Forthcoming, 2025: “I Let Go Her Hand, Deliberately” and “Pervasive” for an anthology titled Sing, Slivered Tongue: An Anthology of South Asian Women’s Poetry of Trauma, to be published by Yoda Press, New Delhi, India.
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For interviews and columns click here.
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ARCHIVE
November 16, 2024: WGN Interview for Berwyn Shops.
November 14, 2024: Speculative Literature Foundation’s Deep Dish Reading, Volumes Bookcafe, Chicago, IL.
November 7, 2024: Reading with Alec Pollak at AfterWords Bookstore.
November 7, 2024: Let’s Demand the Impossible: Alec Nevala-Lee interviews Alec Pollak, editor of Joanna Russ’s classic On Strike Against God. Joined by Mary Anne Mohanraj.
October 11, 2024: Breast Cancer Survivor and Memoir Reading Event, Elmwood Park Public Library.
October 9, 2024: Social Circle: Author Mary Anne Mohanraj for Breast Cancer Awareness Month, Forest Park Public Library.
October 3, 2024: Hosted and Read for the Speculative Literature Foundation’s Deep Dish Reading, Volumes Bookcafe, Chicago, IL.
September 14, 2024: Berwyn Local Authors’ Fair, Berwyn, IL.
August 24, 2024: Garage Galleries, Forest Park, IL.
July 27, 2024: West Cook Wild Ones’ Birds, Bees & Butterflies: A Native Garden Tour, Oak Park, IL.
July 23, 2024: “Nothing Too Frightening,” essay published in The Feminist Press edition of Joanna Russ’s On Strike Against God, edited by Alec Pollak.
May 20, 2024: Spice Blending Demo, Ela Area Public Library, Lake Zurich, IL.
May 18, 2024: What’s Blooming on Harrison, local artisan event, Oak Park, IL.
May 16, 2024: Tornado reading and discussion, River Forest Public Library, River Forest, IL.
May 12, 2024: “Fated” published in The Sunday Morning Transport.
May 2, 2024: Workshop – The Writer’s Life: Structures that Support Your Writing and Publication, Winnetka, IL /REMOTE
February 6, 2024: “The Bloody Eagle” published in George R.R. Martin’s Wild Cards: Sleeper Straddle.
February 2 – 4, 2024: Capricon 44 panels: Applying SF Ideals to the Present; Grants and Other Support for the Arts: A Primer; SLF’s Mini Deep Dish Reading; Babylon 5: Past and Future; and Labor Rights Movements in Fact and Fiction.
November 19, 2023: “Expulsion,” a Jump Space story, published in the Sunday Morning Transport.
October 21, 2024: Launch party for Tornado at South Asian Institute.
October 2024: Opened a booth at Berwyn Sprout Small Business Incubator.
September 21, 2023: Appeared on episode 137 of the Our Opinions Are Correct podcast with Annalee Newitz and Charlie Jane Anders to discuss AI in the classroom.
September 14, 2023: Launch event for Tornado at SLF’s Deep Dish Reading, Volumes Bookstore, Chicago, IL.
September 5, 2023: Short story “Among the Marithei” published in Neil Clarke’s “The Best Science Fiction of the Year” Volume 7, reviewed here.
August 1, 2023: Included in New City’s “Lit 50 in Fiction: Who Really Books in Chicago“.
June 21 – 23, 2023: Teaching at The World As It Could Be program at Berkeley.
May 2, 2023: Teaching The Writer’s Life: Structures that Support Your Writing Workshop at the Off Campus Writing Workshop
August 9, 2023: Teaching a spice mixing class at the Hinsdale Library
April 26, 2023: Presenting at the Indian Trails Library
March 15-18, 2023: Participated in panels at ICFA
March 6-10, 2o23: Taught at The Salam Award Writers Workshop in Lahore, Pakistan. Featured in The News article
February 18 -26, 2023: Taught at the Hawaii University of Manoa
February 11, 2023: Taught the Writing the Taboo Workshop for the Speculative Literature Foundation
January 30, 2023: Locus Magazine spotlighted the SLF’s Portolan Project on their site
January 20 – June 10, 2023: Mary Anne’s work featured in Testimonies on Paper exhibit at South Asian Institute
January 8, 2023: Featured in an episode of the Foodie and the Beast Podcast
December 1, 2022: Taught Writing the Taboo at Story Studio
November 21, 2022: Food Network included Vegan Serendib in their top ten vegan cookbooks of 2022
November 19, 2022: Taught the Writing the Taboo Workshop for the Speculative Literature Foundation
