Brown Women Have Everything

Sayantani Dasgupta is associate professor of creative writing at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington.

For more information about Sayantani Dasgupta, visit the Author Page.

"Witty, thoughtful reading . . . . As she explores issues of race, culture, and gender, Dasgupta's lively, intelligent book celebrates the “honor and dignity” of embracing the discomforts of the transnational life, which offers the unexpected rewards and delights of the unfamiliar.”—Kirkus Reviews

"Perceptive and personal . . . . Dasgupta has a talent for finding the profound in the everyday."—Publishers Weekly

"Dasgupta encounters and offers up for consideration issues such as privilege, racism, the intellectual and emotional facets of multilingualism, the exoticising of another culture (hers, for instance), and guns in America."—Cha: An Asian Literary Journal

"In this clear-eyed, witty, and vivid collection, Dasgupta wields levity and tenderness, an equally sharp mind and tongue, and an eye for memorable detail. I would follow her anywhere."—Melissa Febos, author of Girlhood, winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award in Criticism

"Essay collections by people of color are hard to find; those from a non-Western perspective are even rarer. Dasgupta offers both and reinvents herself with each essay, making this book a gem."—Ira Sukrungruang, author of This Jade World

"Sayantani Dasgupta seems to have everything: a line to the best coffee shop, her mother’s perfect tomato chutney recipe, a great job teaching creative writing, and the heart of a grand adventurer. She also has the confidence and open gaze of someone comfortable in her own skin, and most importantly, great hair. Yet as a brown woman, she has even more: folks who suggest she has her job because of her skin color; catcalls from men on the street; white stylists who can’t make sense of her curls. Through all her experiences, Dasgupta writes into the deep meaning that flashes like a fish below the surface of any interaction, no matter how superficial. These essays meet different encounters and opinions with open-mindedness, grace, and curiosity; and a sharp sense of humor runs through each page. After all, as Dasgupta writes with her characteristic flair, 'underneath our suits, we are all a little beastly.'"—Katie Farris, author of Standing in the Forest of Being Alive, finalist for the T.S. Eliot Prize