BOOKS
The Children of this Madness
In The Children of this Madness, Gemini Wahhaj pens a complex tale of modern Bengalis, one that illuminates the recent histories not only of Bangladesh, but America and Iraq. Told in multiple voices over successive eras, this is the story of Nasir Uddin and his daughter Beena, and the intersection of their distant, vastly different lives.
As the US war in Iraq plays out a world away, and Beena struggles to belong to Houston’s tony Bengali American community—many of whom serve the same corporate masters she sees destroying Iraq—recently widowed engineering professor Nasir Uddin journeys to America not only to see Beena and her new husband but the many former students who make up the immigrant community Beena has come to view with ambivalence. With subtlety, grace, and love, Wahhaj dramatizes this mingling of generations and cultures, and the search for an ever-elusive home that define the Bengali American experience.
Katy Family
Combining the powers of speculation of Kazuo Ishiguro and the sharp social critique of Aravind Adiga, this collection offers readers the ultimate experience of global fiction, stories bound and shaped by Katy, Texas, a place made by oil and capitalism. The stories weave between Bangladeshi characters experiencing the reality of the immigrant experience in America and those still in Bangladesh, wishing for the mythos of the American dream. Katy, an oil-rich suburb of Houston, is the background and ultimate symbol of global capitalism. The stories deliver the reality and impact of isolation, materialism, and the looming climate disaster. With sharp intelligence and humor, Wahhaj explores the oil industry’s destructive effect on those who live within Texas and those far beyond its borders. Elizabeth McKenzie, author of MacGregor Tells the World and Stop That Girl, says, “Wahhaj’s stories are addictive–richly observed, thrumming with sly depictions of ambition and hypocrisy, painting a luminous panorama of an American subculture in all its comic and tender complexity.”
SHORT STORIES
- Granta – “Wheels of Progress”: Issue 99, Fall 2007, pp. 213-223.
- Third Coast – “Gracious”; in Third Coast Issue 54, fall/winter 2023 issue of Third Coast.
- River Styx Magazine – “The Patent Guy”
- The Carolina Quarterly – “Rental Car”: Issue 63.1, Spring 2013, pp125.
- Chattahoochee Review – “Marker”: Vol. 35.2-3, Fall/Winter 2015.
- Apogee – “First Snow”: Issue 6, December 2015.
- Silk Road – “Mita”: Issue 14, 2015.
- Chicago Quarterly Review – “Katy Family”: Issue 36, November 10, 2022.
- Northwest Review – “Exit”: Volume 44(2) Spring 2006, pp. 44-51.
- Zone 3 – “Bibek”: Fall 2021.
- Cimarron Review – “Funny-looking People”: Issue 164, Summer 2008, pp. 18-29.
- Crab Orchard Review – “Voices”: Volume 14, Number 2, Summer/Fall 2009, pp.139-150.
- Night Train – “How to Break an Iraqi”: Issue VI, Spring 2006, pp. 74-81.
- Cleaver – “Urgent”: Issue 38, June 2022.
- Concho River Review – “The American Cousin”: Spring/Summer 2022.
- Scoundrel Time – “The English Teacher”: 6/22/2022.
- Arkansas Review – “Nature”: Vol. 53, Number 1, Spring/April 2022.
- Hypertext Magazine – “Dreams and Memories” : Spring/Summer 2022.
- Change Seven – “Meghalaya”: Summer 2022.
- Brooklyn Review – “Cigarette”: Fall 2022.
- Superpresent – “Confetti”: Volume 2, Issue 2, Spring 2022.
- Raven’s Perch – “The Car Incident”: Feb 28, 2022.
- Eleven Eleven – “Crossing the Border”: Volume III, 2006, pp. 106-109.
- India Currents – “For My Baby Who Will Walk in Another Country”: September 2004.
- Potpourri – “The Listener”: Summer 1993 Fiction Edition.
- Press 53 – “The Lady Doctor”; Issue 233, JAN-APR 2023.
- Pleiades – “Three Sisters” in Pleiades. Featured story, April 19, 2023, online exclusives.
- Valley Voices – “Next Door”, in issue 22.2
- Allium – “The Frame”
- Bridge Eight – “American Television“
- Eunoia Review – “The Limits of Speech“
- Terrain – “Camping”
- Gargoyle – “Hunger“
- Last Syllable – “Two Mothers“
- Rougarou – “Most Precious Possession”
- Image – “Ashamed”
- Failbetter – “Circus”
- South Dakota Review – “Where it Never Rains”
ESSAYS
- “The Girl Next Door” in Exotic Gothic 5 Volume I, with writing by Joyce Carol Oates.
- Borderlines Volume III, Published by Voices Breaking Boundaries.
- Plato’s Cave (My Days in Mosul)
- Netherland: A Prequel to Joseph O’Neill’s Tale
- Bridge Eight – “American Television“
- The Daily Star – “Roe vs Wade“
- The Daily Star – “US Elections“
- The Daily Star – “Can America be Saved“
- Craft – “What I Want to Write“
- Craft Essays by Contemporary Immigrant Writers, Texas Review Press 2026.
- So to Speak – “The Politics of Invitations”
REVIEWS
- Rumpus – “Giving New Life to Indian Literature- Aruni Kashyap’s The Way You Want to be Loved.”
- Rain Taxi – “The In-Betweeners”
- Gulf Coast – “Ellipses and the Unspeakable in Fady Joudah’s“
- Scroll – “Shurjo’s Clan“
- Borderless – “South to South“
- Pacific Affairs – “Ethical Encounters“
- Wasafiri – “Mudun Anthology”
- Scroll.in – “Sita in Exile – A Novel about Gender Expectations of Women in Ramayana and the Modern World“