November 15, 2022: Release of Vegan Serendib: Recipes from Sri Lanka
November 10-13, 2022: Toastmaster at Windycon
November 9, 2022: Re-Release of Perennial from Riverdale Avenue Books
October 20, 2022: Hosted a Deep Dish Reading for the Speculative Literature Foundation
October 15, 2022: Read at Dipika Mukherjee’s book launch- Dialect of Distant Harbors
September 22, 2022: Panelist on the Secret Identities: Student Identity and Social Justice Through Comic Books in Higher Education panel
August 24, 2022: WTTW article on Vegan Serendib
August 18, 2022: Hosted and read at the Deep Dish Reading for the Speculative Literature Foundation
August 11, 2022: Article on Vegan Serendib from the Wednesday Journal of Oak Park and River Forest
August, 2022: “Among the Marithei” reprinted in Lightspeed
July 3, 2022 Received the Tamil American Pioneer Award
April 13, 2022: Review of “Hush” on Maria Haskins’s blog
March 20, 2022: Review of “Hush” on Anthony Cardno’s blog
March 19, 2022: Panelist at ICFA: The Portolan Project: Building Open-Source Creative Resources
March 9, 2022: “Hush,” published at Tor.com
February 1, 2022: The Stars Change appears in a Tor article on 5 Books about human colonization of other planets
January 7, 2022: Interviewed by Susan Lee at Jean Cocteau Cinema, followed by an author reading and book signing at Beastly Books
December 5, 2021: Vendor at Good Shepherd holiday market
November 14, 2021: panelist: WisCon/SF3 Town Hall
September 18, 2021: FiyahCon2021 panelist: Keeping the Door Open and Sending the Ladder Down: Effective Mentorship in Fiction Writing
September 11, 2021: Virtual demo with Sugar Beet Food Co-op
August 3, 2021: “Wake,” Whether Change: The Revolution Will Be Weird
July 16, 2021: Cited in “What South Asian Sci-Fi Can Tell Us About Our World” in Khoreo magazine
July 6, 2021: “Moon Maid,” George R.R. Martin’s Wild Cards: Joker Moon
June 22, 2021: Recipient of Illinois Arts Council Agency’s 2021 Artist Fellowship Award
May 29, 2021: A Feast of Serendib chosen to be Boston Public Library’s AAPI Heritage Month book pick of the day
May 5, 2021: Mentioned in Chicago Tribune regarding D200 swearing in
May 4, 2021: Sworn in as D200 School Board Member
April 19, 2021: “Among the Marithei” published in Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine.
April 15, 2021: Started selling scarves on Serendib Kitchen online store.
March 22, 2021: Launched Mohanraj and Rosenbaum Are Humans podcast with Benjamin Rosenbaum.
March 1, 2021: Virtual roti-making class with Pooja Makhijani.
January 29, 2021: Cooking demo
January 27, 2021: Fiberworld Spice Blending Demo.
January 9, 2021: Sold “Wake” to Whether Change anthology.
December 22, 2020: Candidacy announced in Chicago tribune.
December 14, 2020: A Feast of Serendib reviewed in whenlooseendsmeet.com
November 30, 2020:A Feast of Serendib featured in Chicago Mag’s Holiday Gift Guide for Foodies
November 23, 2020: Going live on WORT’s “A Public Affair” talk radio.
November 19, 2020: Guest on The Larry Meiller Show podcast
November 10, 2020: A Feast of Serendib featured in Montreal Gazette
October 29, 2020: Feast of Serendib featured in The Province newspaper
October 29, 2020: Tasveer panel, South Asian Diaspora and Black Lives Matter: Cinematic and Literary Perspective symposium
October 24, 12-1:30pm PT: Plural Worlds, Plural Futures: South Asian Speculative Fiction Virtual Panel
October 21, 2020: A Feast of Serendib featured in The Kingston Whig-Standard
October 21, 2020: A Feast of Serendib featured in Clinton News Record
October 21, 2020: A Feast of Serendib featured in Montreal Gazette
October 20, 2020: Participated in Wild Card Presents: Writing in a Consortium
October 13, 2020:
October 6, 2020: Three Kings featured in Locus Mag
October 2, 2020: A Feast of Serendib featured in Publisher’s Weekly’s “Holiday Gift Guide 2020: Nonfiction”
September 25, 2020: Pre-launch of “Assuming You Survive”
September 22, 2020: Interviewed for “10 minutes with…” podcast series.
September 10, 2020: Guest on The Future Can be Excavated From the Past podcast
September 2, 2020: Sold “Among the Marithei” to Asimov’s.
