SELFIE INTERVIEW | Vimi Bajaj

Vimi Bajaj is a writer living in Chicago. A graduate of the Bennington Writing Seminars, she is currently at work on a novel set in modern day India. Publications include Prick of the Spindle, Asian American Literary Review, The Doctor T.J. Eckleburg Review, Panorama Journal, Imperfect Fiction and The Bristol Short Story Prize Anthology vol.9.

Eckleburg: What drives, inspires, and feeds your artistic work?

Vimi Bajaj: My long form fiction (the novel I am currently working on), touches on themes of injustice, especially as it relates to my own cultural background, as a South Asian woman.

On the level of craft, I love descriptive sentences that use the language of the senses. My best writing comes from olfactory memory. I love the smell of burning leaves. It makes me want to reach for my pen.

Eckleburg: If you had to arm wrestle a famous writer, poet or artist, either living or dead, who would it be? Why? What would you say to distract your opponent and go for the win?

Vimi Bajaj: James Joyce. I have a feeling I could win (at least at arm wrestling). I’d tell him how much I admire Samuel Beckett.

Eckleburg: What would you like the world to remember about you and your work?

Vimi Bajaj: She wrote passionately about subjects that mattered to her.

Eckleburg thanks Vimi Bajaj for sharing her Selfie Interview with us. 

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2/11/17 10:00:00 AM Nat Schmookler
2/11/17 11:00:00 AM Cheyenne Autry
2/11/17 11:00:00 AM Christine Stoddard
2/11/17 11:00:00 AM Sinta Jimenez
2/11/17 12:00:00 PM Katie Cortese
2/11/17 12:00:00 PM Lale Davidson
2/11/17 1:00:00 PM Cynthia Atkins
2/11/17 1:00:00 PM Michael Coene
2/11/17 2:00:00 PM Vimi Bajaj
2/11/17 4:00:00 PM Lauren Hilger
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The Doctor T. J. Eckleburg Review was founded in 2010 as an online and print literary and arts journal. We take our title from F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby and include the full archives of our predecessor Moon Milk ReviewOur aesthetic is eclectic, literary mainstream to experimental. We appreciate fusion forms including magical realist, surrealist, meta- realist and realist works with an offbeat spin. We value character-focused storytelling and language and welcome both edge and mainstream with punch aesthetics. We like humor that explores the gritty realities of world and human experiences. Our issues include original content from both emerging and established writers, poets, artists and comedians such as authors, Rick Moody, Cris Mazza, Steve Almond, Stephen Dixon, poets, Moira Egan and David Wagoner and actor/comedian, Zach Galifianakis.

Currently, Eckleburg runs online, daily content of original fictionpoetrynonfiction, translations, and more with featured artwork–visual and intermedia–from our Gallery. We run annual print issues, the Eckleburg Reading Series (DC, Baltimore and New York), as well as, the annual Gertrude Stein Award in Fiction, first prize $1000 and print publication, guest-judged by award-winning authors such as Rick Moody and Cris Mazza.

We have collaborated with a number of talented and high profile literary, art and intermedia organizations in DC, Baltimore and New York including The Poetry Society of New YorkKGB BarBrazenhead BooksNew World Writing (formerly Mississippi Review Online), The Hopkins ReviewBoulevardGargoyle MagazineEntasis PressBarrelhouseHobart826DCDC Lit and Iowa’s Mission Creek Festival at AWP 2013, Boston, for a night of raw comedic lit and music. We like to promote smaller indie presses, galleries, musicians and filmmakers alongside globally recognized organizations, as well as, our local, national and international contributors.

Rarely will readers/viewers find a themed issue at Eckleburg, but rather a mix of eclectic works. It is Eckleburg’s intention to represent writers, artists, musicians, and comedians as a contemporary and noninvasive collective, each work evidence of its own artistry, not as a reflection of an editor’s vision of what an issue “should” be. Outside of kismet and special issues, Eckleburg will read and accept unsolicited submissions based upon individual merit, not theme cohesiveness. It is our intention to create an experience in which readers and viewers can think artistically, intellectually, socially, and independently. We welcome brave, honest voices. To submit, please read our guidelines.

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