Brown Girl Chromatography

Brown Girl Chromatography is pure fire, a slow burn to the center of desire. This is a book of longing, of brokenness, of makeup ('my second art, the perfect counterpart to my alter ego'), of wanting what you're not supposed to want and then constructing a world from it: 'This is my kingdom. / this is something I can control.' This is the most inventive book I've read in ages.--Aaron Smith, author of The Book of Daniel
Brown Girl Chromatography sparkles with multiple intelligences and sharp, sharp wit. Any brown person who has had to put on a flesh-colored Band-Aid knows that American society mostly wasn't built for us, wasn't expecting us, and kind of doesn't know what to do with us. Bhowmik's book is a book that is not only aware of this alienation but travels deep into it, undoes it, and depicts a life I recognize; I'm not a stranger in this book. I know this world. Bhowmik is a smart and skilled handler. It's like she found my letters. And read each one out loud.--Kazim Ali, author of The Voice of Sheila Chandra and Inquisition
Brown Girl Chromatography is a wise manual of immigrant coming of age--a journey of ancestry and longing, an embrace of the past and a love song to the future. Anuradha Bhowmik speaks for all the brown girls who 'couldn't have/crushes in fourth grade, ' all of us who weren't 'white women/wearing lingerie in the glossy Macy's ad.' The speaker's journey through the minefield of popular culture, family responsibility, and maturation into an unmapped womanhood is handled with deft precision.--Allison Joseph, author of Confessions of a Barefaced Woman