08-23-2020 Can you believe there were no decorations prepared for a “Blue Lives Matter” rally slated to be held at a park here in Kingston? Don’t worry. We fixed it.
08-06-2020 Hey! This is a delicious Moth mainstage line-up that I snuck into. Come watch me pretend the wall right outside my bathroom is a storytelling stage! Tonight at 7 pm PDT/10 pm EST. You can purchase tickets here.
06-09-2020 Had a great time on Radio Kingston talking protest movements, mixed privilege, responding to people espousing garbage COVID theories, and knowing when it’s time to eat a popsicle and take a nap. Thanks for the great convo, Theresa Widmann! Listen here.
06-09-2020 Ah, facilitating in the time of coronavirus. Thankfully, the “storytelling for political change” workshop I just led for Future Now Fund went swimmingly. If you don’t already know about the badass work they’re doing, check them out. Here’s a look behind the scenes at my super profesh standing-desk set-up. And yes. Those are my notes attached to a curtain with an earring. Just call me MacGyver.
02-28-2020 I did a very sleep-deprived interview with KPFK’s “Rising Up With Sonali” about the primaries and how heartening it is that we have an unprecedentedly diverse electorate right now. That said, here’s my Super Tuesday message: Yes, Super Tuesday is very important (though still only accounts for ~1/3 of delegates), but we have MONTHS to go in this process. If you’re a Bernie supporter and you’re doing your thing by supporting Bernie, YAY. If you’re a Bernie supporter trying to convince anyone who supports Warren that their vote is wasted or that it’s impossible for her to win, you’re either a psychic or… you think you’re a psychic? Everyone, calm down, stay focused, support the candidate you’re most excited about and, well, don’t be an asshole.
01-06-2020 Pleased to be back at Western Connecticut State University for their MFA program residency. I’ll be teaching a workshop called “What’s the Story: Finding the Narrative Arc in Memoir” and giving a reading (open to the public) at 7:30 pm.
11-20-2019 Join me in celebrating the birth of Lewis Wallace’s vital book about objectivity and journalism, The View From Somewhere. Tonight, 7:30 pee-em at McNally Jackson in Willamsburg, BK.
11-07-2019 Publishing Symposium tonight at Drew University! I’ll be talking the do’s and don’t’s of pitching both reported stories and essays.
05-24-2019 Tonight! I’ll be performing an improvised PowerPoint presentation with the inimitable Micaela Blei as part of the “PowerPoint Roulette” comedy show. Come watch us make shit up alongside comedians Aparna Nacherla, Shalewa Sharp, and more. 7 pm at NYC’s Caveat.
04-22-2019 A huge thanks to YoungArts for inviting me to deliver the keynote for this year’s high school arts awardees.
03-04-2019 This Monday (3/4) at Starr Bar, 7-9 pm! We’re celebrating this Washington Post from the near future. Cocktails, free copies of the paper, and music from the brilliant Jean Rohe will be on tap. Co-creator of the paper L.A. Kauffman and I will talk about creating a Trump-less future in a convo moderated by paper contributor Sam Eifling. You should probably come because it will be a very very good time.
02-07-2019 Doing a reading tomorrow, 2/7, 7 pm at Pete’s Candy Store with some fabulous folks as part of the The Rally Reading Series.
01-18-2019 My piece, “Why Americans Need to Act Like the Majority We Already Are,” (an excerpt from the future WaPo project) is available at Waging Nonviolence.
01-17-2019 Thanks for the sweet New Yorker write-up, Masha Gessen!
“In a piece titled “Act Like the Majority We Already Are,’ Roychoudhuri applies logic to defeatist arguments. “Straight white men—the historical flavor of choice for those who wield power in this country—amount to fewer than 30 percent of Americans,” she writes. “That means the marginalized Americans among us—the queer folk, the black and brown, the immigrants, the women—are indisputably the majority. . . . If we want to win, we don’t need to ‘reach across the aisle’ so much as reach out to prospective allies to ensure they recognize our shared interests, and the power we have as a movement.’”
12-10-2018 Well, hey, The Marginalized Majority was just named one of the best books of the year by Kirkus Reviews.
11-15-2018 D.C. friends: Come scheme with me & the brilliant L.A. Kauffman, author of the new book How to Read a Protest, about a post-Trump future. At the Potter’s House at 6:30 pm.
11-05-2018 The New York Times says you should come see “For the People” – Monday 11/5, 8 pm at Roulette. I think so, too. Incredible music from Darius Jones. I’ll be there presenting The Marginalized Majority. Come out and get your dose of & solidarity before the midterms.
