Happy #AANHPIHeritageMonth to all celebrating. 🤎 And solidarity hugs to caregivers everywhere — because mother is a verb. If you’re looking for a book recommendation for either occasion, here’s one ;), alongside a glimpse into the vast lineage of #motherwriters to which I’m proud to belong.

Happy Miss Congeniality Day to all who celebrate!

May we never forget what a privilege it is to read. 🤎 #worldbookday

Via UCLA’s Honors Program, this is 1 of my favorite courses to teach. We’re reading a badass bunch of writers this summer incldg Robin Wall Kimmerer, Carmen Giménez Smith, Kiese Laymon & Kai Cheng Thom. Help spread the word as we explore the relationship bw storytelling, selfhood & the world beyond.

I would love it if those of you who do not have library cards will apply for one at your local branch during #NationalLibraryWeek. Then let me know about it. 😇

“In order for me to write poetry that isn’t political, I must listen to the birds. And in order to hear the birds, the warplanes must be silent” - Marwan Makhoul

This, I’m learning, is true for much of life as a practice: writing, healing, mothering, meditating, what have you. And for anyone else who needs a reminder. 🤎

✨beginner’s mind interview w/ Namrata Poddar(@namratapoddar.bsky.social)⚡If you’ve been feeling intimidated by a larger project, she shares wisdom you might need + reading recs for helping us to decolonize mental health, and to explore what stillness and mindfulness means in this historic moment. ✨

Birthday greetings to my firstborn book, “Border Less” — no more a toddler this #womenshistorymonth. And selfie from the day I first held the ARC or a journey of 17 years, cuz in a world where Power is bent on silencing as many as possible, it feels radical to witness *a coming into voice. 🧿🪷

Unlike many professions, literary art doesn’t operate within a strictly capitalist framework of effort versus reward. So, how do writers pay their bills while doing what they love? Check out this workshop with @namratapoddar.bsky.social (grab your spot, it starts tonight!): at.pw.org/taboo

Writers about to birth a book but aren’t supported by a big PR budget, join me! Or help spread the word? Writing is firstly a creative practice, but there’s so much more to it as a professional path in the 21st century. Excited to offer👇🏾 at @narrativelyacademy.bsky.social 🤎

Yes it’s Valentine’s Day. But it’s also the chosen birthday of Frederick Douglass who was born in 1818 on a plantation in Talbot County, Maryland. He escaped from slavery & rose to become the most eloquent and forceful voice for the abolition of slavery & for Black voting rights in the U.S.

May we stay in the #heartchakra, more often than not. Happy V Day, Community. 💚 (Image credit @thichnhathanhgems)

I’ll get to the translations later (critique is always a longer story) but for now, I’m in for a cultural performance at a national scale with *zero translation. May all self-expression aspire to this—a refusal to assimilate to the hegemonic gaze. (& icing on the cake if it gets rhythm, Dia says.🏈)

Yesterday, five-year-old Liam and his dad Adrian were released from Dilley detention center. I picked them up last night and escorted them back to Minnesota this morning. Liam is now home. With his hat and his backpack.

a dose of winter quiet for whoever needs it today. 🙏🏽🌀

resist — *without blocking the heart chakra. 🪷

we need allyship in all forms we can get. i’m especially for white male artists calling out the consequences of white male leadership. redistribute the labor that artists of color have carried disproportionately. Bruce Springsteen releases “Streets of Minneapolis” 👇🏾🤍 www.npr.org/2026/01/28/n...

Cuz I hold stubbornly a vision for Spring. Vasanth Panchami greetings to all marking the moment. 🙏🏽🤎

To BIPOC seeking help w mental health (more so in the times!) yet falling short, reminder that the system (/medical industrial complex) wasn’t built at its core to serve the global majority. May you be kind to yourself, may you continue to replenish as you give. & yes, healing IS political (too).🙏🏽🌀

I’m reading it too. & wondering: how many brown kids are breaking reading it? How many are confronting buried selves/stories? Cuz every desi kid I know has been brainwashed early enough: family is everything. Phew. For #ArundhatiRoy fans, this too is a must-read, although Kleenex supplies!

P.S. www.pw.org/content/work...

