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Chital Mehta |
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Chital Mehta is a South Asian writer whose stories center on motherhood, family dynamics, and immigration. Her novel, Have You Seen Romit? (University of Nebraska Press, October 1, 2026), was the winner of the 2025 James Alan McPherson Prize for the Novel, judged by R.O. Kwon. Mehta won the Bill Boggs Fiction Contest for her story "Damaged Gifts," and her story "The Weight of Happiness" was a finalist for the Pinch Literary Awards. She lives in Delaware with her husband and children.
Handsell readers your book:
Have You Seen Romit? is about a middle-aged mother, Usha, who defies her husband and sets out on a journey to find her missing son in the forests of southern India. Usha is a woman who has never stepped outside of her hometown. For the first time, she must break the boundaries that protected her.
I wrote this book because I was raised in India, where I often saw how women are expected to hold back. I wanted to explore what happens when a mother steps outside of societally and culturally imposed limitations.
On your nightstand now:
Flesh by David Szalay. I love his sentences more than anything. I am also reading Scavengers by Kathleen Boland, whose immersive prose has taken me by surprise. I love the mother-daughter tension that keeps me turning the pages.
Favorite book when you were a child:
I was 13 when I started reading to copy my friend. We'd pick books from the school library. I was dazed by Enid Blyton's Malory Towers. I read the entire series under the yellow light from a bathroom because we lived in a small house and I couldn't turn on the bedroom light. Reading turned out to be a magical experience since then.
Your top five authors:
These are authors whose prose helped me write or whose work helped me develop the writer's mindset: Alka Joshi, Steve Almond, Thrity Umrigar, Angie Kim, and Emma Donoghue.
Book you've faked reading:
The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny by Kiran Desai. I started reading and enjoyed the prose. I couldn't finish it because of kids being home during the summer break. My reading pace slowed down. I am hoping I'll return to it someday.
Book you're an evangelist for:
Letters to a Young Writer by Colum McCann. This book is my guide for life and writing. I turn to it any day my writing doesn't go well. Each page of the book talks to me. I'd love to buy a copy for any writer who is interested in honing their craft and developing the writer's mindset. So much about writing and publishing is about mental strength.
Book you've bought for the cover:
Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng. The book itself is amazing, but I loved the cover. The title's font and the color blue stood out to me. The book has water for settings, and the cover does complete justice.
Book you hid from your parents:
Sidney Sheldon's Tell Me Your Dreams. I read a lot of Sheldon's novels in my teens. I'd hide a novel in a book of religious texts. Once, the maid told on me, and that didn't go well with my relatives. Novel reading was considered a sin at the time.
Book that changed your life:
Paulo Coelho's Like the Flowing River. This book helped me believe in my dreams. I read the book at least three times, and I have copied the quotes into my journal. The book changed my outlook toward life and writing.
Favorite line from a book:
"She said the words I had secretly longed to hear for years. The words I had waited all this time to hold in my cupped hands. I felt a heavy burden simply burst; what mattered was I was with Homa, what mattered was I loved my friend and would love her until the end of our days." --Marjan Kamali, The Lion Women of Tehran
Five books you'll never part with:
These are the books I have read more than once, and I still reach for them as these stories kept me up at night: Brotherless Night by V.V. Ganeshananthan, Burnt Sugar by Avni Doshi, Twist by Colum McCann, Audition by Katie Kitamura, and The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini.
Book you most want to read again for the first time:
Yellowface by R.F. Kuang. I read this book in three days, and I was amazed by the plot and the tension. I'd love to experience that feeling again with this book.
Book you wish you had written:
I loved reading Parini Shroff's The Bandit Queens. Shroff is amazing at creating powerful protagonists you can't forget after putting the book down. I'd love to create something in terms of plot where women are attacking men.