09-30-2018 I’m be doing a reading at the Baltimore Book Festival on Sunday, September 30th at 2 pm. Look for me at Red Emma’s tent!
08-04-2018 In conversation with the sharp and hilarious Jenny Yang at Skylight Books in Los Angeles. Link is here.
08-02-2018 Thanks to Obi Kauffman for a great inteview at KPFA. Link to our convo is here.
07-26-2018 Look, Ma, I’m on TV! C-SPAN, to be exact. Actually, my Ma was in the audience because she’s the best. (And if you want to see her ask me a question about having children, skip to the 44 min. mark. Because that happened.) Huge thanks to Flyleaf Books and Belle Boggs for a great event! Link to full video here.
07-25-2018 Thanks to Anita Rao on WUNC’s “State of Things” for a fantastic interview in my hometown. Listen here.
07-24-2018 “Like Most Americans, I Was Raised to Be A White Man,” one of the stranger and more personal excerpts from my book, is now available on LitHub! Hope you enjoy it along with the accompanying graphic which features me in three of my favorite outfits.
08-30-2018 I’ll be on KPFA’s “Rising Up With Sonali” talking about the book. Watch here:
07-17-2018 The official book trailer is here. This was absurdly fun to shoot.
And here’s the trailer teaser:
07-11-2018 “Protest Doesn’t Work — Except When It Does,” an excerpt from my book, is live on Salon today… and, uh, yes. Yes, I do compare trying to understand how sex works by watching porn to trying to understand how protest works by reading anemic history textbooks.
07-10-2018 Friends! My book is officially out today. To celebrate, I went on WNYC’s Brian Lehrer show and I am really very pleased that sweaty palms are not a thing that can be transmitted through radio waves.
06-11-2018 NYC friends: Mark your calendars and share w/your peoples! I’m very excited about these two book launch events, featuring some of the baddest women I know.
Join me in Brooklyn on July 11 at Books Are Magic in conversation w/feminist writer Jessica Valenti. And on July 17, I’ll be at Bluestockings in conversation w/This American Life’s Chana Joffe-Walt + special musical guest Jean Rohe. FULL BOOK TOUR INFO AVAILABLE HERE.
04-06-2018 My book The Marginalized Majority: Claiming Our Power in a Post-Truth America will be released by Melville House Books on July 10. Pre-order it here.
“A stirring defense of ‘identity politics’ and the need to reclaim narratives as well as a powerful account of the transformation of a journalist into an activist … Combines the reporting chops of an experienced journalist with literary flair and a conversational, common-sense approach that seems far more heartfelt than dogmatic … There have been plenty of books covering similar territory—and there will be many more in the years to come—but rarely are they as persuasive and engaging as this one.” —Kirkus (starred review)
03-02-2018 If you tune into this week’s episode of This American Life, you’ll hear me — and four other women — talk about our former boss at AlterNet. It’s a deeper dive into the lives of women behind #metoo headlines, and I’m so impressed with how the producer — Chana Joffe-Walt — wove the stories together. Listen here.
01-22-2017 “How to Take Action – and Stay Sane – in the Trump Era,” an interview with author and activist L.A. Kauffman, is now available over at Rolling Stone. Give it a read.
“You may think you need to be doing something massive for it to matter, but the lesson is exactly the opposite: It’s about pulling together with folks you know in a small group that is willing to actually do things – like show up at your member of Congress’ town hall or office.”
12-02-2016 In the aftermath of this presidential election, how do we keep moving forward? My essay on reclaiming these coming years is over at Los Angeles Review of Books. Read “Our Four Years” here.
“What if — rather than ceding the terms of the debate, and becoming consumed with merely defending and responding to his perilous idiocy — we push back with a vision of our four years, the reality we insist on?”
03-02-2016 Pleased to announce that I’m now working as a teaching artist for The Moth’s amazing education program. I get to teach storytelling to high schoolers in NYC, and then watch them perform in StorySlams. Pretty much the sweetest gig. Read more here.
12-23-2015 Hot off the (e)presses! A strange little essay about my name. And Alf. And being partially Indian. And partially non-Indian. Check out “Where I’m Writing From” at Kenyon Review.
“I spent my childhood being given cues for when to laugh—and I obeyed. Now I’m like a well-trained dog that recognizes a command but only wants to bite.”
10-30-2015 Upworthy gives my book, Go to Hells: An Updated Guide to Dante’s Underworld, some Halloween love. You can read the full article here.