I’m so excited to be offering this course @pw.org. Writers: let’s talk Taboo! 🤎👇🏾

A question students (oft “minority” ones) ask me often: How do writers pay their bills? It’s like, without knowing this, they won’t give themselves the permission to pursue writing as a consistent *practice. It’s too far-fetched otherwise, writing being the stuff rich kids do. So a course @pw.org 👇🏾🙏🏽

Joyous New Year to you and yours, Community! 🤎 May we show up responsibly over our brief time on this gorgeous, troubled planet. And yesss to a world with men cleaning up after themselves. 🧿

Featuring today as a wrap for the year: books from my Fall syllabus (without standalone essays taught), a cliched L.A. prof selfie, or the one stuck in traffic, and reminders to self, should you need it too. May the holidays bring you rest and a joyous transition into 2026! See you next year. 🤎🌀🙏🏽

I’ve said this for a while now, including in my essays @pw.org and @literaryhub.bsky.social , but the educator in me cannot repeat this enough. As someone who believes big in the potential of storytelling, I cannot repeat this enough. We must rethink the MFA. 🤎

Early career writers, join me @pw.org. Let’s talk *Taboo! 🤎👇🏾

A lil from my Fall syllabus cuz if you ask me, it’s always a good time to read Arundhati Roy, more so on rainy winter evenings like these. This via her collection of essays, “The End of Imagination,” published in 1998. What changed, I often wonder. Yet a reminder of so much we can.

California voters approved Prop. 50. Here's a look at the percentage of "yes" votes by county, with 25.1% precincts reporting as of Nov. 4, 8:18 p.m.

Literally every girlfriend and colleague today. Thanks for sharing, Reshmi Dutt-Ballerstadt, and reiterating for my desi community of STEM majors/advocates. To the real DEI. 🤓🤎

Lord knows we can use a good news in the labyrinths of Power. Go, Zohran Mamdani! ❤️🤎

Who did this? I am dead 😂🤣🤣😂🤣🤣

Happy "PROFESSOR!!! CANVAS IS DOWN!!!" day to all academics who celebrate.

May your path exude light and abundance. Diwali and New Year greetings to all marking the moment. 🙏🏽❤️

Dialogue over domination—may now be a fresher start to a newer road, a fresher relationship to power — within a long winding road where so much seeks attention, accountability, repair… and righlty so. ❤️‍🩹 #permanentceasefirenow

birthday month’s highlight will never not be my lil guy & libra twin meanwhile this tee gift (with role models & the sun goddess aka TriShakti) & musings just becuz. september, we’ll miss you! ♎️🌀

I’m excited to offer this workshop @pw.org in October, & work with writers unbacked by large wallets, on ways to reach their readers. Fee waivers available for writers underrepresented in publishing. & a discounted fee for all, if you enroll by September 7. Join me. 🤎 www.pw.org/content/work...

BREAKING: Federal agents in plain clothes and unmarked cars tried to snatch 1st graders from LA elementary schools—told staff they had “parental consent.” They lied. When pressed, they HID THEIR IDS. DHS admits they sent them. This wasn’t a welfare check. It was a test run for a police state.

What a time, Good Goddess. And yet, the solidarity all around.

Morning walk today. The ancestors said, abundance is our natural state. But I was taught for much of my education to reject everything they said, even if mama Nature confirms otherwise. And while this migrant knows Return is a fantasy, these days, I re-member, I reconsider, I reintegrate. 🪷🌳🤎

The classroom and the page within our deeply violent, deeply unequal world are admittedly privileged spaces, but I would neither continue to write nor teach if I didn’t firmly believe in their potential for Change. Here, a tired, content face after my last seminar, & *few books taught for the AY.

Rarely into social trends but sometimes I can’t entirely resist. And reiterate (via IG). Rested weekend. 💫

What a loss for the literary world, and all of us decolonizing the mind. Rest in power, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o. 🖤🤎

A lil beauty from Rajasthan and the Thar Desert (with issues like any other place!) for whoever needs it. I’ll never not love my ancestral land’s colors, hospitality, and most of all, its stories within stories within stories. From our Cali high desert to the Thar. 💞

"The implications for Indian students are profound. With 788 Indian nationals currently enrolled at Harvard, many now face a precarious situation — risking deportation or being forced to transfer if the government’s actions are upheld." indiawest.com/harvard-vs-t...

Cuz everyday is Earth Day. 🤎

Trump cut nearly $3 billion in the first 100 days. Cancer is the #2 killer of people. Anyway, MAGA. www.axios.com/2025/05/19/n...