10 Questions for Bhavna Mehta
- By Edward Clifford
Bhavna with her friend Lynn's dog Nino
A small crushed garter snake lay belly up on the warm road. A baby maybe. I was cruising downhill in my manual wheelchair on a gently winding road in upstate New York when I encountered it—my very first roadkill. I passed it, then pushed back up a few yards to investigate.
—from "You Are Always Entering Your Future," Volume 63, Issue 4 (Winter 2022)
Tell us about one of the first pieces you wrote.
I cannot remember much about the angsty poetry I was writing as a teenager. But recently I was talking to my cousin and asking her what I did as part of the gang of kids (cousins, neighbors, friends) who grew up together. She reminded me I wrote some plays. Our extended family lived in an old adobe bungalow and there was a small alley where a stage could be set up. We would invite the family and our neighbors, and stage the play during Diwali holidays. I’ve only ever written in English and I imagine the play as a short, snappy production that was closely related to events in our lives or inspired by the Hindi movies we were watching at that time.
What writer(s) or works have influenced the way you write now?
There are so many non-fiction writers who inspire me. Meena Alexander, Nancy Mairs, Sunaura Taylor, Eula Biss, Toni Morrison, Teju Cole, Maggie Nelson, Daisy Hildyard are only a few of the writes who I reach for. I have also recently been introduced to Gujarati (my mother tongue) writers Kundanika Kapadia and Vinodinee Neelkanth.
What other professions have you worked in?
I worked as a software engineer for several years before turning to visual art.
What did you want to be when you were young?
A newscaster! I loved their political savviness and their TV presence.
What inspired you to write this piece?
So many things. I love how many disparate aspects of my life, the things I think about, the things I care about, my history, my background can all be connected. The essay form with its elasticity inspired me to discover those connections.
Is there a city or place, real or imagined, that influences your writing?
My home in Ahmednagar, India, and the rural landscape around it comes up again and again in my writing. I suppose I am a slow processor of old happenings.
Do you have any rituals or traditions that you do in order to write?
Tea and timers help. I write best when I am in the middle of something and can write on my phone, my ipad, my journal, etc. Except for my journal, I can share the document and be updating it through the day. Talking to my husband George or a close friend also helps reveal and disclose ideas in the writing that feel specific and relevant.
Who typically gets the first read of your work?
So far, it has been another student in a workshop-style class where we read each other’s work and give feedback, encouragement, and valuable tips. My husband sometimes gets a first read but only after the work has simmered for a while.
What are you working on currently?
Currently, I am working on two long essays about movement.
What are you reading right now?
I started the year with fiction and poetry—The Impudent Ones by Marguerite Duras, The Furrows by Namwali Serpell, VirajVahu by Saratchandra Chattopadhyay, and The Penguin Book of Indian Poets edited by Jeet Thayil.
BHAVNA MEHTA works with paper and fabric, cutting and embroidering to tell stories that combine figurative and landscape imagery with botanical motifs, text, and shadows. Using paper as skin and thread to connect and mend, she makes work about relating and remembering. Bhavna has exhibited widely in San Diego and Southern California. She is the recipient of the Individual Artist Fellowship grant, Artists In Communities grant from the California Arts Council, and the Creative Catalyst grant from The San Diego Foundation. In her nonfiction writing, Bhavna is beginning to examine the concept of movement as it relates to living with paraplegia.
