I’m excited to be reading in Iowa this week—at Prairie Lights tonight and at Grinnell College, with Saadi Simawe, on Thursday. Details of the PL reading tonight are below (the previous post) and the Grinnell reading is in the Rosenfield Center, Room 101, at 8 p.m. on Thursday evening.

Also, I just added a review to my reviews page! See a take on Love Marriage by Charles Sarvan, writing for Confluence magazine.

I am reading at one of my favorite bookstores in the world tomorrow: the estimable Prairie Lights, where I spent many hours as a graduate student. 7:30 p.m. Awesome! In fact, the state of Iowa is awesome. If you have any doubts about this, look at the photo above. That’s a rally in Iowa City, following the state Supreme Court’s decision that gay marriage will become legal here.

Thanks to my pal Laura for the photo.

I am.

Interestingly, the article describes me as an expatriate. That’s not true, although I would be proud if it were—I think immigration takes a special brand of courage. That said, I was born American. And am equally happy with that!

Thanks to the diligent reader who noted that I hadn’t put my reading tomorrow up here! I’m psyched to be reading at one of my favorite childhood haunts–the National Museum of Natural History, at SALTAF, courtesy of NETSAP-DC.

I get to read with Manil Suri and Tahmima Anam again, and I’m also excited to meet Naeem Murr, who wrote A Perfect Man, a book I read earlier this year and enjoyed immensely.

Reception for the South Asian Literary and Theater Arts Festival
Friday, November 14, 2008
6:30pm – 8:30pm
Pasha Lounge
2147 P Street NW

The South Asian Literary and Theater Arts Festival
Saturday, November 15, 2008
10:00am – 5:30pm
National Museum of Natural History – Baird Auditorium
10th St and Constitution Ave, NW

For more info visit

http://www.saltaf.org/saltaf2008/saltaf_home.html or http://www.apa.si.edu/programs_upcoming.html

FREE!

Check out the book tour page for address and date details. (But, to be brief, August 28 at Book Soup in West Hollywood!)

The latest issue of Bethesda Magazine has a story about me and Becca. It isn’t available online, so head to newsstands if you want to read!

Also, I just found the link to the interview I did with three other South Asian authors for Italian Web/TV while I was in Torino. You can watch that here. Don’t be thrown by the Italian if you don’t speak it—it switches to English!

I’m scheduled to read at Book Soup in Los Angeles on August 28! I’m excited for a return to the West Coast.

And it turns out that I will be reading at Prairie Lights after all! One year from publication… to the day! April 8, 2009—a day after I read at Grinnell. I am already looking forward to going to Iowa.

I’ll be visiting several schools over the next year. If you’re interested in having me visit your school, please write to me via the contact form.

After a long silence, I’m trying to return to blogging!

Two recent posts at Sepia Mutiny. The first, a live-blogging of a Law & Order episode that purported to feature a storyline about Sri Lankans. The second, a post about my trip to Torino and my adventures with my fellow South Asian author, Tahmima Anam.

Lots of catching up to do on all blogfronts, but as a temporary stopgap, I offer links to Ultrabrown and The Independent (UK). The former is a post by Manish, that includes YouTube clips of a reading (a joint reading with Preeta Samarasan! at Harvard Bookstore!); the latter is a review.

It was wonderful to be back in Bethesda and D.C. this week! Both readings sold out. Thanks for the hometown support! It was really unbelievable to see so many people there. People who taught me in elementary school came!

If you were at the D.C. reading and were unable to purchase a book and would like your copy signed, please get in touch with me. I’m going to look into getting bookplates, which are somewhat fancy stickers that I sign and give to you to put in a book when you get one.