This week’s installment of Ten Questions features Eshani Surya, whose debut novel, Ravishing, is out today from Roxane Gay Books. South Jersey siblings Kashmira and Nikhil Mehta respond very differently when their tyrannical father abandons the family: Grief-stricken Kashmira can’t look in the mirror for fear of seeing her father’s features, while Nikhil seeks a job that will help his family and others break free from the internalized racism that fed his father’s anger. These needs lead both siblings to Evolvoir, a “beauty and wellness” company that sells a designer ointment that subtly “enhances” the user’s face. But does the product really serve “those who need to change their faces to better their mental health and wellness”? Aimee Nezhukumatathil wrote that the novel “hums with the ache of becoming—a place where even the mirror is a battleground and every shimmer of beauty carries the weight of longing: for love, for a face we can call our own, and for a world less cruel.” In a starred review, Publishers Weekly praised Ravishing as “an incendiary chronicle” that “hits hard.” Eshani Surya holds an MFA from the University of Arizona. Her writing has received the support of an Asian Women Writer’s Workshop mentorship, a Kenyon Review Writer’s Workshop scholarship, and a Mae Fellowship. She lives in Philadelphia.
Eshani Surya, author of Ravishing. (Credit: Kenzi Crash)
1. How long did it take you to write Ravishing?
The novel began as a flash fiction in my MFA, back in 2017 or so. At the time, it was about an insidious razor that terrorized the girls who used it. But I felt I wasn’t done with the story, and I returned to it in 2020, which was after I had lost my hair during a week-long hospitalization due to complications with one of my medications. My sense of beauty and ugliness had reoriented at that time, and that was an important theme that emerged in the novel.
Overall, I spent about a year and a half on the first draft of the novel. After that, I had some long periods of revision on my own and with my editor (totaling about a year and a half) that allowed the book to become what she is now.
2. What was the most challenging thing about writing the book?
Giving up all illusions of perfectionism. As my friend and fellow writer Maddie Norris once told me, “A perfect book would be boring.” But more than that, it turns out I can’t write something perfect, because I always change my mind about what that would even mean. Through writing Ravishing I’ve learned to be most interested in enjoying the process of making something emotionally true and honest.
3. Where, when, and how often do you write?
As a chronically ill writer I have learned to eschew any adage that tells you that you must sit your yourself down at your desk and write every day to be a “real writer.” I often write with the cycles of my illness, and I often do so in bed. That being said, I have found that it’s possible and fruitful to set goals for myself like finishing X and Y chapter by the end of the month, as long as I treat myself with empathy regardless of the outcome of that goal. Having a sense of where I’d like to go, but being comfortable with the possibility that I won’t get there, creates opportunities to keep the writing alive and moving for me, without making the process punishing.
4. What are you reading right now?
The Adjunct by Maria Adelmann, which releases in March 2026, and Audition by Katie Kitamura. I’m also listening to the Liquid: A Love Story audiobook, written and narrated by Mariam Rahmani. Inspired by Emma Copley Eisenberg’s and Malavika Kannan’s reading journeys, I’m also planning to revisit some older global fiction in the coming year, ideally books written pre-1980.
5. Which author, in your opinion, deserves wider recognition?
My MFA thesis advisor, Aurelie Sheehan, passed away a few years ago. I miss her a lot. She was an insightful and funny writer and teacher, and was one of the people who always supported my interest in flash fiction (a form that has been instrumental in how I shaped this book). I would love for others to spend some time with her through her work.
6. What is the biggest impediment to your writing life?
Again, there are realities due to chronic illness. In this case, it’s the reality of needing a stable paycheck and health insurance, both of which require me to work a day job. My writing time is thus truncated. But, it’s worth it, in the sense that I wouldn’t be able to write if I wasn’t able to get care for my illness.
7. What is one thing that surprised you during the writing of Ravishing?
How many bad ideas I could have! But those bad ideas are vital to the prospect of finding more elegant solutions to the problems in your narrative.
8. If you could go back in time and talk to the earlier you, before you started Ravishing, what would you say?
I would tell that version of me that no matter what she is afraid of, she should keep going—because the interesting, exciting, personally valuable parts are probably somewhere inside that fear. It’s what I would tell most early career writers.
9. Outside of writing, what other forms of work were essential to the creation of Ravishing?
Living with illness, but also hearing how other people live with it. I joined a lot of chronic illness—specifically inflammatory bowel disease—groups and heard a lot of specific and sometimes difficult anecdotes, beliefs about the body, and hopes about the future. I also listened to and read disability theory. I came to see how much diverse thought there is around being sick. And all of this led to the questions in the book, about how we care for ourselves and others, and how that does or doesn’t make a beautiful life.
10. What’s the best piece of writing advice you’ve ever heard?
Lynn Steger Strong once told me that I had potential, but that she worried that because I have a need for immediate gratification, I would get caught up in chasing things that weren’t writing. She suggested I not do that, and that I sit with the discomfort—and eventually comfort—that you don’t always know what you’re doing or where you’re going when you’re writing.
