Q&A with “Bandit Queens” author Parini Shroff

In ABF’s July book club we discussed The Bandit Queens, a hilarious tale about an Indian woman named Geeta who gets falsely accused of murdering her missing husband. Geeta finds the rumors surprisingly useful in keeping annoying people in her village off her back… until other women start seeking her help in killing off their own abusive husbands. We were honored to have The Bandit Queens author Parini Shroff join us for a Q&A. You can find the transcript for the session below, lightly edited for clarity and to remove any sensitive or identifying information of book club attendees.

Saamiya Seraj  (facilitator): Everyone, I wanted to introduce you to Parini Shroff. Thank you so much for being here. Welcome to our book club.

Parini Shroff: Hi. It's such a pleasure to be here. Thank you for inviting me.

Saamiya Seraj: Yeah, we're really excited and honored to have you here. We are going to start off with a brief introduction and some warm up questions, and then we'll open the floor up for everyone. So, tell us a little bit more about yourself. 

Parini Shroff: Let's see. As I said, my name is Parini Shroff, I was born and raised in the Bay Area in California, where I'm seated now, I got my Bachelor's in Creative Writing from USC in Southern California. Then I went to law school and got my Juris Doctorate. And then after that, I moved to Austin, Texas to get my Master's in Fine Arts.
<Some fellow Longhorns in the audience cheers and Parini laughs.>
Hook 'em! And then after I graduated with my MFA in creative writing, I kind of balanced working part-time as an attorney and  treating fiction as my other part-time job. And so I've been writing pretty consistently my entire life. But the Bandit Queens is thankfully my debut novel.

Saamiya Seraj: Thank you, and what an amazing book that is. Tell us a little bit more about the book. One of the things that really amazed me was the brilliance with which you talked about painful subjects: patriarchy, domestic violence, rape against Dalit women. How did you maintain that balance and tone where you gave these topics the gravity that it required, but also added the humor that would ensure that people would keep reading it?

Parini Shroff: First of all, thank you. I'm glad that the humor, the dark humor worked for you. And I'll say that I didn't know that it would work for people. I didn't know that the humor would keep the readers engaged. I thought, you know, it's really irreverent to have these kinds of jokes when dealing with such weighty topics, like the ones you just mentioned. Patriarchy, misogyny, discrimination, prejudice, domestic violence. And while I was writing, I kept trying to shove the humor away. I tried to keep it at bay, but it kept it demanding to be seen. And eventually I threw up my hands and I was like, 'Alright, I give up. Let's just see what comes of this'. And thankfully, the response has been really positive. People seem to think that the humor, rather than being irreverent and disrespectful, that it elevates and kind of bolsters the story.

Saamiya Seraj: Thank you for sharing that. I recently actually went through a cancer journey and dark humor was what kept me going. Sometimes my friends and family were like, ‘What are you laughing about? Like, this is death you're laughing at.’ And I'm like, ‘I have to. This is the situation that I'm in.’ So were there any parts that were painful to write because it broaches on such difficult topics? And how was the research like, trying to understand the problems that these women in rural India we're facing?

Parini Shroff: I've mentioned that I've been writing for quite some time. For me, it feels like the research that I did for various projects—short stories or other manuscripts—it felt like all that research was really leading to this novel. And so some of that research had already been performed. But that doesn't make it any less painful. Watching documentaries and reading translated first-person narratives from the women that were recounting their assaults and their abuse—that was incredibly devastating and enraging. And it was important to use that rage as fuel for these characters and these women.

Saamiya Seraj: That actually hits the perfect segue into my next question. We were talking about this in the book club—the characters were just so distinctive and colorful and real. I was saying that I could actually imagine these characters existing in real life. So, what was the process of creating these unique voices and the dynamic between them? I know parents are not supposed to have a favorite and as the author, you're kind of the parent of the characters, but do you have any favorite characters in the book?

