Jaya Mehta
Writer
MY BOOKS
I am the co-author, with Susan Lynn Meyer, of a picture book titled Nisha and the Just-Right Christmas Tree (Beaming Books, September 24, 2024), based on my childhood in Brooklyn Heights.
This is a story about a little girl in Brooklyn buying a Christmas tree with her father. It begins with her wanting a BIG tree and her father insisting on a SMALL tree. This is based on a true story from my childhood. But it’s also tacitly about being biracial. As a biracial Indian American, this is a theme that runs through all my writing, sometimes explicitly, sometimes implicitly. When I was growing up, there were virtually no books about Indian Americans, and certainly none on kids of mixed race. I grew up playing with white dolls and identifying with the white protagonists in my books. In recent decades, and especially in the last one, I have seen many more adult and children’s books about Indian Americans, but very few featuring biracial protagonists. Most of those that do tend to align the main character with one race or the other, and leave it there, once again rendering the experience of belonging to two races and two cultures invisible. This is an empty space I endeavor to fill.
Another of my books, My Two Truths (Heinemann, September 2024) will be distributed in schools the fall of 2024. It is about an Indian American girl studying an Indian dance form called kathak.
I have always, always wanted to be a writer. Even before I could read or write, I would draw pictures, scotch-tape the pages together, and dictate the story to my mother or father who would write it down for me.
After college, I held the Mirrielees Scholarship at the Stanford Creative Writing Program. I have a Ph.D. in English literature from Yale University, and taught both English and Indian literature for many years as a college professor. I have also worked as a free-lance fiction writer for children at Curriculum Associates and Heinemann. In 2022 I won a LitUp Fellowship from Reese's Book Club for a YA novel manuscript.
In addition to writing, I also create mandalas which you see featured on these pages, and in the Mandalas section below.
I live in Chelmsford, Massachusetts, among all the animals left behind by my college-aged twins. I love observing wildlife, romping with my two dogs, attending storytelling events, travelling to foreign countries, and playing board games with my family during which my husband and son break all the rules outrageously.
I spent my early childhood in Brooklyn Heights, where Nisha lives, as well. There was a place we walked and played called the Promenade that ran along the East River. I could see the Brooklyn Bridge from there, and at night I could hear the fog horns.
This is the street I lived on, and where Nisha lives, too.
This is a photo of my mother and younger sister on the Promenade. You can see the famous Brooklyn Bridge in the background.
This is me on a bench on the Promenade, while my sister sits on the ground.
This is my sister and me on the Promenade. I am trying to climb over the railing while my sister is urging me on. What I would do once I had “escaped” I do not know. I just know I had a lot of fantasies about the two of us living on our own!
The mandala (MUN-duh-luh) originates from ancient India as a meditation aid in both Hinduism and Buddhism,. I like to hand-draw non-traditional mandalas for artistic pleasure and relaxation. When I draw, I am utterly focused, similarly to when I am completely absorbed by writing. I can feel any tension draining away from me and joy filling me. I have drawn about 200 mandalas, some of which you see on this website.
UPCOMING EVENTS
NOV 10 / 11am - 4pm
