Meera Nair on Kaavya Vishwanathan

Meera Nair's debut collection, Video, received the Asian-American Literary Award for Fiction in 2003 and was named one of the Best Books of the Year by The Washington Post. She is a recipient of fellowships from the New York Foundation for the Arts and The New York Times. Her work has appeared on NPR's Selected Shorts, as well as in The Threepenny Review, Calyx, The New York Times, The National Post, India Abroad and an anthology of Asian-American writing, Charlie Chan is Dead 2. She is at work on her first novel, to be published by Pantheon.
On What Happened…
Given the news stories that are now coming out that she was packaged and marketed for the right demographic like any other product by a team of savvy publishers, I am beginning to feel sorry for her. Perhaps she had the makings of a really good writer--at least Amitav Ghosh thought so---before these people got to her. I think she was under a lot of pressure to produce that book. By all accounts, it sounds interesting enough, it's sounds smart and engaging---and it would have probably been a better book if they had let her write it without all the pushing and polishing involved.
On Other Upcoming Young Adult Writers Being Affected…
Maybe now publishers will fact check obsessively, editors will actually do their job, and care about literary merit than smart marketing. Or maybe this will be a big deal until the next good-looking, young teen author comes along!
On The Media Overexposing The Case…
I think there was a case of immigrant envy going on! What's with these Indian-American writer's anyway----here's yet another Indian-American author making good, getting the fat advance and the world-class movie deal—good god, don't they every stop--that kind of thing. So when she ended up with rather large quantities of egg on her face, the howling for her head was that much louder. At last, here's a successful Indian-American writer who tripped up! I think it ties in with the whole immigrant debate ---the good immigrant versus the not-so-good immigrant and all that. What's more, she's a fox and the media loves to flash those photos around.
On Viswanathan Writing And Being Published Again…
Listen, she's 19 years old! If she can really write, nothing's going to keep her down. Nothing should. If she can't write--well then, that's the end of the story. Anyway, she has managed to stack up more material to mine for stories than most 18 year olds, in a pretty short time.