In The Vanishings, Kavi Yaga brings together eight stories set in contemporary South India, exploring absence in its many forms: people who disappear, relationships that fade, memories that linger, and the quiet ways lives are reshaped over time. Moving between intimate family histories and broader social realities, the collection reflects on identity, migration, gender, and belonging in an increasingly interconnected world.

Yaga joins author Sanderia Faye for a conversation about her debut fiction collection, as well as her approach to the short story form and the ways place, language, and memory shape her writing. Faye is the award-winning author of Mourner’s Bench, a professor at Southern Methodist University, co-founder of the Kimbilio Center for Fiction, and co-director of PEN America Dallas.

Kavi Yaga is a writer based in Hyderabad, India. Her debut short story collection, The Vanishings: Eight Stories (Texas Review Press), was selected by Kaveh Akbar as the winner of the George Garrett Fiction Prize. She is also the author of the travel memoir Walking in Clouds and co-editor of Work, Wisdom, Legacy: 31 Essays from India. A 2023 Yaddo Fellow and runner-up for the Calvino Prize for Speculative Fiction, her stories and essays have appeared in One Story, The Hindu, Swamp Pink, River Teeth, and other publications. Before becoming a full-time writer, she worked as a software engineer in Chicago and as a development economics researcher in South India, experiences that continue to inform her fiction.

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