Parini Shroff: Oh, absolutely. I love Saloni. I love Saloni so much. I think she's such a—I mean, I'm not like her at all, which is maybe why I admire so much. But she's so strong and she's ambitious. She's manipulative to her advantage. She's funny. And also, you know, inconveniently narcissistic at wrong moments. She's flawed, but really heroic, I think. And so she's my absolute favorite, even though Geeta is the protagonist. And to answer the first part of your question, I'm happy that these characters seem real. It was really important to me to not have flat characters who are just one thing. For Geeta, I wanted her to have a combination of good qualities but she also really gets in her own way sometimes, right? Like, she has a habit of just saying the wrong thing, or alienating people. And that's a real person. That's a fleshed out person instead of just a static character. And Geeta and Farah were the easiest for me to kind of return to because this novel started off as a short story back in 2013. And they were the two I began with. So when I returned to this project, and I saw 'Oh, I think there's a potential for a novel here'. They were the they were the main characters, and then I fleshed out Saloni. Khushi came later. And the twins also were a later edition. 

Saamiya Seraj: Awesome, thank you for sharing that. I'm gonna switch tracks just a little bit. There's a lot of people in the group who are writers and also fellow Longhorns like you and a lot of us are based in Austin, Texas. We know you did your MFA at UT Austin. For the aspiring writers in the group, are there any creative writing programs or writers workshop that you would recommend? 

Parini Shroff: Yes, plenty. I think the first question you have to ask yourself is what kind of time and space are you looking for to write? If you're looking for an extended period of time—two years or three years—there are great programs that will not drive you into debt. They'll pay for your tuition, they'll give you health insurance, they'll give you a modest stipend to supplement your living. For a longer retreat to focus on other people's work, your work, reading, and taking courses, I'd recommend the MFA route. If you are, for various reasons, in a position where you can only get away for two weeks or a month, I would recommend artists’ residencies, which more often than not will take care of your room and board. And you can come and stay for a period of around two weeks or two months, depending on the residency. And of course, there are also writing workshops, but those you have to pay for. And so I'm always conscious of the economical benefit of having your art supported and funded.

Saamiya Seraj: Thank you for sharing that. Related to that, what was it like navigating to the publishing world, as a woman of color? Part of the reason why we started this book club was when we saw how white-centric the publishing industry was, we wanted to uplift authors who are women of color. So, we wanted to hear from you how your experiences were in the industry.

Parini Shroff: You're absolutely right, it is very skewed towards narratives written by white men, cis white men. That said, I know plenty of writers and it feels like we're always being told no. It's such a competitive industry. And their are all these gatekeepers.  I feel like the road to here has been paved with a lot of rejection. And it's bizarre because there are artists who are very sensitive. I think that's how you create art—by keeping yourself vulnerable and sensitive to yourself and others. But also counterintuitively, you have to develop a thick skin because you're told no all the time. So that the process was paved with rejection, but the important thing is to keep going. You have to keep going because the world needs your stories. The world needs to hear stories from authors of color, and women. And I think that though publishing has a long way to go in terms of editors and agents because these gatekeepers are also white... thankfully my agent and my editor are themselves are greedy for stories from marginalized voices, even if they themselves are not of color. So I feel like I'm very fortunate with the team that I have now. But, it took—like I said, I've been writing for a while. Various projects and manuscripts I've written were met with, 'This isn't right for us, come back'. The process has made me realize that so much of the publication industry is not about talent. The 'No' you're given is not because your work was not fantastic or solid. It's because the powers that be don't know how to market it necessarily. I wish I'd known that earlier. And so I'm telling all of you, you got to keep going.

Saamiya Seraj: Thank you for sharing that. It helps to know that.

Parini Shroff: Yeah, I'm sure some rejections are based on—maybe it just isn't engaging. Maybe it wasn't interesting. But so much of it is like, 'I don't know how to give it to our marketing team'. And then you're like, 'Wait, that doesn't seem fair, I did my job. I wrote something compelling.'

Saamiya Seraj: Yeah. One last question for me and then I'll open up the floor to everyone else. A part in the book that really resonated with me and some of my friends who I was talking with was the quote, 'They expect women to mutate pain into art form'. As a woman of color, as a mom and a cancer survivor, I just really felt that in my core, because I feel like sometimes I'm expected to make something beautiful out my struggle. So I'd love to know a little bit more about what you were thinking when you wrote that.

