Sharan Hunjan

Poetry and an "I'm a Fan" precursor
Review of the Rough Trade pamphlet edition (2020*)

These are 4 chapbooks/pamphlets of poetry/fiction bundled together in a sort of file folder. I was curious about this collection as it includes work by Sheena Patel, the author of I'm a Fan (2022), her first novel, which I recently read and which was longlisted for the 2023 Women's Prize for Fiction and shortlisted for the 2023 Republic of Consciousness Prize. The chapbooks have individual ISBNs but are not show more listed separately on Goodreads.

See image at https://scontent-ord5-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/343940724_1020346372265370_58...
The covers of the 4 individual chapbooks contained within the "4 Brown Girls Who Write" (2020) pamphlet edition from Rough Trade Books. Image source from my own photograph.

Although 3 of the chapbooks contain poetry, Sheena Patel's This is What Love is is a 40-page novella which tells a somewhat similar story to the later I'm a Fan. This is not so much a cyber-stalking and hate-following book as the later work though. It is still about relationships with unfaithful partners and does have social commentary elements. There is also a non-fiction element as the real-life members of the 4 Brown Girls Who Write collective are called on for moral support for the protagonist at times.

As an example of the parallels with I'm a Fan, the desired lover is called H. instead of "the man I want to be with", the rival woman is called R. instead of "the woman I'm obsessed with", and the protagonist's boyfriend is called C. instead of "my boyfriend." There is a similar background environment of the arts world, although otherwise the story is considerably different.

I enjoyed the variety of this collective work, including the poetry of Roshni Goyate, Sharan Hunjan, and Sunnah Khan, and the discovery of the early Sheena Patel novella.

Footnote
* There is an earlier 2018 paperback 4 Brown Girls Who Write published by FEM Press which has been merged with the 2020 Rough Trade editions because of the same use of the collective's title. Based on its description, the earlier book was poetry only and does not have the same content as the later work.

Trivia and Link
Sheena Patel reads a short excerpt from her novella This is What Love is as part of a fundraiser released as an audiobook which you can hear on Bandcamp. show less