Rahul Mehta


Rahul Mehta is an American author. He was born and raised in West Virginia, and his work focuses on the experience of being queer and South Asian. Mehta is the winner of the Lambda Literary Award for Debut Gay Fiction and the Asian American Literary Award for Fiction for his short story collection Quarantine. He teaches Creative Writing at the University of the Arts.

Recognition

Mehta's work has been reviewed in many publications, including the Iowa Review, Fiction Writers Review, Lambda Literary Review, Time Out, and Booklist. Brian Leung said of Mehta's short story collection, "Quarantine marks a turning of a corner, a representative flashpoint, at least, for LGBT and Asian-American writers who have felt obligated to center their creative work around savory dishes, coming out, the exotic customs of intervening relatives, protest, all the expected signifiers." Leung concludes, "Mehta's stories acknowledge that we can occupy more than one subject position." V. Jo Hsu writes that Mehta "artfully interweaves sexual and racial tensions without creating an antagonistic "other."

Awards