Parini Shroff: I'll be honest, this was a while ago, this is 2020. A lot of the writing process is like—honestly, the best writing days are the days where I kind of don't exist and I'm like a conduit more so than I'm present. The bad writing days are when I'm very aware of myself as opposed to the characters taking over. So I can't literally answer your question as to that line. But I can say that it is a distilled axiom, if you will, for all that we're told as women to not to not be too much, or to smile, or to relax. And all these things, all this pressure to be perfect. To not be rude, to not speak up for ourselves, to not interrupt, to not object. On paper, it's such a ridiculous double standard. But when you're living it and you absorb it, it becomes just like how you edit yourself walking through this world. You twist yourself into knots to become what others want from you or in order to make them more comfortable.

Saamiya Seraj: Thank you, thank you. That's all the questions that I had. To everyone else, feel free to unmute yourselves and ask questions.

Attendee 1: Sure, I can go I just absolutely loved the book. What is your motivation behind the story? Why did you feel that the story should be written? Especially with this being your debut novel, what was your thought process behind choosing this story to tell?

Parini Shroff: Yeah, as I mentioned, this novel started off as a short story in 2013, and I worked on other projects and other manuscripts that didn't sell. I was in the midst of grieving for a project that I thought was finally going to sell and didn't. It went out in March of 2020 in New York, so my timing could have been better, but I was in a really low spot. It was difficult to get out of bed. And then we were in lockdown. I was like, 'Well, what else can I do?' And the only way I know how to navigate life is through writing. I don't know how to not write. I had to return to the page. And I didn't know what the story was going to be. I'm not a writer who outlines. I didn't know where these characters were going to go, I didn't know that they were actually going to start killing men. But as I returned to Geeta, and as Saloni was created, and as Farah and Khushi got into the mix, and things start to get more complicated, the novel snowballed, and it kind of just fell out of me. And as I was writing, I realized, you know, by sheer virtue of the setting taking place in a village in India, I feel like I have a responsibility to address these things. And to fold back to how we originally started the conversation, that's when I started rejecting the humor because it didn't feel respectful. Then I ultimately capitulated and let it be what it wanted to be. 

Attendee 2: The comradeship between the women, which, when you start the story, they're a bit jealous of each other, but then they can see the benefits of forming this comradeship. How did that come about?

Parini Shroff: That came from the message I ultimately realized I wanted to convey, when I realized where the characters were moving. I wanted to go from "You have this so I can't have it." to "We can do this. We can accomplish this." and that kind of arc for all the women but especially for Geeta and Saloni and their reunion because I feel like Geeta and Saloni's return to each other is the real love story of the novel. And so that camaraderie really came from okay, I created and put these women in a group. Now what do I want to leave readers with? What would be satisfying? And what do I want to encourage to see in the real world?

Attendee 2: It was a beautiful book. I haven't enjoyed a book like that for a long, long time.

Parini Shroff: Thank you very much for saying that. It's very kind.

Attendee 3: The real life person Phoolan Devi that you included and weaved throughout the story—initially when I was reading (the book), I think because I was in such a fictionalized space and maybe because it has really dark parts, I was keeping a distance from it. So, I thought that she was a character that you had created. And then I eventually came to the realization that it's a real person and was just... the fact that someone lived that kind of life, like so harrowing, and (it was) really just surprising. You said that you're more of a pantser, rather than plotter or someone that writes before they plot. How did this real life person come into the fold of this fictionalized space? How does that seep in?

Parini Shroff: Yeah, that's a great question. And you're not the first person to think that the injection of Phoolan Devi is fictionalized or that I came up with it and it always shocks me because I'm like, 'No way could I have come up with that.' Her life is so larger than life. And I feel like also from an editorial point of view, if I had made it up an editor would have been like, 'This is too much'. And I think the only way I got away with even inserting it is the fact that it's historical, it's real life. But to answer your question, Geeta starts off the novel in such an isolated position, right? She's such a pariah. She's so lonely. It takes everything she has to even show her face when she leaves her home. And I thought when you're that isolated, when you're coming from a position of such loneliness, you have to pull from a power source larger than yourself to even get out of bed, to run her business, to face the sneers and the gossip about her. And that's when having that power source, having that role model, a real life historical figure, that seems like an amazing opportunity to pay homage to the real life Phoolan Devi, and also educate Western readers who may not otherwise not be familiar with her story about this real life activist and politician and incredible woman.

Attendee 3: I mean, that was very well used, because I had not ever heard anything about her. So, that was a good use of it. And if you still have space for a second question—and I'm sure you get this all the time, so I apologize. But what's next? I'm just really ravenous for your next story. Because I really, really enjoyed this. I thought it was a super uniqueauthorial voice—I read a lot and I really thought this is something I'd never read before, especially the balance between dark humor and dark subjects. And so, yeah, what's on the docket?

