Madhushree Ghosh is a South Asian literary fiction writer with a Ph.D. in molecular biology. She works on infectious diseases diagnostics in San Diego and considers New Delhi home, much like her protagonist in her fourth literary novel, RUNNING WITH WINGS. Her short stories were finalists or published in various magazines such as Glimmer Train, Cerebration, The Times of India and others. Her non-fiction has appeared in various international and US magazines like The San Diego Jewish Times, The Pioneer, Sulekha, Nirvana Woman, Mantram, and others. Madhushree is the founding member of the international theater company, OliveUs Productions and the well-respected literary forum, The La Jolla Writing Series.

______________

Most multicultural novels deal with immigrant identity, search for a place called home and a yearning for what was lost, and I wanted combine that with the fact that most South Asian immigrants in my town in California also have a strong sense of belonging with the land that has accepted them.

- MG
______________

NYC: How would you compare New York Pitch Conference to other writer conferences?

MG: While there are no guarantees or promises, you do come away with a better novel, a polished pitch, a great experience interacting with writers of different genres and hopefully, a few editors interested in your manuscript. Overall though, this conference is very different from others in that it is what it says it is. Most conferences try to cram in craft lectures with readings and then interviews with editors and agents, which can get chaotic and confusing. Other literary workshops focus on craft. There are very few that simply focus on getting your work out to the editors. New York Pitch Conference is one of them.

NYC: What inspired you to write RUNNING WITH WINGS?

MG: RUNNING WITH WINGS is my fourth South Asian literary novel that combines an immigrant’s search for self when faced with the biggest loss in her life in two of my favorite cities, Delhi,and Del Mar (San Diego). The inspiration came from a simple question—how do you go on when you lose your city for love, and then, your family? Most multicultural novels deal with immigrant identity, search for a place called home and a yearning for what was lost, and I wanted combine that with the fact that most South Asian immigrants in my town in California also have a strong sense of belonging with the land that has accepted them. So, is that a ‘normal immigrant experience’? RUNNING WITH WINGS explores those issues where the protagonist finds out where home is in the midst of an earth-shattering loss.

NYC: How has the story evolved?

MG: Thirty-seven year old Bela Guha leaves Delhi for Del Mar following the love of her life, Jeet, a scientist in San Diego biotech. When she leaves, she’s accompanied by a curse that her father blessed her with—No good will come to you if you leave. Now, nearly two decades later, Bela loses her husband in a tragic hit and run. Alone, with only her Rottweiler, Maximus for company, she tries to make sense of her life in a city that was always foreign to her. She turns to watching wild birds in her San Diego backyard, a passion she shared with Jeet. But even as she watches them, they fall from the skies, unable to breathe, dying. Faced with this impending feeling of doom, Bela now has to save the birds even though she couldn’t save her family. But in the process of helping her birds, Bela stumbles upon a Del Mar secret so hidden and yet so blatant, a secret more addictive than cocaine. It is that secret that connects her back to her husband and helps her be at peace.

NYC: What made you choose to attend the New York Pitch Conference?

MG: I attended the Sewanee Fiction Writers’ Workshop in 2007 where literary authors like Diane Johnson (Le Divorce, Le Marriage etc.), Mary Helen Stefaniak (The Turk and my Mother) and Claire Messud (The Last Life) helped me shape the story and became champions of my work. After an overhaul of the entire manuscript, I realized that RUNNING WITH WINGS was ready for editors to evaluate and hence looked for a conference that focused entirely on editors interacting with authors. I found New York Pitch Conference via Algonkian conferences and was pleasantly surprised to see that it fit my needs to show RUNNING WITH WINGS to editors in literary publishing houses.

NYC: Do you feel the novel is improved as a result?

MG: RUNNING WITH WINGS is a constant work in progress. However, with New York Pitch Conference, the basic premise of the novel was fleshed out in the pitch and that correlated to with the storyline. New York Pitch Conference reconfirmed that RUNNING WITH WINGS was a story that was compelling, interesting and worth reading.

NYC: What did you find most effective about the New York experience?

MG: You mean, New York City? If so, come on, what’s to complain about NYC? I came to Stony Brook 15 years ago for a Ph.D. and would trek to NYC each weekend just to be here, so, it has been wonderful to come back to the place that has always fascinated me. On the other hand, the New York Pitch Conference was most effective in honing my pitch. Tim Tomlinson, my workshop leader, was very astute, a tremendous teacher, and a great help. When you are so close to your novel, it’s difficult to pick the right points to pitch to editors who will spend maybe 60 seconds to decide whether they’d like to see your work. Tim was wonderful in understanding the story, communicating the core and helping me fix my pitch effectively. And it worked that way for the rest of the group too, which was fascinating since we were a combination of literary, women’s fiction, paranormal and creative non-fiction authors in the same group!

NYC: Where does RUNNING WITH WINGS go from here?

MG: Three editors as a result of my pitch at New York Pitch Conference requested RUNNING WITH WINGS. So it is heading to those publishing houses while I am also actively looking at other publishing houses. Meanwhile, I am working on my next novel and a creative non-fiction manuscript on my mother who passed away about two months ago.

Click here for more details about the conference.

If you need to contact us click here.

ADDITIONAL OFFERINGS Traditional Novel, Fiction, and Non-Fiction Workshops Algonkian Writer Conferences