Interviews / Features

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Recent Highlights

BROWN GIRL MAGAZINE

#BORNCONFUSED15 

an ongoing series by writers/authors in celebration of the 15th anniversary of the publication of Tanuja’s landmark novel: David Levithan, Samira Ahmed, SJ Sindu, Sarvat Hasin, Carlie Sorosiak, Nisha Sharma, Donna Freitas, Sonali Dev, Christina Vortia, Marina Budhos. 

• NBC NEWS: ‘Flagship’ South Asian Young Adult Novel Born Confused Still Resonates After 15 Years” by Lakshmi Gandhi (September 1 2017)
• BARNES & NOBLE (“6 YA Books That Have Voice for Days” by Sona Charaipotra, April 24, 2017)
• ON OUR MINDS/Scholastic – #WeHaveDiverseBooks: 5 Questions with author Tanuja Desai Hidier, by Brooke Shearouse, July 19th, 2017
• TEEN VOGUE (“8 Books With South Asian Characters to Read in 2017”, by Pooja Makhijani, April 27, 2017)
• BUSTLE.COM (“10 Books About the Search for Asian-American Identity” by Swapna Krishna, January 26, 2017)
• Dimple Lala named a top 5 character in MEET THE AUTHORS: Mitali Perkins, Author of You Bring The Distant Near – Interview + Giveaway   
• BARNES & NOBLE – “And the winner is: Honoring This Year’s ALA Youth Media Awards and Remembering Winners of Yesteryear” by Sarah Hannah Gomez (January 25, 2017), on Born Confused‘s 2003 APALA Children and YA Honor Award
• BOOKRIOT (“7 YA Books I Need to See at the Movies or on TV” by Christina Vortia, November 5, 2016)
• PASTE MAGAZINE (“The 30 Best Young Adult Books of All Time” by Eric Smith, October 20, 2016)
• BUSTLE.COM (“8 South Asian YA Authors to Diversify Your Bookshelf” by Caitlin White, April 22, 2016)

• KHABAR MAGAZINE feature (“Dimple’s Blues in Bombay” by Devika Rao, August 2016)

• BARNES & NOBLE feature (“11 YA Authors Discuss the Role of Faith in Their Lives” by Michael Waters, July 18, 2016)

• SUGARSCAPE feature/review (“Ten Coming of Age Novels That Everyone Should Read” by Alison Umminger, June 1, 2016)

• THE PARIS REVIEW review of The Morning Papers tribute to Prince (including Tanuja’s tribute-in-lyrics), June 7, 2016

• THE AEROGRAM: Tanuja’s tribute-in-lyrics to Prince (‘Happy Birthday Prince!’, June 7, 2016)

• MEDIA DIVERSIFIED: Tanuja’s tribute-in-lyrics to Prince for The Morning Papers (“Zindagi bhar nahin bhoolegi woh Purple barsaat ki raat”, May 23, 2016)

• India-West feature: Tanuja Desai Hidier’s Bombay Blues wins South Asia Book Award

• THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE: Top Five Books celebrating the Indian-American Experience feature

• ANOKHI MEDIA feature: Tanuja Desai Hidier Rattles & Hums with Bombay Blues

• Brown Girl Magazine: Top 20 Must-Reads feature (October 5, 2015)

• THE SUNDAY GUARDIAN COVER STORY: “Bibliophiles Plug In” by Aditya Mani Jha (October 3, 2015)

• PEPSI/MTV INDIES buzz picks (“Heptanesia”): “An Exclusive Playlist Of Exclusive Indie Tracks” by Titus Pinto (September 28, 2015)

• PEPSI/MTV INDIES Buzz Special: “Heptanesia: The Story Behind the Song, by Tanuja Desai Hidier”

• 2015 SOUTH ASIA BOOK AWARD TO BOMBAY BLUES

• ROLLING STONE MAGAZINE (BORN CONFUSED a top 40 YA Novels of All Time (“When Holden Met Katniss”)

• BNTeen: “9 Must-Read YAs About Teens Finding Their Path (Not a Partner)” by Sona Charaipotra
  (September 4, 2015)

• TIMES OF INDIA: Tanuja/“How I Start My Day” feature, as told to Nona Walia Walia (July 26, 2015) (VIEW JPEG)

• LIBAS INTERNATIONAL feature: “Losing Your Map” by Nishita Sharma (Volume 28 Issue 2, 2015) (View PDF)

• REFINERY29 top ten novels to turn to film: Born Confused, “These Ten Young Adult Books Might Become the Next Harry Potter” by Sulagna Misra (May 23, 2015)

