Priyadarshini was born in Assam, India, and has lived in different parts of India, including Rajasthan and Bangalore, throughout her life. She earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in English Literature from the University of Delhi before moving to the United States to pursue an MFA in Creative Writing from Miami University of Ohio. Priyadarshini, who also goes by Oshin, is currently a Presidential Fellow at the University of Georgia, where she is working towards a PhD in Creative Writing and English Literature, and is a graduate teaching assistant. Her areas of interest include postcolonial, South Asian, and Northeast Indian coming-of-age writing. She is an award-winning author of children’s books, some of which are Jokhu and the Big Scare, When We Are Home, Have You Ever Climbed a Tree?, and When I Grow Up. She has spent many years working in publishing and worked as a reading specialist and also part of the organizing team of the Neev Literature Festival, India’s leading children’s literature festival. Her fiction and poetry have appeared in The Bombay Review, The Selkie UK, and The Alipore Post. Outside of work, she loves crafting, dressing up, and checking out new places to eat. She lives on the UGA campus.
What is your favorite part of the work you do?
I think my favorite part of the writing process is when I give myself permission to just, like, create without editing it or without already striking down the ideas. Sometimes we have to press a little bit to break through to the other side where we can write however we want so that we can create whatever we want. I also really enjoy being part of the literary industry, and am lucky that I have had a career outside and separate from just being in university here–because I’m already so far away from where I had my whole career, where I could track my progress. Because being in university can sometimes feel like you’re just racing from assignment to assignment, right? And making sense of why I’m in school I think is easier for me when I know that I’m a full writer outside of academia, which also is really interesting and cool and intimidating.
What do you like to do in and around Athens?
I’m so glad it’s warm now or has started being warm now and I can think about being outside! I recently discovered the farmers market at Creature Comforts, and I’m also looking into volunteering there (anywhere fun really!). The bread there is so good! I like to spend time downtown because it’s closer to my department and my building, and I like to go to Bubble Cafe and Walker’s to just sit outside, or write under the umbrellas and feel romantic about myself. I like to go to the Botanical Garden, I can walk there from my house, so that’s good. The Georgia Museum of Art. I go to Ciné a lot, and I’m looking into Good Dirt classes.
If you could travel anywhere in the world, where would you go and why?
I think the answer for me has changed now since I moved here. And I wish I had travelled to as many countries in Asia as I could have when I lived there, because there’s all these Southeast Asian nations that I want to go to like Vietnam and Thailand. I’ve been to Indonesia and Malaysia, but Vietnam and Thailand would be fun because I imagined when I was younger that I could do travel-based volunteering opportunities there. Like you’re doing a little bit of teaching, that sort of like work-away situation, where you could really stay for a while, not just coming through for a visit. Somewhere with a quiet vibe that’s a little more rustic, where I could get my mental equilibrium perfect.
If you could see any band or musician or show anywhere, what would you want to see and where?
There are actually two bands coming to Atlanta, but because I don’t have a car and I don’t know any other people who are interested in these bands, I don’t know how to make it there, but I would love to see Peach Pit and also Sammy Rae and The Friends. So, in a dream world they would play somewhere here in Athens. Maybe the Georgia Theatre. I’m excited to see Flipturn there in a few weeks!
Do you have a favorite book?
I recently really loved reading my professor Aruni Kashyap’s, The Way You Want to Be Loved. It’s a book of short stories, and it’s all set where I’m from, in Assam or New Delhi, and they’re so beautifully written that I read one story, close it, weep for a bit, and then I can only move on to the next story on a different day. So that, yeah, I would say that’s my favorite book right now.
What advice would you give to your younger self?
There is advice that I keep giving myself right now as well that I also feel like I would give my younger self, which is: “make meaning out of this.” Which is, I think, when you’re feeling kind of directionless or feeling like I don’t know what’s going on; where there’s loneliness, sadness, homesickness, distance, you know, and longing like that, I think it’s important to reorient and think about what this means or what you can make out of the situation you’re in. I think it’s a writerly thing as well, to create a narrative or a story that works for you and then live like that. I think that helps. So, I guess I would say “make meaning out of this.”
Do you have a favorite movie?
I’ve been watching a lot of Bollywood movies. But I was so shocked I didn’t know anything about Wicked until it came out. I knew nothing. I did not expect to enjoy it the way I did. Then I watched it three more times in theatres because it is just so fun!
If you could put a message on a billboard, what would it be?
Something my mom and dad used to keep saying, which is “This Too Shall Pass.”
If you could have lunch with anyone, dead or alive, who would it be and where?
I’d like to fly my grandma here and I could make her eat Southern food and see what she thinks. Maybe we’d go to Mama’s Boy, somewhere with really, really Southern food. My favorite American “dish” which is now my favorite thing is literally biscuits and gravy. When I first ate it, I was like, this is crazy!
What three words or phrases come to mind when you think of the word home?
Food, noise and laughter.
