Vauhini Vara Doesn’t Know How She Does It

Vauhini Vara’s debut story collection, This is Salvaged, features gripping and playful tales about loss, fear, loneliness, and the desire for intimacy. A teenage girl copes with her brother’s death by finding work as a telemarketer, and soon harbors dreams of becoming a phone-sex operator; amid professional and personal setbacks, a woman seeks meaning in an encounter with buffaloes; an artist in the throes of a midlife crisis builds an ark with residents of a Christian shelter after his video pledging to do so goes viral. Vara excels at showcasing the chaotic inner workings of the human mind in the face of crisis. But what I find most remarkable about Vara is how she uses humor and ironic distance to uncover deeper truths about her characters, vulnerabilities they can’t admit, even to themselves.

I spoke with Vara.