On more than one occasion, I’ve had a Freudian slip—substituting my name with Gita’s— while discussing my novel with others. And although GITA isn’t a memoir, it’s based on some of my experiences, so in the review below, the reader isn’t wrong in mentioning my name instead of the main character Gita’s. Thank you, dear reader, for this lovely review on the Barnes & Noble website.
Marist University has selected AB(solutely) NORMAL as its 2025-2026 Academic Core Common Read!
All over again, I’m honored and grateful to have a short story in AB(solutely) NORMAL. And, the anthology editors Nora & Rocky shared that “the [Marist University] student government approached their administrators and asked specifically for a book about mental health. AB(solutely) NORMAL was then selected from a list of ten contenders, which had been whittled down from an even larger list.” Check out this link for more information on AB(solutely) NORMAL as the core common read: https://www.marist.edu/academics/core/common-reading.
GITA featured in Stanford Magazine, Spring 2025 issue!
A double honor as Gita is a Stanford freshman, and I’m a ‘95 Stanford grad!
My agent forwarded this to me today from a reader. It hit me hard. I am grateful and inspired.
Musing on the Upcoming AWP Panel--Outspoken: Accurately & Sensitively Representing Sexual Assault in YA Fiction
The panel discussion is on Saturday, and I began this morning with a cup of coffee and reflection: Growing up, survivors of chronic childhood incest (covert and/or overt) lack the language to conceptualize or relate what was done to them because survival demands their brains/bodies disconnect from their reality. Brain/body development and connection is damaged and pain is manifested as symptoms of suffering. It would be unrealistic to depict young survivors in YA lit as “obviously feminist” or able to ask for help or have insight. To do so would be dismissive and belittling of the vast complexities of the incest survivor experience—including the familial and societal enabling of it—and I refuse to be an enabler because I am a survivor.
Therefore, it makes sense to me to introduce myself at the panel like this: I’m Sonia Patel, and I’m a practicing child, adolescent, and adult psychiatrist. I’m the first person on both sides of my Gujarati-Indian family to be born in the USA, specifically New York. I was raised there, Connecticut, and the tiny island of Molokai, Hawaii, where my debut YA novel RANI PATEL IN FULL EFFECT is set. Rani’s story is my story, if I’d known what chronic covert and overt incest were while I was going through it—a completely different beast than circumscribed sexual assault in how fundamentally it damages brain development—and something that wasn’t, until RANI, depicted in YA literature in a way that I or many of the teens I treat could’ve related to or found comfort in. My latest YA novel, GITA DESAI IS NOT HERE TO SHUT UP, is my college story and is a realistic depiction of some of the possible long-term fallout of incest, such as the repetition of the sexual object role as a mute language of chronic incest, because the truth is most incest survivors lack the language to conceptualize or explain what was done to them in their youth and often cannot comprehend or verbalize about it until middle age. By giving language to the complexities of incest (the secrets, the gaslighting, the isolation, the denial, the enabling by other family members, and the patterns of negative thoughts, feelings, and behaviors), I hope to offer young survivors the “aha moments” never offered to me: the possibility of understanding that what they’re enduring is abuse and the acknowledgement and validation of their painful experiences. As a survivor and a psychiatrist who treats survivors, I’m well aware that healing is impossible without the aforementioned.
January is National Human Trafficking Prevention Month
“January is Human Trafficking Prevention Month, a presidentially designated observance that raises awareness about human trafficking and empowers the public to take action to prevent and respond to it.” –Office on Trafficking in Persons (U.S. Dept of Health & Human Services)
The character Rasa was inspired by one of my patients who found healing after being trafficked, but then died from an autoimmune disease—her body’s grief response. If I ever had the chance to give her JAYA AND RASA, I hope that she’d find the messy, inconvenient, and sometimes unpalatable story to be a realistic reflection of part of her life.
National Human Trafficking Hotline 24/7 Confidential 1-888-373-7888
Check out this TOOLKIT ON TRAFFICKING PREVENTION from the Office on Trafficking in Persons.
Check out this book tube!
Thank you, Sarah, for including me here and in the JUST YA anthology. Follow Sarah!
INSTAGRAM /sarahjdonovan9
FACEBOOK / sarahjdonovan9
YOUTUBE SUBSCRIBE: / @sarah.j.donovan
Honored to be a guest on this podcast! Check it out, I promise it's thought-provoking!
