Proper Imposters: Four Novellas

by Chaya Bhuvaneswar, Mauricio Montiel Figueiras, Jason Ockert

Distributed by University Press of Florida on behalf of
Panhandler Books, an imprint of the Department of English and World
Languages at the University of West Florida  



In Proper Imposters,
four contemporary authors explore the vices and virtues of deception
and how it manifests in ways personal, psychological, propulsive, and
profound. An accountant at a pencil manufacturing company investigates a
series of ominous events behind the facade of the mysterious company
where he works; from their deathbeds, fictionalized versions of Nikolai
Gogol and Edgar Allen Poe look back on their lives and remember an epic,
transformational, and ahistorical road trip they took together as young
men; a young woman is startled into action trying to execute “a simple
plan” of escape involving cash, a sleep-over by her college roommate and
the bold seduction of a boy she has decided to lose her virginity to;
and, a reclusive night-shift worker tries a daring weight-loss
experiment only to find himself pursued by a stalker no one else can
see. Montiel Figueiras, Parker, Bhuvaneswar, and Ockert are devotees and
virtuosos of the form, and each novella is lyrically rich in its prose
and swift in its plotting. Together, the novellas startle with the
consequences of seeing and being seen.  

206 pages, Paperback

Published January 28, 2025

About the author

My debut short story collection, WHITE DANCING ELEPHANTS, out from Dzanc Books on Oct 9 2018 and available for pre-order now (including on all the indie bookstore websites via Core Source) presents stories of the #MeToo movement from the diverse perspectives of women of color and LBGTQ women. It also features willful androids, strange orphanages, 16th century Indian-Portuguese slaves who outwit their captors, and the Buddha's birth story. Some personal essays in support of the book have also started to come out in various places, like this one: https://themillions.com/2018/04/hot-a...


Thanks so much for considering any form of collaboration that might make sense for you. Below are some story links to Tin House and Narrative, as well as my author bio and photo.

xoxo

Chaya

links: http://www.narrativemagazine.com/issu...

http://tinhouse.com/on-eliot/

Bio:
Chaya Bhuvaneswar is a practicing physician and writer whose work has appeared or is forthcoming in Narrative Magazine, Tin House, Electric Lit, The Rumpus, The Millions, Joyland, Large Hearted Boy, Chattahoochee Review, Michigan Quarterly Review, The Awl, jellyfish review, aaduna and elsewhere, with poetry in Cutthroat, sidereal, Natural Bridge, apt magazine, Hobart, Ithaca Lit, Quiddity and elsewhere. Her poetry and prose juxtapose Hindu epics, other myths and histories, and the survival of sexual harassment and racialized sexual violence by diverse women of color. IN addition to the Dzanc Books Short Story Collection prize under which her debut collection WHITE DANCING ELEPHANTS will be released on Oct 9 2018, she recently received a MacDowell Colony Fellowship and a Henfield award for her writing. Her work received several Pushcart Prize anthology nominations this year as well as a Joy Harjo Poetry Contest prize. Follow her on Twitter at @chayab77 including for upcoming readings and events.