September 1, 2020: “Silence and the Word” excerpted in Desi Eros
August 21-23, 2020: Program Participant for Virtual NASFiC 2020
August 19-23, 2020: Co-Hosting Fiberworld Live Virtual Classes
August 19, 2020: A Feast of Serendib featured in the Albany Democrat Herald
August 16, 2020 7:40 a.m. : Appearing live on WGN’s Sunday Brunch segment (video)
August 15, 2020, 4 p.m. : Wild Cards reCONvene online panel
August 12, 2020: Article about A Feast of Serendib in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
August 10, 2020: Article about A Feast of Serendib in the Napa Valley Register
Recorded reading of “Plea” for Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum
July 30, 2020: Listed in NewCity’s Chicago Lit50
July 28, 2020: Invited to speak on WorldCon panel about being a “Token Girl”
July 28, 2020: “Many Recipes, Many Stories” project announced by OakPark.com
June 17, 2020: Reading “Jump Space” for the Sanskaari Girls Book Club Virtual Meet-Up
June 14, 2020: Feast of Serendib featured on Eat Your Books
June 11, 2020: Cooking Kale Sambol: Online Cooking Event with Skokie Public Library
May 25, 2020: “Three Fights” published on How We Are
May 16, 2020: “Paper Star” published, The Decameron Project: New Decameron Sixty-Two: Mary Anne Mohanraj
May 14, 2020: WTTW Public Television Interview: Need a Book During Quarantine? Local Bibliophiles Share Recommendations
May 14, 2020: Co-Author Three Kings: Edited by George R. R. Martin (Wild Cards)
April 3, 2020: Featured in FOGcon 10 Report, Locusmag.com
March 31, 2020: Interview, Queering SFF: 12 Authors, Critics, and Activists on What’s Changed in the Last Ten Years, Tor.com
March 31, 2020: Special editorial, A Feast of Serendib: 10 Things You Might Not Know about Sri Lankan Food, Jaggery Magazine, Issue 15: Spring 2020
March 17, 2020: Featured interview, Little America: Incredible True Stories of Immigrants in America, Epic
March 6-8, 2020: Honored Guest, FogCon 2020. Panels: “Food in Genre Fiction,” “Societal Defaults That Carry Into Genre,” “Archives and Genre,” “Genre Nonprofits With Mary Anne Mohanraj,” + Honored Guest Reading
March 6, 2020: Official Launch: A Feast of Serendib: Recipes from Sri Lanka
February 27, 2020: NewCity Lit, Lit Top 5: March 2020 for March 14 Deep Dish reading + A Feast of Serendib release party
February 13, 2020: “The Delicious Significance of Food in Science Fiction,” Guest interview, Our Opinions are Correct podcast
January 31, 2o2o: OPRF Chamber of Commerce Bite Nite
November 15, 2019: Feature, “An Accidental Library Trustee,” Booklist Writers & Readers Column
November 3, 2019: Received Publisher’s Weekly starred review for A Feast of Serendib: Recipes from Sri Lanka
October 22, 2019: Chicago Authors Book Feast, book signing and sales event.
October 3, 2019: Hosted the SLF’s Deep Dish reading
August 8, 2019: Hosted the SLF’s Deep Dish reading
July 25, 2019: Guest on Fiction/Non/Fiction, “On the Anniversary of Apollo 11 and Space Exploration”
May 9 2019: Hosted the SLF’s Deep Dish reading
May 5, 2019: Hosted Maram Day of Cooking and Art
April 25, 2019: “How can Sri Lanka Recover?” Knowledge@Wharton
April 13, 2019: World-Building class for the One Book, One Chicago series, Chicago Public Library and Story Studio
April 13, 2019: Publishing Academy Panel @ Open Books
April 11, 2019: “Writing through a Fractured Lens: Writing About the Homeland from the Diaspora,” Sri Lanka Symposium, College of du Page
April 11, 2019: Off Campus Writer’s Workship presentation: “Writing the Taboo”
April 8, 2019: Published Jaggery — Issue 13: Spring 2019
April 3, 2019: Interview: “Lunch at a Sri Lankan Table,” Oak Park Eats
March 23, 2019: “From Sulu to Rose Tico: Celebrating and Fighting For Asian-Americans in Geek Culture,” C2E2, Chicago
March 15, 2019: Panels: “The Editor/Writer Relationship” and “The Changing Canon of SF,” International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts
March 13, 2019: Big Idea Pitch Presentation
March 7, 2019: Hosted the SLF’s Deep Dish reading
March 5, 2019: Presentation: “Beyond Farmington,” Miss Porter’s School
March 5, 2019: “Five Finalists for Big Idea Grant,” Wednesday Journal
Spring 2019: Hosted Maram Creativity & Productive Retreats (weekly on Tuesdays)
February 23-24, 2019: Hosted Maram Weekend of Making
February 19, 2019: “A Makerspace for Oak Park,” Wednesday Journal
February 15-17, 2019: Panels at “Asia-Influenced Fantasy,” “Crafting Sex Scenes,” “If Only It Were Real,” “The Hospital of the Future,” and a reading at Boskone, an annual science fiction convention
February 5, 2019: “Designing the Future” at Chicago Speculative Futures
February 4 – March 11: Story Studio: Writing Speculative Fiction (weekly on Mondays)
January 26, 2019: Hosted Maram Day of Making
January 10, 2019, “Makerspace,” Skiffy & Fanty Show
January 6-7, 2019: Panel, “Putting Sri Lankans in Space,” South Asian Literary Association
November 28 – December 3, 2018: Plurality University, Paris
November 1-4, 2018: World Fantasy, Baltimore, MD
November 1, 2018: “Write, Critique, Revise, Repeat: On Le Guin and Asking the Hard Questions of Ourselves,” Tor.com
October 27, 2018: Maram / Serendib Hopper-Making Class
October 11, 2018: Host SLF’s Deep Dish
October 9, 2018, Chicago Public Library Carl Sandburg Award
September 4, 2018: Feature in the Wednesday Journal.
