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Hey there word nerds!

Today I have the pleasure of interviewing Shanthi Sekaran, author of the new novel Lucky Boy, a book that has been getting a lot of pre-publication buzz and is an Indie Next Great Read pick for January 2017.

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In this episode Shanthi and I discuss:

• The importance of fiction in humanizing different groups of people by bringing them and their experiences to life on the page.
• Using both research and imagination to create a vivid experience for your readers, and in particular how she crafted the dramatic immigration scenes in her book.
• Connection to the point of view of the characters and how to capture their experiences and emotions with authenticity.
• Crafting her book around the theme of motherhood, and how \\u201cmother\\u201d can mean very different things to different people.
• The universality of the \\u201cimmigrant experience\\u201d in America, and how there are many common threads between immigrants from wildly different experiences.
• How there are also stark differences between immigrants with different levels of privilege, and how it\\u2019s important for us to understand these varied experiences.
• Why it\\u2019s important that writers live their lives and be present in the world.

Plus, her #1 tip for writers.

About the Author

Shathi teaches creative writing at California College of the Arts, and is a member of the Portuguese Artists\\u2019 Colony and the San Francisco Writers\\u2019 Grotto. Her work has appeared in Best New American Voices and Canteen, and online at Zyzzyva and Mutha Magazine. A California native, she lives in Berkeley with her husband and two children.

Lucky Boy

Lucky Boy is a moving story about two unforgettable women in California: an undocumented Mexican woman and an Indian-American wife. Both love the same child but can\\u2019t have him. The novel beautifully weaves together the themes of motherhood, immigration, infertility, adoption and minority life in America (and tackles immigrant detention centers) and is a must-read in our current political environment.

For more info and show notes: DIYMFA.com/132