“Roychoudhuri describes it as ‘a series of punishments for people who seem to have temporarily forgotten how to be people.'”
08-13-2015 My story on the awesome NYC Real Estate Investment Cooperative is over at Upworthy today. Read it here.
“[T]he beauty of it is that it’s a simple, highly adaptable model that communities around the world can use to take back their cities.”
05-19-2015 Why’d I write a book chockfull of new circles of hell? Zest Books asks me a few questions and gets a few answers in this interview.
“I’m an incurable crank with a tiny nugget of hope at my core.”
05-11-2015 The Go to Hells book trailer is born! Go to Hells: Punishments for the Intolerable.
04-21-2015 TONIGHT! Come celebrate the release of Go to Hells at Pete’s Candy Store in Williamsburg. 6:30-7:30 pm. The evening promises to be diabolically fun , with a short hell-themed storytelling segment featuring the extremely talented Brigid Boyle, Kate Greathead, and Justin Angermeyer vying for your vote. You’ll also hear some hell-circle outtakes and feast your eyes on artwork by Jesse Riggle that’s featured in the book. And there will, of course, be copies of Go to Hells for sale ($12) in case you want to take one home with yous. After-party at the bar!
04-07-2015Go to Hells: An Updated Guide to Dante’s Underworld, written under my pen name, Kali V. Roy, is out today! You can buy it here.
06-02-2014 My op-ed about Amazon’s aggressive book-pricing tactics is over at Al Jazeera America today. Read it here.
“The business of the future also looks suspiciously like the business of the past.”
05-19-2014 I’ll be giving a farewell-to-being-a-fellow reading at the Center for Fiction on Monday, May 19th at 7 pm.
04-09-2014 My essay “Where I’m Writing From” receives third place in this year’s Summer Literary Seminars contest judged by Phillip Lopate.
03-18-2014 You know that “First Kiss” video that’s been making the rounds? Well, some friends and I went ahead and made a parody of it.
10-16-2013 In case you’re wondering what to do with yourself on Wednesday, October 16th at 7 pm: I’m reading at the Center for Fiction with my fellow fellows. RSVP here and you’ll be entitled to a high five, free booze, and earfulls of fiction.
07-31-2013 “Artifacts,” an essay about my family, the Newtown school shooting, and what happens when narrative fails us, is up on the Rumpus today.
“I’ve been trying to write this essay and failing. Instead of calling it ‘writer’s block,’ I prefer to think of it as ‘having escaped the Muses.’”
07-25-2013 What’s that? You want to see me hopscotching my way through an obstacle course of full coffee cups and squeaky toys? Well, okay.
03-09-2013 Very excited to be working out of the Center for Fiction this year as a 2013 fellow.
12-19-2012 My essay on memorializing in the wake of the school shooting in Newtown, CT, “The Geography of Mourning,” is available online at Virgina Quarterly Review.
“It’s a strange thing to watch a small hometown transformed into a monument, a memorial. Though the only truly remarkable thing lurking in this is how common that experience has become.”
10-21-2012 “Scenes from Occupied New York,” my essay on the Occupy Wall Street Movement, is in the first edition of n+1‘s Occupy! and is reprinted in the German book Occupy!.
“New York City has the highest population density in the United States. Yet we are an incredibly well-behaved bunch. We take our trains to work, and go home to our small apartments to face off with the resident roaches… occasionally stopping off first at the local bar for a drink with friends. But something interesting happens when we do not return to our apartments. We become visible.”
11-30-2011 “A Place of Worship” won third place in the Wag’s Revue Winter Writers’ Contest and is nominated for a 2012 Pushcart Prize.
10-04-2011 My investigative article, “Books After Amazon” makes Dave Eggers’ “Notable Non-Required Reading” list of 2010 in the anthology, The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2011.
08-15-2011 Twisted Critters: The Pipe Cleaner Book, featuring my pipe cleaner designs, was just released and is available here.
01-31-2011 The kid’s book that I contributed to (including a chart whereby one can concoct their own near-death survival story) was just published. Rule the World: 119 Shortcuts to Total World Domination is available here.
12-02-2010 “A Simple Migration,” is the runner-up in Our Stories’ Richard Bausch Short Story Contest and is nominated for a 2011 Pushcart Prize. It is also featured in the recently published Best of Our Stories: Volume IV.
11-20-2010 My investigative article, exploring the impact that Amazon has had on the publishing industry is the cover story for the November/December issue of the Boston Review. “Books After Amazon” is available here.
“What happens when you sell a book like a can of soup?”