• URBAN ASIAN feature: “The Voice of a Generation: How Tanuja Desai Hidier Helped Me Find My Voice” by Arpita Mukherjee (April 18, 2015)

• HELTER SKELTER COVER STORY (“Myth and Memory” by Aadya Shah (April 4, 2015)

• THE ASIAN AGE & DECCAN CHRONICLE feature: “Hyphenated Identity” by Arun Venkatraman (March 28, 2015, Bookshelf selection) (View PDF)

• HOMEGROWN interview: “#HGExclusive: Tanuja Desai Hidier Tells Us About The Journey Behind Writing ‘Bombay Blues’ & ‘Bombay Spleen’” by Aditi Dharmadhikari (January 27, 2015)

• HOMEGROWN playlist feature (*top three playlists ever): “Tanuja Desai Hidier creates a musical map to navigate her protagonist Dimple Lala’s world” (January 23, 2015)

• HINDUSTAN TIMES (Brunch Magazine “People” feature): “Being beige: In her new novel, Tanuja Desai Hidier uproots her American-Born-Confused-Desi heroine from New Jersey to Bombay” (January 18, 2015) by Anirudh Bhattacharyya (View PDF – Page 1 | Page 2)

• KIRKUS REVIEWS: Tanuja/Bombay Blues interview by Jessie Grearson

• THE TOAST: Tanuja/Bombay Blues & Bombay Spleen book/album interview by Safy Hallan Farah

• THE WRITER MAGAZINE: “How I Write”/Tanuja interview by Jeff Tamarkin (View PDF)

• BROWN GIRL MAGAZINE: “Tanuja Desai Hidier Gives Voice to a Multicultural Generation”/Bombay Blues review by Aditi Mehta

• THE GUARDIAN feature: Top Ten Songs in Teen Novels: The Ultimate Young Adult Playlist by Ema O’Connor

• THE AEROGRAM feature: “‘Born Confused’ & ‘Bombay Blues’ Author Tanuja Desai Hidier on What ABCD Means to Her”
• BROWN GIRL MAGAZINE “Power Player of the Month” feature/Q&A: “Author Tanuja Desai Hidier Writes Sequel to ‘Born Confused’” by Syeda Hasan
• GAYYA feature plus Tanuja Desai Hidier’s “Dimple Lala/Bday Party Playlist” (May 7, 2015)

 

MORE ONLINE/PRINT PRESS

• INDIA ABROAD (cover story) –  “When DJ Rekha Rocked a Generation” by Bhargavi Kulkarni (September 1, 2017)

• KAJAL MAGAZINE – “Saying Goodbye to Basement Bhangra and the End of an Era” by Nadya Agrawal, August 4, 2017
• WNYC – “After 20 Years, Basement Bhangra Says Bye to New York”, by Arun Venugopal, August 4, 2017

• QUARTZ (“What’s In the Box: Amazon has made a tiny change that’s great for readers and bad news for book publishers” by Thu-Huong Ha, May 11, 2017)
• Friend of Dorothy Wilde (Spotlight: On the Side: Kavita from Born Confused and Bombay Blues, December 7, 2016

• Dr Bickmore’s YA Wednesday feature (“Music & YA Literature”, November 2, 2016)
• The Silhouette (“Four Books By and About Women of Colour” by Amanda Watkins, March 3, 2016)
• INDIA.COM feature (“Author Tanuja Desai Hidier on her South Asia Book Award and the Future of South Asian Writing” by Keertana Sastry, January 12 2016)
• WRITER’S RELIEF: Interview With An Author (January 19, 2016)
• READING WHILE WHITE: Tanuja’s South Asia Book Award acceptance speech (November 5, 2015)
• PUBLISHERS WEEKLY (South Asia Book Award piece, November 15, 2015)
• THE INDIAN EYE feature: Bombay Blues Wins 2015 South Asia Bok Award
• SherylParbhoo (“Top 10 Must-Read Women’s Multicultural Books”, June 10, 2015)
• MASALA MOMMAS feature (“On Writing and Diversity in Literature”, October 5, 2016)
• “Meet Tanuja Desai Hidier” (by Sheryl Parbhoo, August 15, 2016)
• The Universal News Network feature: Tanuja’s South Asia Book Award
• Global Fashion Flare feature (PDF tk)
• BANG2WRITE (“13 Experts Share Their Notable Diverse Books Of Recent Years”, by Lucy V Hay, June 6, 2015)
• MUSIC UNPLUGGED feature: “Got the Bombay Blues?” (September 2015)
• RADIO&MUSIC feature: “Tanuja Desai Hidier: It took me three years to complete both Bombay Blues & Bombay Spleen” (September 9, 2015)
• I READ YA WEEK: “Tanuja Desai Hidier: The Two Stages of Writing A YA Book” (May 19, 2015)
• SALON.COM (“Sex: The last taboo of YA literature? Not anymore!” by Donna Freitas, May 13, 2015)