Attention Audiobook Fans: GITA is an AudioFile Magazine EARPHONES AWARD Winner!
NERD DAILY INTERVIEW!
The full interview is here! Check it out!
YA BOOKS CENTRAL AUTHOR INTERVIEW
Honored to have been interviewed by YA Books Central! Check out the interview here!
CHECK IT OUT!
Check out my essay in Publishers Weekly!
HONORED THAT MY ESSAY IS INCLUDED IN THIS GROUNDBREAKING NEW ANTHOLOGY: JUST YA
AMAZING NEWS! A groundbreaking new YA anthology (grateful that my essay LETTER FROM YOUR NEW PSYCHIATRIST is included) will be live on September 2nd, and FREE off the Open OkState site. The paperback will eventually be available anywhere books are sold for the cost of printing and any bookseller mark-up. Thank you Sarah Donovon, editor, for your hard work and dedication on this incredible project!
From the introduction:
“JUST YA: SHORT POEMS, STORIES, & ESSAYS is a collection of open licensed,
non-revenue seeking literature about inclusive, affirming, justice-oriented
ways of being and the incredible capacity of youth.
The texts here are short so that they can be read and studied in one
class period. They are online so that teachers and students can freely print
and share the texts. Authors explore topics that can be in conversation
with/against canonical texts typically taught in high school classrooms.
This offers a rationale for teachers to bring in youth-focused texts to
update their curriculum and shift their framing with contemporary
perspectives. This collection is organized in themes around identity, love,
land, world, and futures (see Table 1.) that we see in conversation with the
required canonical texts and youth interests. And the forms are selected to
inspire student writing in a variety of forms, including creative fiction and
nonfiction.”
In PEOPLE Magazine!
In PEOPLE mag! Always grateful and honored to have my short story in THIS young adult anthology, and this made me teary: “Rock star librarian” & author John Schu said, “I’m not exaggerating when I write that this collection of stories by 16 extraordinary authors will save lives. It breaks down stereotypes. It is extraordinary. “
GITA DESAI IS NOT HERE TO SHUT UP drops 9.10.24...until then, enjoy the official GITA playlist!
Songs in order of play/mention in GITA!
A DIFFERENT BEAST
My heart hammered in my chest when I read this Buckminster Fuller quote: “What can I do that isn’t going to get done unless I do it, just because of who I am?” GITA, definitely GITA—the first YA fiction about the realistic beginnings of the fallout of prolonged, repeated childhood sexual trauma, an entirely different beast than the fallout of circumscribed sexual trauma. A different beast I’ve spent 20 years helping many of my patients begin to tame (it’s always a lifelong task). A different beast I’ve endured, survived, and still tame daily. A different beast that needs to be exposed in the YA world, the way Judith Herman first exposed it in all of its biological complexity in the nonfiction world in her seminal book TRAUMA AND RECOVERY:
Herman, Judith. Trauma and Recovery. New York: Basic Books, 1997. Page 119.
COVER REVEAL!
A cover so destined to be iconic & so perfect for my überrealistic novel dropping 9/10/24 from Penguin Teen! ⚡Read an excerpt now HERE and crank Nirvana’s “Love Buzz” (Gita listens to it in chapter 6!) to feel the vibe of this game-changer novel about a silenced 18-year-old Gujarati-American girl—incognizant of the unspeakable in her childhood—whose mute language becomes repetition, chaos, and secrets, and she’ll continue to downward spiral unless she figures out how to rip off her family’s proverbial muzzle of chup-re (shut up)…⚡
Pre-order here: Gita Desai Is Not Here to Shut Up, Penguin Teen
Thank you Kristin Boyle for the striking cover design and Fatima Baig for the gorgeous cover illustration!
Thank you to my fantastic agent Victoria Wells Arms and my incredible editor Rosie Ahmed!
Thank you to everyone at Penguin Teen who’ve helped make this novel a reality!
The 2024 TAYSHAS Reading List is awarded by the Texas Library Association/Young Adult Round Table committee. So excited that the YA anthology AB(SOLUTELY) NORMAL—that includes my short story NOTHING FEELS NO PAIN—was choosen for the list!
