Kay Sohini is an artist, writer and researcher. With this debut graphic memoir, This Beautiful, Ridiculous City, published by Ten Speed Graphic, Sohini provides a fun and highly accessible look at New York City from a number of vantage points–and it is even more than that (read my review). In this interview, we unpack as much as possible. Sohini is known for distilling complex subjects through the language of comics, a more precise and concise format that combines image and text. Sohini’s coming-of-age graphic memoir is a delight to read. It evokes an effortless grace but it is actually built upon a very sophisticated framework. Sohini, after all, holds a PhD in English. Her dissertation, focusing on the comics medium, was created as a comic book, her first foray into creating comics. Sohini’s essays and comics have appeared in The Washington Post and The Nib, among other places.
Moving from academic scholarship to general readership. Excerpt from Sohini’s PhD dissertation, Drawing Unbelonging.
You can say that This Beautiful, Ridiculous City is a transition for Sohini from the academic world to the world of general readership. In that regard, the book proves to be a success. The specificity of scholarly pursuits can certainly get bogged down in jargon and navigate within a more narrow viewpoint but readers must find out for themselves. In many cases, there is plenty of common ground to be found. I think the through line in Sohini’s work is a drive toward clarity, a heart-felt desire to share observations and insights. Isn’t that what we hope to find in our best reading experiences, especially in nonfiction?
Our conversation is easygoing. I do my best not to fall into just talking about New York City even though that is at the heart of Sohini’s book. As Sohini states: “This book is about a lot of things. At its core, it’s about literature and being starstruck about New York. But it is also about abuse, inequity and social commentary.” And how appropriate to have New York act as a sort of container for further discussion.
Excerpt from This Beautiful, Ridiculous City.
And so we engage in a good bit of shop talk as well as share a love for the Big Apple. I must say that this love of New York City hits me at my core. I created a graphic novel about New York City many years ago and the sentiments expressed in that work still hold true. I sort of stumbled into creating that work without much of any plan on how to promote it but definitely with a deep desire to bring it to life. And that’s the stuff that dreams are made of. That’s the stuff that fuels one’s love for New York. That’s, no doubt, the stuff that led Sohini to pursue her own love letter to New York City.
Enjoy the video interview and, as always, I welcome your support in the way of comments, views and Likes. I don’t know exactly how we are to resolve the current troubled times we face in detail but it will involve voting. Beyond that, we can do many things out in the community and we can support each other’s good work. With that in mind, I highly recommend that you seek out Sohini’s book which is about a lot of things, most notably at this crisis point, it is about an immigrant’s struggle to achieve the American Dream.
