Maya Chhabra's Blog

Happy to announce I’ve signed a contract with Beneath Ceaseless Skies to publish my short story “Nine Births on the Wheel.” Scott H. Andrews provided fantastic edits to this story, which I first drafted in 2019, and I’m so glad it’s found a home at last.

Ashley didn’t mean to get pregnant her senior year in high school. She didn’t mean to scare her hardworking and financially struggling mom, or to hide the truth from her awkward ex, Danny. She also didn’t mean to illegally take her well-off friend Madi’s prescription Xanax to cope with the stress—and she definitely didn’t mean to do it more than once.

When a doctor reports Ashley to the State of Wisconsin as a drug-addicted threat to her own unborn child, she is forcibly detained under the obscure and secretive Act 292 civil detention system for pregnant women, stranded in the county juvenile shelter home, and stigmatized by authorities who assign her fetus a lawyer but not her. It’s a struggle for Ashley just to get medical care for the pregnancy supposedly being protected—never mind fighting for her own freedom and making sure her baby isn’t taken away by social services after birth. Who’s going to protect Ashley herself?

But Ashley is stronger than anyone knows, and she has allies on the outside who believe in her. This is a fight Ashley can win—but only if she stops drifting passively, starts believing in herself, and chooses not to give in to despair.

Coming August 1st, 2024 from Jolly Fish Press.

To learn more about the real law behind this novel, Act 292, read this article from 2013 and this one from 2022.

Preorder links:
Barnes & Noble
Amazon

Advance Reader Copies links:
Netgalley
Edelweiss

Best books of the year are bolded. Poster Girl left me eager to read anything Veronica Roth wants to writer. The Field of Blood kicked off a brand-new interest in the lead-up to the Civil War, which influenced the rest of my reading. The Wonder and The Idiot were very different takes on religion, the violence lurking under everyday normalcy, and the tendency of outsiders to say bluntly the things that cannot, but must, be said. Blumenthal’s Lincoln bio, All the Powers of Earth, somehow made the cut against some stiff competition despite having the worst copyediting and prose style of any book on this list. Elizabeth Keckley’s memoir of her rise from slavery to fashion industry leader and confidante of the First Lady was not one of my top five favorites, but should definitely be better known–a hidden gem from the 19th century with an incredible voice and an eye for telling details.

Born With Teeth – Liz Duffy AdamsAurelius (To Be Called) Magnus – Victoria GoddardSame Sun Here—Neela Vaswanti and Silas HouseWith the Fire on High—Elizabeth AcevedoPoster Girl—Veronica RothArch-Conspirator—Veronica RothStateless—Elizabeth WeinJust and Unjust Wars—Michael WalzerThe Next New Syrian Girl—Ream ShukairyThe Idiot—Fyodor DostoevskyWilderness—Robert Penn WarrenThe Field of Blood: Violence in Congress and the Road to Civil War—Joanne B. FreemanBehind the Scenes, or Thirty Years a Slave and Four Years in the White House—Elizabeth KeckleyThe Turnaway Study: The Cost of Denying Women Access to Abortion—Diana Greene FosterThe Bostonians—Henry JamesPersuasion—Jane AustenAspects of the Novel—E.M. ForsterThe Wonder—Emma DonoghueThe Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club—Dorothy L. SayersA Safe Girl to Love—Casey PlettThe Betrothed—Alessandro ManzoniKomarr—Lois McMaster BujoldSimon Sort of Says—Erin BowThe Political Life of Abraham Lincoln, Volume III: All the Powers of Earth—Sidney BlumenthalThe Battle of Maldon: together with The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth and ‘The Tradition of Versification in Old English’—J.R.R. Tolkien, edited by Peter GrybauskasNormal People—Sally RooneyAmbitiosa Mors: Suicide and the Self in Roman Thought and Literature—T.D. Hill

A Statement of Solidarity With Gaza From More Than 100 Literary Translators

“To make the protection of civilians by any side conditional on reciprocity will lead only to disaster… We believe that peace is possible and that it starts with choosing to protect civilians now. We insist that Palestinian lives have equal value and that civilians must be protected at all times.