August 16-20, 2018: WorldCon, San Jose, CA. Events Saturday 8/18: Wild Cards signing, Wild Cards panel, and “The Body and The Shadow of the Imagination” panel.
Aug 3-5, 2018: Guest at 2018 OutWrite LGBTQ Literary Festival in Washington, DC. Panelist for “Mining Trauma for Writing,” “Writing Sex,” and “Femmes, Floozies, and Elder Things”
July 2018, “A Beautiful Façade,” in George R.R. Martin’s Wild Cards volume, Low Chicago
June 7, 2018: “The Night Air,” reprinted in Superlative Speculative Erotica (the best of 25 years of Circlet Press)
May 24-28, 2018: WisCon, Madison, WI
May 3-6, 2018: Guest of Honor at PenguiCon in Detroit, MI
April 2018, “Webs,” Lightspeed
April 10, 2018, Perennial: A Garden Romance, Lethe Press
April 7, 2018: “Yellowface, Whitewashing, and Set Dressing: Asian Americans in Geek Culture”, C2E2, Chicago
April 3, 2018: “Breathing Space,” edited by Roxane Gay as part of her online anthology, Unruly Bodies
March 2018: MSI post-movie panel, Ready Player One screening at Arclight
March 16, 2018, ICFA Panel: “Power, Politics, and Speculative Fiction: How to use speculative writing to address real-world injustices and inequities,” Orlando, FL
March 9-11, 2018: FogCon, Walnut Creek, CA. “Short Stories that Stand Out from the Slush Pile,” “Writing Sexual Assault,” “The New Gender Frontier,” erotica reading
February 2018, Survivor: an anthology of SF/F stories about trauma
December 2017, “Farewell,” Welcome to Dystopia
December 2017: Started Serendib Kitchen blog and FB page.
December 7, 2017: Hosting Deep Dish SLF reading at Volumes BookCafe
November 11, 2017, 6 – 8:30: “Minority Monologues,” L!ve Cafe, Oak Park
November 10, 2017, 8 p.m.: “Who Are The People in Your Neighborhood?“, Open Door Theater, 902 S Ridgeland Ave
November 6, 2017: “Working Out a Living Wage,” Library Journal Hotline Trustees’ Corner
November 10, 2017: “Speculative Literature Foundation Director Opens Gateways for Diversity in SF/F”
November 6, 2017: XPrize Future of Housing lab, Boston
November 3, 2017: World Fantasy Convention, panels: “Gender Fluidity in Fantasy,” “History — Secret, Hidden or Otherwise,” San Antonio
November 1, 2017: Wednesday Journal article on breast cancer exhibit
October 25, 2017, 6 – 8:30: Maram Arts Puerto Rico Benefit Event — we raised $2000 for disaster relief!
October 13, 2017, 7-9 p.m.: “Solidarity and Survivorship” at Oak Park Arts League, opening exhibit, featuring my Perennial casting (plaster, flora, poetry)
October 7, 2017: Hosted Deep Dish SLF reading at Volumes Cafe
October 2, 2017: Censored! We Read Banned Books: an ACLU benefit reading, Third Coast Review and Kill Your Darlings Live Lit
September 21, 2017: “Hammer in the Dark,” “Women of Color in Speculative Fiction Roundtable,” Mithila Review
September 16, 2017: Ran and presented at SLF Creativity Workshop & Publishing Boot Camp, Pleasant Home, Oak Park
August 2017: Jaggery #10, Summer 2017
August 28, 2017: “Navigating Deep Waters,” Library Journal Hotline Trustees’ Corner,
July 2017: Joined Museum of Science and Industry’s Department of Next Strategic Task Force
July 2017, “Tomorrow and Tomorrow,” XPrize anthology
June 2017: Invisible 3, co-edited with Jim Hines
June 30 – July 2, 2017: Hosted first SLF Writing Workshop, Oak Park
June 2017: Joined XPrize Advisory Council
June 5, 2017, “Think Globally, Run Locally,” Library Journal Hotline Trustees’ Corner
June 3, 2017: Banyan reading, Oak Park library
May 2017: WisCon, Madison. Panels: “Embracing Socialism,” “American Politics and Organizing,” Aqueduct reading
May 2, 2017: Tuesday Funk, Chicago, 7 p.m.
