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Sameer Pandya

Biography

Sameer Pandya

Sameer Pandya is the author of the story collection THE BLIND WRITER, which was longlisted for the PEN/Open Book Award. He is also the recipient of the PEN/Civitella Fellowship. His fiction, commentary and cultural criticism has appeared in a range of publications, including the Atlantic, Salon, Sports Illustrated, ESPN and Narrative Magazine. He teaches creative writing and South Asian and Asian American literature at the University of California, Santa Barbara. MEMBERS ONLY is his first novel.

Books by Sameer Pandya

by Sameer Pandya - Fiction

Raj Bhatt is often unsure of where he belongs. Having moved to America from Bombay as a child, he knew few Indian kids. Now middle-aged, he lives mostly happily in California, with a job at a university. Still, his white wife seems to fit in better than he does at times, especially at their tennis club, a place he’s cautiously come to love. But it’s there that, in one week, his life unravels. It begins at a meeting for potential new members: Raj is thrilled to find an African American couple on the list, as he dreams of a more diverse club. But in an effort to connect, he makes a racist joke. The committee turns on him, no matter the years of prejudice he’s put up with. And worse still, he soon finds his job is in jeopardy after a group of students report him as a reverse racist, thanks to his alleged “anti-Western bias.”