We invite our fellow translators, as well as professional groups in our field, to join us in calling for:

The cessation of Israeli bombardment and an immediate ceasefire in Gaza to protect civilian life, as well as lifting the blockade so humanitarian aid can be delivered safely.

The immediate release of all hostages held by Hamas.

A just peace that ends the current domination of Palestinian life by the Israeli military occupation, and provides for the freedom, security, and civil and political rights of both peoples.”

Thank you to everyone who signed, thank you to Anna Gunin for organizing and for giving me the opportunity to draft this, thank you to @literaryhub for publishing. I hope this can be a humble drop in the bucket towards a lifesaving ceasefire.

Any literary translator who wants to add their signature should please email gazaopenlettertranslators@gmail.com. Ceasefire now!

Here Shows Much Amiss

We set up a reunification center. We’re good at that.
Told you to come to the firehouse to find your child–
It was a firehouse. We’ve got the drill down by now, the lists of names,
The handoff, the room where they take you if
You’re here to be reunited with a corpse. All we need is a DNA sample,
Or to know if her green Converse had a heart.

We can pretend we didn’t hear your screams, like children in school
Hiding under the desks and pretending they won’t die. Behind the arras,
Polonius recites the maxims he shared with his son before
Sending him off to study, the rules that guarantee a long and risk-free life.

So if it wasn’t you today, then come, come with us
To a bowling alley or a bar, a queer nightclub or a grocery store,
Because this night probably won’t end in reunification.

And if your beloved lies among the faceless dead
Be comforted–the face he used to have
Is marshalled in the ranks now, a thumbnail in a newspaper grid.
The name that once was yours to whisper
Will be reposted, reported, part of everyone’s arsenal.

O do not think your sparrow fell forgotten
While we—the good, sane people—offer you words, words, words
And with the other hand signal to the offstage fool:
Go, bid the madmen shoot.

October 26, 2023
USA

Maya Chhabra

I’m happy to announce that my next YA novel will be published by Jolly Fish Press in August 2024. It’s a hi-lo called Firebird Caged, and I can’t wait to share it with you. I can’t show you the spectacular cover art yet, but here’s what it’s about:

Ashley is a high school senior who doesn’t quite fit in in her small and wealthy Wisconsin town–but this is her chance to have the life her hardworking single mother wants for her. Until Ashley finds out she’s pregnant, and the cycle seems to be repeating.

Ashley wants to have the baby, despite her mother’s offer to help her get an abortion, and despite her own fear of being locked into poverty. But the real obstacle Ashley face is from the state of Wisconsin itself. From officials who believe she should have the baby, but don’t believe she’s fit to raise it. After Ashley confesses to her doctor that she’s taken drugs in a misguided effort to cope with stress, she finds herself locked up, detained under Act 292. The state wants to protect the fetus inside Ashley from Ashley herself. And they will go to any lengths to do it.

If Ashley wants to keep her baby from being taken by the system at birth, she’ll have to find the strength to fight back. She’ll have to value herself and her freedom, even as the courts tell her she’s a failure who needs to be controlled. She’ll have to find the fire within.

I call Firebird Caged my “post-Dobbs reproductive rage novel,” and it’s true that I started writing it in the summer of 2022, but the issues it deals with go back further. But it’s also the story of Ashley, who wishes she had been able to take ballet but could never afford it, who spent her first years of high school dealing with the isolation of the pandemic and her senior year experiencing the ups and downs of first love, and who knows that society says it loves babies but hates single mothers. Her decision to face down the judgemental world is not easy, and I hope you all love her as much as I loved writing her.

Those interested can read more about the real law behind this novel in this article from 2013 and this one, from 2022.

It’s already April 25th in Italy, Liberation Day, when the fall of the Nazis and Fascists is celebrated.

In 1952, convicted war criminal Albert Kesselring, responsible for the Ardeatine Caves massacre in Rome among many other crimes, was released from prison on the grounds of ill-health. He arrogantly claimed that rather than imprison him, the ungrateful Italians should have built him a monument.

There is a monument. It’s in Cuneo, and it has this poem on engraved on it. I am posting my translation for Liberation Day. Ora e sempre.