April 27 – 30: Paradise Lost Writer’s Workshop and Retreat, San Antonio
Friday April 21-23: Panels for C2E2: “More Than Just Sidekicks: Expanding Visibility for Asian American Creators and Characters in Comics,””Racebending.com Presents Diverse Means for Diverse Works,””Reblog, Retweet, Resist! Hashtag Movement and Fan Activism presented by Racebending.com,” Chicago
Spring / Summer 2017: Chapters for Ellen Kushner’s Tremontaine at Serial Box
April 11, 2017: “After Pulse,” Riksha Magazine
April 4, 2017: Library Board election (I won!) — Chicago Tribune piece on election
March 23 – 26, 2017: ICFA reading, Orlando
March 21, 2017: “What Price Diversity?,” Wednesday Journal
March 14, 2017: Candidate Wednesday Journal Responses
February 1, 2017: “From Oak Park to D.C.,” Wednesday Journal
January 2017: Jaggery #9, Winter 2017
“Nimoy and Spock, Reflections and Farewells,” reprinted in Speculative Fiction 2015: The Year’s Best Online Reviews, Essays, and Commentary
January – December 2017: Regular guest on Writing Excuses podcast
December 2016: “Carrie Fisher and Leia: A Legacy of Strength,” Legacy.com
November 2016: Decided to run for office in Oak Park — library board trustee
October 29, 2016: BinderCon, speed-coaching, New York
September 2016: “This is Our Work,” a Star Trek tribute essay, Uncanny Magazine
October 2016: “Plea,” Lightspeed (won a Sippy Award in January 2017)
June 2016: “Firestarter,” Myriad Lands, Guardbridge Books
July 2016: “Webs,” Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine
March 2016: Panelist, “The Anthology in the Classroom,” International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts
March 18, 2016: Smart Bitches review of The Stars Change
January 26, 2016: Lake Forest College reading: there’s a student open mic beforehand — my portion starts at about 35 minutes in.
January 4, 2016: WisCon Chronicles 9: Intersections and Alliances, which I edited, made the longlist for the BSFA (British Science Fiction Awards) in the nonfiction category
December 2015: “Eggplant and Unicorns,” Queers Destroy Fantasy!
November 2015: Reading with Nancy Hightower and Sandy Marchetti, The Bourgeois Pig, Chicago
September 2015: “Communion” selected for John Joseph Adams’ Notable stories list, a compilation of 80 stories recommended for Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy.
May 12-15, 2015: Nebula Awards weekend panels, “Diversity in Short Fiction,” “Editing Diversity,” “Colonialism, Cultural Appropriation and Fairy Tales”
May 2015: WisCon Chronicles 9: Intersections and Alliances, editor, Aqueduct Press.
April 25, 2015: “Yellow Fever, Yellow Peril and the Yellow Ranger: Asian Americans in Geek Culture & History,” C2E2, Chicago.
April 7, 7:30 p.m., Reading at Tuesday Funk, Hopleaf, Chicago
April 2015: “The Devouring Night,” Truancy 1
April 2015: “Learning the Hour,” poem in United Nations SRC Society of Writers anthology in honour of the International Day of Happiness 2015
March 26, 2015, “Don’t You Want to Be Normal,” essay, DAME Magazine and Salon
March 27 – 29, 2015: Guest at AnomalyCon, Denver
March 18 – 22, 2015: Guest at ICFA, Orlando
March 6-8, 2015: Guest at FogCon, Bay Area
March 3, 2015: “Breaking the Barrier: South Asia Speaks,” Samsara post-play panel discussion, Silk Road Theatre, Chicago.
March 2, 2015: “Nimoy and Spock: Reflections and Farewells,” Strange Horizons
March 2015: “Jump Space,” How to Live on Other Planets, Upper Rubber Boot Books
December 18, 2014: “Communion,” selected for Gardner Dozois’s Year’s Best Science Fiction 32
November 13, 2014, 7 p.m.: Writers Read! at the Oak Park Public Library
November 11, 2014: “Refuge,” Chicks Dig Gaming, Mad Norwegian Press
November 6-9, 2014: Guest at World Fantasy Convention, D.C.
November 4, 2014: “Ties that Bind,” Lowball, Tor.
November 2014: “At the Gates of the City,” Unconventional Fantasy, A Celebration of Forty Years of the World Fantasy Convention
October 14, 2014, 7 p.m.: Panel discussion on contemporary trends in fantasy literature, at the Rare Books Room of the Founders Memorial Libraryin DeKalb.
October 6, 2014: “Top Ten Quotes From the Kriti Festival,”Brown Girl Magazine
October 6, 2014: “Kriti Festival Rocks South Asian Arts in Chicago,” The Aerogram
October 6, 2014: The Stars Change named a finalist for the Rainbow Awards, in the category of Best Bisexual Fiction.
October 3-5, 2014: Guest of Honor at Maneki Neko Con, Matteson, IL.
September 25 – 28, 2014: Director, 4th Kriti Festival, Chicago, IL
August 14 – 18, 2014: LonCon, London, U.K.