• BOOKSTALKER interview: “Bookstalked: Tanuja Desai Hidier” by Julia Bartz (April 2015)
• POLKA CAFE, playlist pick (“Heptanesia” music video from Bombay Spleen; March 27, 2015)

• MUMBAI BOSS, culture pick (“Heptanesia” music video from Bombay Spleen): “What We’re Listening to Right Now”

• GOOD MAGAZINE feature: “6 Young Adult Protagonists Who Aren’t White” by Tasbeeh Herwees, October 17, 2014)

• AAWW feature: “ABCD: Who Are You Calling Confused? A look back at the history behind ‘American Born Confused Desi’ and where it’s gone since” by Kishwer Vikaas, July 24, 2014)

• BOOKRIOT: South Asian YA: 5 Titles to Read by Swapna Krishna (October 17, 2014)
• MAVENLY + CO. (formerly The Girling): “Girls We Love: Tanuja Desai Hidier”, December 17, 2015)

• JUGNI STYLE (“3 Coming-of-Age Stories for South Asian Teen Girls” by Nimrita Parmar, September 2, 2014)

• Free Book Friday interview: ‘Born Confused’ by Tanuja Desai Hidier (May 17, 2014)

• The Aerogram excerpt (Bombay Blues) & video (Bombay Spleen) (September 26, 2014)

• Yalsa/The Hub Jukebooks: Bombay Blues (August 27, 2014)

• AtomFellows.com, Bombay Spleen blog

• On Our Minds: (“Spotlight on Acclaimed Author and Songwriter Tanuja Desai Hidier” by Stephanie Smith, September 11, 2014)

• The Aerogram: “Desi Dance Parties In The ‘90s And The Underside Of Identity Work” by Swathi Sreerangarajan (April 2, 2015)

• Salon.com (“‘There aren’t a lot of you out there’: What? Let’s fix our female Asian-American writer blind spot now” by Celeste NG, January 2, 2015)

BORN CONFUSED 1ST RELEASE PRESS KITS

• BORN CONFUSED USA-CANADA PK 2005
• BORN CONFUSED UK-EUROPE-INDIA PK 2005

 

PRE-2014 PRESS LINKS [in progress]

• idiva (“Meet Desilicious Writer-Musician Tanuja Desai Hidier” by Nona Walia, October 20, 2011)
• Mumbai Mirror: “Moving on from the ABCD Mindset” by Aseem Chhabra, (October 16, 2011)
• PaperTigers (“Here to Stay: South Asian Literature for Children and Teens”
by Pooja Makhijani, July 2006)
• Khabar Magazine feature: Novelists Who Rock and ‘Rite (September 2007)
• Times of India (Desi Babes feature, September 1, 2005)
• NPR Weekend Edition Summer Reading (“DJ Rekha, Spinning a Few Tomes”, June 19, 2005)
• Notes from the Slushpile: The Neither-Here-Nor-There Reader by Candy Gourlay (from the 11th Annual NCRCL/British IBBY Children’s Literature Conference on the theme East Meets West in Children’s Literature, 13 November 2004, Roehampton University, London)
• Deep Blue Ink feature (“Not at All Born Confused”, August 2004)
• The Scotsman (“Tis the Season to be Reading” by Michael Thorn, December 13, 2003)
• Achuka.com feature (July 2003)
• The Cambridge Chronicle (“Across-the-Pond Collaboration Celebrates Shared Heritage” by Susie Davidson, April 2, 2003)
• Little India feature: In the Land of Gup (by Lavina Melwani, May 5, 2003)
• Publishers Weekly feature (“Fall 2002 Flying Starts” by Lynda Brill Comerford, December 23, 2002)
• Bookslut interview (“Confusion Into Creativity: A Review of Born Confused and Conversation with Tanuja Desai Hidier” by Roohi Choudhry, November 2002)
• India Abroad COVER STORY (“A Bridge Across Confusion: a profile of writer Tanuja Desai Hidier” by Monica Mehta, September 27, 2002)
• India Today feature (“American Desi” by Anil Padmanabhan, September 9, 2002)
• Business-Standard (“The Children’s Hour: Speaking Volumes” by Nilanjana S. Roy, October 27, 2004)
• Business-Standard (“Wanilla Flavored Hinglish” by Nilanjana S. Roy, May 11, 2004)
• The Telegraph (“Think Pink” by Amanda Craig, September 14, 2003)
• Push Voices: Tanuja Desai Hidier