Sayantani Dasgupta

Born in Calcutta and raised in New Delhi, Sayantani Dasgupta is the author of the essay collection Brown Women Have Everything: Essays on (Dis)comfort and Delight.

Previous books include the short story collection Women Who Misbehave, the chapbook The House of Nails: Memories of a New Delhi Childhood, and Fire Girl: Essays on India, America, & the In-Between, a Finalist for the Foreword Indies Awards for Creative Nonfiction.

She is the recipient of the Foreword Indies Prize for Essays, a Centrum Foundation Fellowship, a Pushcart Prize Special Mention, and the WILMA Woman of the Year award in Arts for 2022. Two of her essays, “Rinse, Repeat” and "In Case of an Active Shooter Attack" were named Notable Essays of 2023 and 2022 by Best American Essays.

She is a contributing editor for Assay: A Journal of Creative Nonfiction and the founder of Write Wilmington. An Associate Professor of Creative Writing at UNC Wilmington, Sayantani has also taught writing in India, Italy, Colombia, and Mexico.

Education

M.F.A. in Creative Writing, University of Idaho.
M.A. in History, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India.
B.A. in History, University of Delhi.

Specialization in Teaching

Prof. Dasgupta's teaching philosophy blends Indian and American influences, combining close, rigorous reading with creative experimentation. She believes in learning beyond the classroom. This may take the form of working with artifacts located within UNCW’s Special Collections, browsing historical archives, learning from guest speakers, or making something at the MakerSpace Studio on campus.

Regular in-class writing is a key component of Prof. Dasgupta's classroom and students build 20–40 pages of material each semester to revise and refine. This daily practice sharpens critical thinking; deepens understanding of the text at hand; encourages students to trust their voices and take creative and intellectual risks; and builds discipline, stamina, and resilience, which are foundational elements for any artist.

With regards to her personal practice, Prof. Dasgupta writes daily and shares her process with students to model discipline and high standards. Together, these practices help students become more confident, productive, and independent thinkers and writers.

Recent courses include:
CRW 580: Reading & Writing Horror
CRW 545: Eating Our World & Writing about Food
CRW 550: Inventive Wonders: Workshop in Lyric & Hermit Crab Essays
CRW 420: The Contemporary Essay
CRW 420: Boundaries & Beyond: Writing About Familiar, Foreign & Forbidden Places
CRW 325: Issues in Contemporary Publishing

Research Interests

Creative Nonfiction, Literary Fiction, South Asian History and Literature, Indian Cinema, World Religions, Fairy Tales, Folk Lore and Mythology.

Professional Service

Prof. Dasgupta is a contributing editor (interviews) for Assay: A Journal of Creative Nonfiction. She has taught workshops for the North Carolina Literary Network, Wildacres, Hub City Writers Project, Centrum Port Townsend, Sewanee Young Writers, and the Cape Fear Book Festival among others. She has served as an advisory board member for UNC Press's Great Circle Books and as a Mentor for AWP's Writer to Writer Mentorship Program. For several years, she served as the creative nonfiction editor for Crab Creek Review.

Community Engagement

Prof. Dasgupta is the founder and faculty coordinator of Write Wilmington. It was founded in fall 2021 to help writers maintain a writing routine because of the social isolation brought on by the Covid-19 Pandemic. Having just completed its 10th season, Write Wilmington continues to flourish in its capacity as a community-based initiative to foster a culture of free and accessible writing workshops across the globe via classes hosted on Zoom and led by UNCW’s creative writing faculty, friends, alumni, and current grad students. Themes vary from season to season: Writers at Play, Nine Stories, etc. Since its inception, Write Wilmington has served thousands of writers from all over the U.S. as well as other countries.

Honors & Awards

• Winner, Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Awards (Essays), for Brown Women Have Everything: Essays on (Dis)Comfort & Delight
• Finalist, North Carolina State Award for Nonfiction, North Carolina Literary and Historical Association
• Finalist, Asian Pacific American Award for Adult Non-Fiction, Asian Pacific American Librarians Association
• Notable Best American Essays 2023, edited by Vivian Gornick for my essay “In Case of An Active Shooter,” published in Michigan Quarterly Review literary magazine.
• Winner, WILMA Woman of the Year in Arts
• Notable Best American Essays 2022, edited by Alexander Chee for the essay “Rinse, Repeat,” published in Chautauqua literary magazine.
• Winner, Write India Season 3, for the short story, “Chain Reaction.” Write India is organized by Times of India Books, the books division of India’s largest English-language newspaper, The Times of India.
• Pushcart Prize Special Mention for the essay "On Seeking Answers" published in SN Review