger Eyes by Judy Blume, because the title and cover made me think it would be racy.
Book that changed your life:
Jhumpa Lahiri's first book, the story collection Interpreter of Maladies. Before that, I didn't know Indian American girls were allowed to choose writing as a profession. It's such a beautiful book and, when I first read it in 1999, I had no idea how masterful it was. She made it look so easy.
Favorite line from a book:
In The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon there's this phrase used to describe how the main character, Sammy, looks in the morning: "…the hairless cheek of innocence itself…" Though the sentence goes on to describe the shadow that grows on his face throughout the day, the phrase just stuck in my mind as a sweet way to describe a much younger boy and I think of it so often when I look at my son.
Five books you'll never part with:
My biggest indulgence is buying books. I can't read a book unless I own it. So, there aren't just five books I can't part with; I can't part with any of them! It's a problem. But I suppose I'm doing a great job of supporting writers and local bookstores?
Book you most want to read again for the first time:
My Brilliant Friend (and the others in the Neapolitan Quartet) by Elena Ferrante. What a ravishing reading experience that was. I couldn't wait for my kids to go to bed so I could tear through those books. There's so much going on in them related to issues of class struggle, patriarchy, violence, and oppression, all set in a vividly painted, impoverished, post-World War II neighborhood. Yet, they are also the story of an intense and complicated female friendship that is impossible to put down.
Three favorite recent books by women of color:
Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi, about the horror and legacy of slavery and its ongoing repercussions, is eye-opening and perfect. A really necessary book. Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin is a fun yet heartbreaking story of friendship and love in the context of the gaming world, which I learned a lot from. And most recently, I enjoyed Independence by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, which offers a new vantage point on the Partition of India, told through the story of three sisters.