July 13, 2014: “Turn Your Backyard Into a Magical Fairyland,” xoJane
July 10, 2014: a review of “Communion” by A.C. Wise in SF Signal on Women to Read
June 21, 2014: “How to Throw a Frozen Party,” xoJane
June 14, 2014: “Communion,” published in Clarkesworld
June 8, 2014: “How to Design and Print Your Own Scarf, Starting from Zero,” xoJane
June 6-8, 2014: BECAUSE conference (Minneapolis)
May 2014: “Why I Stopped Hiding My Grey,” Salon
May 23 – 26, 2014: WisCon conference (Madison). Panels: “Class in the Works of Hiromi Goto,” “Damsels of Color,” “Cultural Appropriation: Non-Western Viewpoints,” “Where Have All the Bisexuals Gone?” & “Maps of Desire” (reading)
May 14, 2014: Lambda reading, Sulzer library; In One Ear featured reader, Heartland Cafe (Chicago)
April 2014: Interview, Words Apart
April 25-27, 2014: C2E2 conference, “Opening the Clubhouse Doors: Creating More Inclusive Geek Communities” (Chicago)
April 2014: Queers Dig Time Lords nominated for a 2014 Hugo Award for Best Related Work
April 2014: The Stars Change named a finalist for the Bisexual Book Awards, in the Speculative Fiction category
April 13, 2014: Panelist, Brahman/i (Silk Road intersexuality play)
March 19-23, 2014: ICFA conference (Orlando), reading
March 22, 2014: Interviewed for Skiffy / Fanty podcast
March 7-9, 2014: FogCon conference (Walnut Creek, CA), “Manic Pixie” panel, “Lascivious Feminist Book Club,” “Do Pessimists Dream of Dystopian Sheep?”, reading
early March, 2014: “Silence and the Word” performed as part of Yoni ki Baat’s “Best Of” 10th anniversary performance (San Francisco, CA)
March 2014: The Stars Change nominated for a Lambda Award (science fiction)
February 7-9, 2014: CapriCon conference, “Aging Your Characters,” “Characters Beyond Recognition,” “A Story and a History” (Chicago)
January 24, 2014: “The Immigrant” in Short & Sweet, Perera Hussein Press, Sri Lanka
January 8-9, 2014: SALA conference (Chicago), reading at Hamara Mushaira
December 23, 2013: Audiobook of Silence and the Word released
December 19, 2013: Interviewed in The Chronicle of Higher Education’s “Vitae” section re: Shannon Gibney’s case and the difficulties we have as teachers working with controversial material.
December 19, 2013: Audiobook of Torn Shapes of Desire released
December 2013: “Hunting for Mangoes” in The Vampire Umpire and Other Stories for Children, Perera Hussein Press, Sri Lanka
December 11, 2013: Audiobook of The Stars Change released
December 6, 2013: Review of The Stars Change at Tor.com
December 1, 2013: Review of The Stars Change at Ideomancer
November 8, 2013: launch party for Jaggery: A Magazine of South Asian and Diaspora Literature, 6-8 p.m., Powell’s at Halsted, Chicago (I’m editor-in-chief and publisher)
November 8, 2013: On NPR’s The Afternoon Shift with Niala Boodhoo, at 2 p.m., talking about Jaggery
November 7, 2013: Writers Read! Local author reading at Oak Park main library
November 2013: The Stars Change (Circlet Press)
October 17, 2013: Reading, Subcontinental Drift, at The Joynt, 8 p.m.
October 14, 2013: Co-host Asian American Studies Mixer, 11:30 a.m. – 1:30 p.m., UIC Library
October 2013: Interview, Words Apart
September 24, 2013: “Kali” released in Best of Best Women’s Erotica in audiobook edition
September 20, 2013: Host Q&A, Chicago South Asian Film Festival, for the Sinhalese Sri Lankan film, Thanha Rathi Ranga.
September 11, 2013: Interview at The Boook Cellar Cafe, Chicago, as part of Ask the Impossible book tour
August 2013: WorldCon, San Antonio: Feminist Rewritings of the Ramayana and the Matter of Britain: Differences in Approach and Execution (paper presentation)
July 2013: Speaker, Chicago, Asian American Journalists’ Association
June 2013: “Seven Ways of Looking at Captain Jack,” essay co-authored with Jed Hartman, Queers Dig Time Lords, Mad Norwegian Press.
June 2013: APALA President’s Program at American Library Association: Pushing the Boundaries: LGBTQ Presentation and Representation of/by Asian/Pacific American Writers (panel moderator)
May 2013: “Birthstones,” Out! Stories from the New Queer India, published by Queer Ink, India.
May 2013: 2MTL 309 podcast: Meet the Editors and Writers of “Queers Dig Time Lords”
May 2013: Named a Wednesday Geek Woman by GeekFeminism.org, for contributions in the overlapping areas of online writing, speculative fiction, and feminism: http://geekfeminism.org/2013/05/22/wednesday-geek-woman-mary-anne-mohanraj-author-editor-and-blogging-pioneer/
May 2013: WisCon, Madison: Queers Dig Time Lords (panel), Queers Dig Time Lords (reading), Changing Face of Fiction: Diversity and Backlash, Fear and Masculinity in SF/F, A Radical Queer Agenda , Passing: Self-Care and Embracing Who You Are
March 2013: ICFA, Florida: Feminist Rewritings of the Ramayana and the Matter of Britain: Differences in Approach and Execution (paper presentation)
March 2013: Strange Horizons (magazine I founded in 2000, and ran from 2000 – 2012) nominated for a Hugo Award.