Memorial Plaque for Disgrace

by Piero Calamandrei

You’ll get it,

Generalfeldmarschall Kesselring,

the monument you claim from us Italians

but what stone it’s built from—

that’s for us to choose now.

Not from the scorched stones

of the defenseless hamlets you mutilated, eradicated,

not from the earth of the graveyards

where our comrades, so very young,

rest serenely

not from the inviolate snow of the mountains

which for two winters defied you

not from the springtime of these valleys

which saw you turn and run away.

But only from the silence of the tortured

tougher than any boulder

only from the hard rock of this pact

sworn among free men

assembling as volunteers

for dignity not hate

fixed on redeeming

the shame, the terror of the world.

Should you ever feel like walking these streets

again you’ll find us at our posts

the dead and the living determined alike

the people closing ranks around a monument

which is called

now and forever

RESISTANCE

This was the first book I read by Laura Weymouth and I immediately wanted to read more after finishing it. While initially given the premise (a girl seeking to avenge her sister’s sacrifice to the god in the mountain) and Weymouth’s previous novel The Light Between Worlds riffing off Chronicles of Narnia, I thought it would be more in dialogue with C.S. Lewis’s Till We Have Faces than it turned out to be, it did not disappoint in any way.

Anya grows up in an isolated village where girls are raised for sacrifice to the god. Her sister volunteers to be the sacrifice in their generation, leaving Anya feeling like a coward. While the girls usually survive the ordeal and are left with some disability as a result, Anya’s sister Ilva perishes shortly after her return to the village, telling Anya to stop the sacrifices.

Meanwhile, a new sacrifice is soon needed as the god’s wrath begins to stir, unappeased by whatever happened with Ilva. Anya volunteers to travel across the country to the mountain as the new sacrifice, but her secret intent is to kill the god and end this brutal system once and for all.

What the book turns out to be in dialogue with is the discussion of abuse in church settings. Like many a victim of abuse by a spiritual leader, Anya and Ilva are raised believing their duty as women involves obedience and sacrifice. But the power-hungry men at the top of the system take advantage of this deliberately instilled belief. The girls are being hurt in plain sight, but somehow this isn’t enough to stir the villagers to rebellion, given the beliefs they have been taught. Instead, Anya’s anger at the system is taken as a flaw in her faith rather than a reaction to being hurt.

With that said, I should add there is no sexual abuse in the book that I noticed, though many bad things do happen to the characters. There’s a particularly creepy scene of forced tattooing that gets across the violation of something happening to the character’s body without her consent, though.

It’s not just the girls who are victimized by the system, although they are the primary targets. Anya’s love interest Tieran turns out to be one of the bravest characters who has survived so much, even though he initially comes off as untrustworthy and unreliable. The reveal of his backstory could almost be its own story or book.

By contrast, Anya’s father, a powerful landowner whom she meets for the first time towards the end of the book, is a very negative character despite his stand against the religious system that dominates the country. He turns out to be equally willing to make use of vulnerable girls for his own ends, and Anya’s efforts to avoid his control are compelling, as she asserts her independence from all factions. It’s not just about the bad ideology of the religious leaders–the secular characters can also be sexist and controlling.

Ultimately, Anya’s inner strength prevails against all comers. I highly recommend this book when it comes out on November 22nd.

More of my translations of Ukrainian poet Ludmila Khersonsky’s work are up at The White Review.

Poem #1 was written a few weeks ago in response to the February 25th invasion. Poem #2 was written years ago and reminds us that the war has been going on for much longer.

Both poems appear in English and with the original Russian text.

https://www.thewhitereview.org/poetry/two-poems-ludmila-khersonsky/?fbclid=IwAR2UB0dhhJoMXee05q_pXeYjDkiw_P3vpVnc_k6YrL5JmmArEaHPJ65Qu1o

Links to donate to Ukraine here.

Read it here: https://www.eurolitnetwork.com/poetry-travels-with-anna-blasiak-and-lisa-kalloo-ukraine-untitled-poem-by-ludmila-khersonsky-translated-by-maya-chhabra/

Written after Putin began his long war on Ukraine but before the 2022 invasion. I wish it had appeared under better circumstances.

Links to donate to Ukraine here.