Cirrus@Austlit

'Roanna Gonsalves is an Indian Australian writer based in Sydney, author of the highly-praised short fiction collection The Permanent Resident (2016) – also recently published the title Sunita De Souza Goes to Sydney: And Other Stories (2018), in which she masterfully fills the contemporary Australian literary landscape with the hardly noticed experiences of Indian immigrant women living in Australia. Gonsalves was born in Mumbai and moved to Sydney in 1998. She has been the recipient of various awards concerning both her academic and writing career: the 2018 NSW Premier’s Literary Award Multicultural Prize, the 2017 Australia Council Literature Board Grant, the 2013 Australian Prime Minister’s Australia Asia Endeavour Postgraduate (Outgoing) Award, and the 2011 Australian Writers Guild Award (with colleagues), Best Script, Community and Youth Theatre. She is co-founder and co-editor of Southern Crossings. Her publications in the prestigious journals and magazines Peril, Meanjin, Southerly, Overland, and The Conversation, together with her participation in multiple writers’ festivals, conferences and teaching of several creative writing workshops in Australian universities and schools, clearly demonstrate Gonsalves’ versatility and social commitment. The Permanent Resident, her first published fiction book, positions Gonsalves as a sophisticated story-teller with a special gift to transmit stories of tremendous violence, pain and love through a witty use of the language. In this interview, which took place via an exchange of emails at the end of 2017 and beginning of 2018, Gonsalves discusses The Permanent Resident in relation to literature, immigration in Australia, class, gender, religion and whiteness.' 

 (Introduction)