January 2013: “The Princess in the Forest” reviewed in Cascadia Subduction Zone.
January 2013: English department colloquium, from Arbitrary Passions (memoir-in-progress)
2013: “Monsoon Day,” Across the Spectrum, Book View Cafe
December 2012: Received Illinois Arts Council professional development grant.
December 2012: “As We Wait to Learn Their Names,” “The Monday After,” “Four Days After the Shooting,” (poems), Northeast Review, India.
November 22, 2012: NonfictioNow Conference, “Diaspora: Centering the Margins,” Melbourne
November 11, 2012: “Gender Parity on Panels,” WindyCon, Lombard, IL
November 2012: “The Princess in the Forest,” Breaking the Bow, Zubaan Books
November 2012: Melbourne, NonfictionNow Conference: Diaspora: Centering the Margins (panel chair)
October 8, 2012: UIC Brown Bag Lecture Series, Chicago
October 2012: Asian American Studies brown bag lecture series, from Arbitrary Passions (memoir-in-progress)
September 21, 2012: University of Wisconsin-Fox Valley & INDUS of Fox Valley South Asian literature conference; panelist and reader, Wisconsin
August 2012: WorldCon Chicago: Author Reading, Wild Cards Panel, Presentation: Kickstart Your Way to Self-Publishing, Finding Minorities Panel (moderator), Clarion Call Panel, Making a More Universal WorldCon Panel, LGBTQ in SF&F Panel
April 24, 2012: “Sanctuary,” Fort Freak, Tor.
April 2012: “Geek Girls and the Artist” — C2E2, Chicago
April 11, 2012: Sri Lanka Reporter article on Samadhana Benefit Reading
April 3, 2012: April Funk reading, Chicago
March 22, 2012: Samadhana Benefit Reading Series, Toronto
March 15, 2012: Gumbo Fiction Salon, Chicago
March 6, 2012: Homolatte, Chicago
February 2012: “What’s Wrong With Being Popular?,” AWP, Chicago
January 2012: “The Marrying Kind,” Alchemy, Tranquebar / Westland
July 2011: “Writing for Radicals,” “When Someone You Love Fails,” and a reading, ThinkGalacticon, Chicago
February 2011: “What Women Don’t Write When We Write About Sex,” AWP, D.C.
February 2011: Panelist & Reading, Capricon, Chicago
January 29, 2011: Panelist, South Asians in the Media, SAJA (South Asian Journalists Association), Chicago
November 2010: Panelist, WindyCon, Chicago
September 16, 2010: Reading, Subcontinental Drift, Chicago
August 14, 2010: Reading, Uncalled-For Readings, Chicago
June 19, 2010: SE Wisconsin Festival of Books, Waukesha
May 27-31 , 2010, Guest of Honor, WisCon
April 28: Minal Hajratwala Talk, UIC
April 24: Keynote speaker, LUCES Women of Color Conference, Loyola University, Chicago
April 21: ASAM Knowledge Bowl, UIC
April 17, 1-3 p.m.: Oak Park Main Library, local author booksigning
April 10, 10:30 a.m., AWP Conference, Denver, chairing panel: “From Bombs to Bindis: Trends and Tensions in S. Asian Diaspora Writing”
April 9, 6:30: Joint reading (with Roohi Choudhry, Summi Kaipa, Ramola D, and Minal Hajratwala), Highlands Ranch Library, near Denver, CO
April 7, 12:00 – 1:30; Northwestern Colloquium on Ethnicity and Diaspora, talk centering on work-in-progress Arbitrary Passions
March 15, 2010: Rinku Sen Talk, UIC
March 3, 2010, 2-4 p.m., talk at Truman College
Febuary 22, 2010: AsAm Faculty / Grad Student Mixer, UIC
Winter 2010, Bodies in Motion selected for One Book, One Truman program; entire college encouraged to read my book!
January 31, 2010, sold story “Talking to Elephants to Abyss & Apex Magazine
January 23, 2010, Kalakranti performance
2010, “Wild Roses,” Mammoth Book of Threesomes and Moresomes
September 24, 2009, had son! Anandan Mohan McLeod Whyte. 7 lbs, 6.5 oz.
August 2009, started new position as Assistant Director of Asian and Asian-American Studies, UIC (in addition to Clinical Assistant Professor position in English department)
June 11 – 14, 2009: 3rd Biennial Kriti Festival, Chicago
April 8, 2009, 6 – 8 p.m., Breaking Barriers reception to honor Asian American leaders in the creative arts
March 30, 2009, 7:30 p.m., staged reading of “The Yellow Dress,” through the Incubator Workshop: Rasaka Theatre and the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs, 78 E. Washington St.
