Gauraa Shekhar is a writer, editor, and recent graduate of Columbia University’s MFA program. Her essays and short fiction have appeared (or are forthcoming) in Nimrod, Sonora Review, CRAFT, Literary Hub, Contrary, Vol. 1 Brooklyn, The McNeese Review, The Toast, and elsewhere. She currently serves as the Co-Editor-in-Chief of No Contact, and a Contributing Editor for Story Magazine. She lives in Richmond, Virginia with her husband and chatty young dachshund.
Gauraa writes about shame, embarrassment, cultural exile, anxiety, child prodigies, bands signed to Saddle Creek Records in 2001, bad boyfriends, worse career decisions, autophobia, and other equally fun things she likes to file under the label “emotional claustrophobia.”
Her favorite authors include—in no particular order—Rivka Galchen, Paul Beatty, Sarah Manguso, Catherine Lacey, Sayaka Murata, Brian Evenson, Hilary Leichter, Juliet Escoria, Rob Sheffield, Hanif Abdurraqib, Gina Nutt, Molly Young, Durga Chew-Bose, and the late Jade Sharma. She is currently reading Garments Against Women by Anne Boyer and The Atmospherians by Alex McElroy.
When not writing, you can find Gauraa editing and curating No Contact (see also: trading Ben Affleck memes on the magazine’s Slack workspace). Gauraa loves trash TV, belting Lita Ford songs at karaoke, playing competitive board games (preferably about birds), and as of late: growing outdoor flowers indoors.
Links to any publications/books you’d like to share to the world:
“Bathwater” in Contrary
“marissa cooper is proud of what she did and she’d do it again” in HAD
“Write About Race” in Rejection Letters
“Everything Else is Just Exposition” in X-R-A-Y
“A Wedding in Uluwatu” in Vol. 1 Brooklyn
Links to any social media accounts and website you wish to share:
Website: gauraashekhar.com
Twitter: twitter.com/bloodandGauraa
Instagram: instragram.com/bloodandGauraa