The Story of My Book: Carolina Hotchandani

Published periodically, “The Story of My Book” posts bring our collections to life through a series of five questions we ask all of our poets that highlight what makes every book unique and why Perugia is the right home for each of them (and may be for you and your book too).

Carolina Hotchandani on The Book Eaters (Perugia, 2023)

1. What was the genesis of your Perugia book?

I began to write The Book Eaters in 2016, as my daughter was taking her first steps and finding her way into language. At the same time, my father was slowly slipping out of language and memory. Witnessing these opposite trajectories made me seek a language that could register the metamorphoses I was both observing and undergoing. As a new mother and as a daughter, I found myself grieving earlier versions of myself and lamenting, more broadly, the passage of time. However, that grief also clarified my seeing: it became the pressure under which poetry could begin to take shape. Writing The Book Eaters became a way to hold what was slipping away and to transform loss into a deliberate, living act of creation. 

2. How did you find out about Perugia Press?

A poet friend of mine, Joannie Stangeland, told me about Perugia and thought it would be a good fit for my work, so I researched the press and connected with its mission immediately. I loved that Perugia is a feminist press, and I was intrigued by its commitment to publishing one book a year. That deliberate pace revealed a devotion to craftsmanship and quality.  

3. Can you describe an experience that confirmed Perugia Press was a good fit for you? 

When Rebecca Olander called to tell me the book had won the 2023 Perugia Press Prize, she described how many people had read the manuscript—the initial screeners, the semifinalist readers, the finalist readers, and then Rebecca herself. I was impressed by the rigor of the process. As the editorial process unfolded, that first impression of the press and its editor was confirmed, again and again. Rebecca’s meticulous attention as a reader, an editor, and a poet made it clear that Perugia was exactly the right home for my book. Its ethos of careful, intentional publishing has felt aligned with my own sense of how a book should enter the world. 

4. How have you changed as a poet, writer, or creative person since your book came out? 

When people used to ask what I do, I would answer that I was a professor and leave it at that, keeping poetry in the background. I was sheepish about being a poet because the poet identity seems associated with indulgent navel-gazing in mainstream culture. Publishing this book has given me permission to claim poetry as central to my life—to lead with it rather than hide it. That change has been immensely freeing. I didn’t realize how closeted I was as a poet until The Book Eaters was published, and I was able to emerge from my private cocoon. 

5. Other than poetry, what moves and motivates you? 

The world has been a destabilizing, dystopian place, especially in these last five years. Threats to democracy, to various public institutions, to education, and now, the rapid transformations brought about by AI have all felt disorienting. Teaching has become more complicated as the reading and writing habits of my students have shifted. I find myself confronting questions about how to teach, how to remain present, and how to write when attention feels so fractured. These questions can be heavy, but they also feel necessary. They motivate me because they speak directly to what it means to be a responsible person in this moment. As a parent, a teacher, and as a citizen, I want to understand and engage with the world rather than turn away from it. Engaging with the world in its current iteration has required all of my energy!