By Sophie Stein~
“When I was in Malta, I experienced a hit and run. I followed them to the hospital and tried to track down the car.” Penn State English Professor Elizabeth Kadetsky, esteemed author and traveler, knew this would be the basis of an exciting future story. However, it was not until she applied for her second Fulbright to India that this inspiration would become part of her newest book. Her first Fulbright to India led to a memoir entitled First There is a Mountain, about her time in India studying yoga master B.K.S. Iyangar. This second Fulbright is Kadetsky’s 10th trip to India.
The hit and run would be the basis, but the idea for the story would come from a true story about a man in Iraq who got arrested for smuggling antiquities looted from museums. Kadetsky draws from this account to create her story about a westerner traveling in India “who got messed up in the antiquities smuggling trade.” Her department head originally suggested she apply for a Fulbright to complete the project. The story could’ve been set in a number of locations, citing Cyprus, Greece, Israel, Pakistan, and Afghanistan as possible settings. “It was kind of funny when I landed on India,” Kadetsky states. “I thought, ‘Why don’t I just apply to India again?’ Knowing the language and knowing some people along with it being so big of a place to travel and move around seemed like a good idea.”
Post from @ekadetsky on Instagram.
Kadetsky’s day-to-day is getting up in her mountainside guest home, having breakfast, chatting with Indian people and some American Fulbright scholars, and going with her son to Indian language school in the mountains. While assimilating to life in India with a young child, her research has been interactive and fun for the most part. In Ahmedabad for two months, she and her son traveled to world heritage sights “walking around, seeing what’s missing.” Kadetsky explains, “A lot of these sites are very corrupted. The country has so many other problems that these sites are not very protected.” Through her research, she has an “on-the-ground view” of the oldest and earliest civilizations. Because of this, India is an almost idyllic country for Kadetsky’s project on antiquities and trade. For example, Kadetsky recently got a tip that the British owner of a luxury hotel in Rajasthan took things from museums to decorate his hotel. She shares, “I don’t know if I’ll ever get to the bottom of anything, but these tips and stories can be so rich.”
Translating her Fulbright project to her journey as a writer, Kadestky argues, “If there’s no conflict there’s no story. Looking for a story around the world can’t just be, ‘Everyone in India loves the Taj Mahal because it’s great.’ It is great, but that’s boring.”
“I think the role of a writer is to be an outsider. Especially if you’re engaging social issues with your work, you always have to be open to people and connect with them honestly. But, you also have to be critical and allow for these relationships to be open enough that allows you to be critical.”
“You’ll be a better writer if you can get used to being an outsider.”
Photo from elizabethkadetsky.com by Nina Subin.
Kadetsky is also the nonfiction editor at the New England Review. Working as the nonfiction editor has impacted Kadetsky’s relationship with nonfiction as its helped her “[…]Spot the weaknesses in my own work.” She explains that The New England Review publishes what she deems to be best kind of nonfiction that she appreciates and aspires to create. She reads around 50-75 submissions per month. “We accept so few and far between. When I find one I want to send to the editor, I just know. I don’t feel obligated, I just love it.”
The talented author describes the experience to be extremely humbling, as she is able to imagine what another editor will see when they read her work. “It makes me work harder to make it the best as it can possibly be and help me catch myself.” Two of the year’s top creative writing anthologies picked three essays Kadestky selected for NER. “It’s gratifying to know I’ve tapped into something that other people are also connecting with. These pieces just shine and when other people can recognize them and relate to them it’s truly amazing. I wish i could do it full time.”