March 22 – 28, 2009, Teaching Spring Break Online Workshop
February 27, 2009, 7 p.m., Women Out Loud reading, 1505 W. Morse, Chicago, IL
February 22, 2009, sold story “Jump Space” to Thoughtcrime Experiments
February 11, 2009, Serendib Press/DesiLit/SLF Party at AWP
December 26-27, 2008, SALA Conference, San Francisco, Humara Mushaira reading (“Under the Skin” and beach excerpt from Arbitrary Passions) , and presenting “Cover Art for Desi Writers: Men vs. Women”
December 8 – 28, 2008, Teaching Winter Break Online Workshop
December 2, 2008, Writing Workshop, Early to Bed, Chicago
November 18, 2008, Northwestern SASA Speaker, 7-8 p.m.
November 17, 2008, The Exquisite Corpuscle becomes available for pre-order from Fairwood Press, including a poem of mine.
October 27, 2008, host South Asian Chai Social, UIC
October 14, 2008, “Silence and the Word,” “White Sheets,” and “Under the Skin” accepted to collaborative play, Yoni ki Baat, to be performed January 2 – February 1 2009 by the Rasaka Theatre Company, Chicago
October 14, 2008, sold “Lotta and Bindi: Dolls for a Biracial Child” to Wondertime
September 1, 2008, sold “Sequins” to Tumbarumba
August 25, 2008, started Clinical Assistant Professor position, University of Illinois at Chicago
July 26, 2008 (my birthday!), afternoon. Reading, Masala! Mehndi! Masti! festival, Toronto.
July 21, 2008, Adventures in Sci-Fi Publishing Clarion podcast interview
July 16, 2008, 7:00 p.m. Reading. Mysterious Galaxy, San Diego. Free to the public.
July 12 – 19, 2008, Teach at Clarion
June 25, 2008, 3-4 p.m. Talk for Athena’s, Rhode Island.
June 21, 2008, 1-5 p.m., Mini-Kriti Festival. Panel presentations: Publishing Your Novel; Getting the Writing Done. Chicago.
June 14, 2008, 10 – 12 a.m. Talk for Ekya, Lincoln Park Library, Chicago. Free to the public.
May 23-28, 2008. WisCon. A variety of panel presentations and events. Madison.
May 12, 2008. Talk: Writing Your Identity, Northwestern University, Center for the Writing Arts.
April 19, 2008, 12 – 1:30 p.m. Reading, McCormick Place. Three S. Asian-American authors come together to offer you tales of love and marriage. Sugi Ganeshananthan will be reading from her first novel, LOVE MARRIAGE, Kali Plomin from her first novel, HOME BEFORE THE MONSOON, and Mary Anne Mohanraj from her collection of Sri Lankan-American stories, BODIES IN MOTION. This event is part of Asian American Studies Conference; registration is required. Lunch is included. http://www.aaastudies.org/2008/index.html
April 18, 2008, 7-9 p.m. Reading, Book Cellar, 4736 N. Lincoln Ave., Chicago (http://www.bookcellarinc.com/. Join us as we celebrate the launch of Sugi Ganeshananthan’s first novel, LOVE MARRIAGE, with a reading and Q&A by Sugi, accompanied by brief readings from authors Mary Anne Mohanraj, Ranjit Souri and visiting Laotian poet, Bryan Thao Worra. $5-$10 suggested donation at the door.
April 16, 2008, 5:15 – 6:15 p.m., Harris Hall, Rm. 108. Northwestern University’s Center for the Writing Arts presents a reading from Bodies in Motion, an exploration of love and sexuality from Sri Lanka and its diaspora, through two families and four generations, and Arbitrary Passions, a combination of travelogue and memoir which attempts to delineate a few of the joys and dangers of arranged marriage, romantic love, polyamory, ethnic identity and nationalism.
April 14, 2008: The CARL BRANDON SOCIETY recommended The Poet’s Journey for Asian and Pacific Islander Heritage Month.
Spring Quarter, 2008: Visiting Professor, Northwestern Center for the Writing Arts
April 2008: Started recording news items here.
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Interviews and Columns
- Chefdruck
- Brown Girl, for Kriti Festival
- Bookslut, interviewed by Sumita Sheth
- The Short Review
- Lust Bites, interviewed by Dayle Dermatis
- BookSense.com, interviewed by Gavin Grant
- Masala Online
- Sri Lanka Times
- Profile by Jane Duvall
- Interviewed for “Spring of Mind” – Vol.83 10/27/97; published by Chien-Kuo Senior High School, Taipei Taiwan
- Hoot Island Interview
- Intersmut Interview (part 1)
- RealAudio interview with AnnOnline
- Amazon.com Interview
- Poetechniciens Interview
- Penthouse Forum Article
- Philadelphia Inquirer quoted me in an article on net sex
- TIME Magazine quoted me in an article on net fiction
Intersmut invited me to write a column for them in June of 1997. The column was also carried by Screech.