Elk River Books is pleased to host New York-based author Meera Nair for a reading from her critically-acclaimed short story collection, Video, on Tuesday, August 6 at 7 p.m.
Most of the stories in Video are set in Nair’s native India: “In ten stories that read like parables, Meera Nair depicts contemporary Indian life with fierce precision and an irresistible blend of humor, wit, and pathos, firmly establishing herself as a striking new voice in Indian fiction.
“An American porn flick wreaks havoc on the life of an Indian man, much to the dismay of his wife. A young man’s uncanny gift for sculpting statues out of sand makes the women of his village swoon–until the men plot to put a stop to it. A small town of ‘utter inconsequence’ prepares excitedly for a visit from President Clinton. This stunning debut collection offers brilliant snapshots of life’s small reversals and a broad-stroke portrait of our times.”
Video received the seventh annual Asian-American Literary Award for fiction and was named one of the Best Books of the Year by The Washington Post and Book magazine. A recipient of fellowships from the New York Foundation for the Arts and MacDowell Colony, Nair’s work has appeared on National Public Radio’s Selected Shorts, as well as in The Threepenny Review, Calyx, The New York Times Magazine and in two anthologies. She has also just published a children’s book called Maya Saves the Day.
Nair is currently the Fiction Writer-in-Residence at Fordham University in New York City. She has taught creative writing at NYU and in the MFA program at Brooklyn College among other places. Her current project, a novel titled Harvest, is a love story set in southern India against the background of the communist takeover in the 1950’s.
Nair’s reading is free, open to the public, and will be followed by a signing. The event takes place at Elk River Books, 115 E. Callender St. in Livingston.
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