Parini Shroff: It feels like I'm working on two novels right now. And I'm excited about both of them. But it's hard for me to figure out how to divide my time. I don't know which is the right project. And so I'm in a bit of a quandary right now. But I'm very grateful for that because the weather has been dry before and that's far more bleak than having too many ideas. So I'm kind of dividing my note taking and thoughts between these two projects. Because the way I write—I mentioned that I don't outline. But my characters talk a lot in my head and so I have pieces of paper everywhere, like on my nightstand, on my desk, and kitchen. I mean, it drives my fiance crazy. Specifically in this novel, Geeta and Saloni—they just wouldn't shut up. And so I just snapped like pieces of dialogue or what I want them to say and really the circumstance and plot weaves around that. I build it around what I want them to say.

Attendee 3: Okay, so it's in the works.

Parini Shroff: Yes, and I hope that the gatekeepers like it and that it gets to be in in all your hands one day, but the important part is that I am enjoying it. And I want to just keep enjoying writing.

Sarah Seraj  (co-facilitator): This isn't really a question, but more of a compliment, because I'm in awe of how you incorporated so many important themes like patriarchy and the caste system. And I wanted to say this because, before you got here, we had amazing discussions—people sharing their personal stories with different parallels to the themes you cover, like domestic violence. And there's no way we could have had such an intimate conversation without your book. So I just really wanted to thank you for that.

Parini Shroff: Oh, I'm so thrilled. I'm thrilled that it led to such an intimate conversation. That makes me happy. It's the purpose, right, of art and sharing, and how we connect.

Sarah Seraj: Yeah, and I'm really looking forward to future work from you. And there was a question in the chat. Which was, would you share a book you're currently reading or one from your shelves?

Parini Shroff: Yes. Oh, my gosh, so many. I don't know how much time you have. But I recently read Animal by Lisa Taddeo and It's not for the faint of heart. Like it's an incredibly visceral, intense read. But the writing is gorgeous. The plot twists are insane. Usually I'm a very voracious reader, as I'm sure a lot of authors are. I usually stop a book and pick one right up. And when I read Animal I had to take two days, I had to take the weekend to just like piece together my existence and my space in the world. It's a fantastic read. It's heavy, but it's amazing. And another book—I'm a bit late to the party but I just discovered the Mars Room by Rachel Kushner, and I thought it was beautiful. I could go on all day. There's so many great books out there. I have a list of all my recs.

Attendee 4: I don't have any questions but thank you so much for being here. I am also Gujarati. And while reading this, it was so refreshing. Like, I don't speak in Gujarati a lot. But when I was reading this, I was like, literally, I felt like I was back with my family. So, thank you, thank you for those words. And honestly, like, I've signed up for so many book clubs in the past, but I could never finish the book in time but your book was so good that I finished it. And I messaged Sarah last week to say I'm early!

Parini Shroff: Thank you. Okay, that's such high praise. Thank you. Thank you, I'm happy to hear that. And I am happy to know you liked it as a Gujarati. Like that extra level of humor. Because, you know, through context, you can be like, 'Oh, that's funny, because that's probably an abusive term or an insult.' But you and people of Indian descent, they have that extra level of 'Oh, it's an insult. And I know what it means.' And I'm happy that contributed to your experience reading it.

Attendee 4: Thank you for being here.

Parini Shroff: Of course. My pleasure. Thank you for inviting me, Saamiya.

Saamiya Seraj: I do have one question on behalf of the book club, which is, what can we as readers do to support authors like you who are women of color to help them flourish more in this industry?

Parini Shroff: It’s really important to buy and review books from women of color and from independent bookstores. Because the popularity and sales and the buzz does create a need for more voices and when there’s that need it no longer becomes like, ‘Oh we already filled our quota for an Indian woman for the year.’ Or ‘We’re not going to pay from our budget from the publishing house because our budget already got that, so next.’ That kills books, that kills stories. The idea of that checkbox. So, if there’s a desire for more, we won’t have that. Then it’ll be about the quality of the book as opposed to the origin of the voice.

Saamiya Seraj: Thank you so much. Thank you for all the beautiful and insightful answers.