Episode 83: Neels Patel tells Me How to Be
Today I get to interview my 3rd author, Neel Patel.
Neel Patel is a screenwriter and author who grew up in Champaign, Illinois and currently lives in Los Angeles, where he writes for TV and film. His first book, If You See Me, Don't Say Hi, is a The New York Times Book Review Editors’ choice, an NPR Best Book of 2018, and has been optioned for television.
His writing has appeared in ELLE, India, The Paris Review, on BuzzFeed , and many more
I chat with him about his #debutnovel, Tell Me How To Be, which I heard about after Lilly Singh gave him a shoutout on her platform. It focuses on a mother-son relationship, Indian-American stereotypes, and has the best Guju (#gujarati - language native to the Indian state of #Gujurat) phrases sprinkled in throughout the book.
We also chat about how we were both bad at math, his coming out story, the reason stories like the one he tells in his book are so important to the #indianamerican experience, why leaving home and but then coming back helped inspire his novel, and all that homemade Indian food our moms made for us growing up that we both miss tremendously.
Episode 83 out now wherever you get your podcasts!
#southasiantrailblazers #southasiandiaspora #southasianvoices #southasianauthors #tuckeredoutwithami #tuckeredoutpodcast