Padma Viswanathan
Encyclopedia
Padma Viswanathan is a Canadian playwright
and fiction writer.
, and received an MA from the Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins University
in 2004 and an MFA from the University of Arizona
in 2006.
Her short stories have appeared in Subtropics
, New Letters, PRISM international
, Boston Review
, and Malahat Review.
She lives in Fayetteville, Arkansas
, with her husband, the poet/translator Geoffrey Brock
, and their two children.
Short-Story Contest in 2007, judged by George Saunders
.
Playwright
A playwright, also called a dramatist, is a person who writes plays.The term is not a variant spelling of "playwrite", but something quite distinct: the word wright is an archaic English term for a craftsman or builder...
and fiction writer.
Life
She graduated from University of AlbertaUniversity of Alberta
The University of Alberta is a public research university located in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Founded in 1908 by Alexander Cameron Rutherford, the first premier of Alberta and Henry Marshall Tory, its first president, it is widely recognized as one of the best universities in Canada...
, and received an MA from the Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins University
Johns Hopkins University
The Johns Hopkins University, commonly referred to as Johns Hopkins, JHU, or simply Hopkins, is a private research university based in Baltimore, Maryland, United States...
in 2004 and an MFA from the University of Arizona
University of Arizona
The University of Arizona is a land-grant and space-grant public institution of higher education and research located in Tucson, Arizona, United States. The University of Arizona was the first university in the state of Arizona, founded in 1885...
in 2006.
Her short stories have appeared in Subtropics
Subtropics
The subtropics are the geographical and climatical zone of the Earth immediately north and south of the tropical zone, which is bounded by the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn, at latitudes 23.5°N and 23.5°S...
, New Letters, PRISM international
PRISM international
PRISM international is a magazine published quarterly in Vancouver, British Columbia. Established in 1959, it is Western Canada's senior literary magazine...
, Boston Review
Boston Review
Boston Review is a bimonthly American political and literary magazine. The magazine covers, specifically, political debates, literature, and poetry...
, and Malahat Review.
She lives in Fayetteville, Arkansas
Fayetteville, Arkansas
Fayetteville is the county seat of Washington County, and the third largest city in Arkansas. The city is centrally located within the county and is home to the University of Arkansas. Fayetteville is also deep in the Boston Mountains, a subset of The Ozarks...
, with her husband, the poet/translator Geoffrey Brock
Geoffrey Brock
Geoffrey Brock is an American poet and translator.-Education:He received a Masters in Fine Arts from the University of Florida in 1998...
, and their two children.
Awards
Her story "Transitory Cities" won the 14th annual Boston ReviewBoston Review
Boston Review is a bimonthly American political and literary magazine. The magazine covers, specifically, political debates, literature, and poetry...
Short-Story Contest in 2007, judged by George Saunders
George Saunders
George Saunders is a New York Times bestselling American writer of short stories, essays, novellas and children's books. His writing has appeared in The New Yorker, Harper's, McSweeney's and GQ, among other publications...
.
Plays
- "House of Sacred Cows," originally produced by Northern Light Theatre in Edmonton and later published in the volume Ethnicities: Plays from the New West (1999)
- "By Air, By Water, By Wood", Frog and Nightgown Productions 2000, published South Asian Review, 2008
Review
In the introduction to her stunning first novel, Padma Viswanathan describes her grandmother’s faltering attempts to recount their family history. “This time, she started farther back,” she writes of one occasion, “with a story I’d never heard: of her own grandmother, married as a child and widowed before she was out of her teens; of that grandmother’s son, childless and embittered; and her daughter, my grandmother’s mother, victimized by her marriage.” After trips to India, enormous amounts of research, and not a little invention, the result is The Toss of a Lemon.