Chandra Prasad
Chandra Prasad is the author, most recently, of On Borrowed Wings (Simon & Schuster), a novel set in Depression-era Connecticut. NPR’s Faith Middleton calls the novel a story of “race, class, gender, and family–though you so root for the young woman’s dream that you don’t notice until the novel is done. That’s great, believable storytelling.”
Prasad is the originator and editor of, and a contributor to, Mixed, an anthology of fiction published to international acclaim published by W.W. Norton. A combination of Indian, Italian, Swedish, and English, Prasad drew inspiration from her own multiracial identity in assembling the book, which includes material by Danzy Senna, Rebecca Walker, Ruth Ozeki, and Mat Johnson, among others. Bliss Broyard praises the anthology as “nuanced, thoughtful, and deeply human.”
Always interested in issues of identity, Prasad decided that the circus, with its motley cast and unusual pecking order would be the perfect setting for another one of her books: Death of a Circus (Red Hen). Before writing, Prasad spent months researching traveling shows of the early twentieth century and speaking with circus historians and present-day performers. The result, says Tom Perrotta, is a work of fiction brimming with “Dickensian verve, a keen eye for historical detail, and lots of heart.” Booklist says the book is “richly textured” and “packed with glamour and grit.”
Prasad’s nonfiction works have appeared in the New York Times, the New York Times Magazine, The Week, Teen Voices, and the Wall Street Journal, among others.
