Kirtan Nautiyal’s We Are Not These Bodies is a memoir in essays about fathers, sons, faith, and Indian American belonging. Structured around the Hindu ritual of aarti, Nautiyal traces his effort to reclaim his cultural inheritance while exploring family history, infertility, his work as an oncologist, and the loss of his father.
Nautiyal is an Indian American writer and practicing hematologist and oncologist whose work has appeared in The Guardian, Guernica, Electric Literature, and Longreads, among others. We Are Not These Bodies will be published by the University of North Carolina Press on February 23, 2027.
Debutiful is honored to reveal the cover of We Are Not These Bodies, designed by Lindsay Starr. Below, Nautiyal discusses avoiding stereotypical imagery, the significance of a lamp offered to flowing water, and how the final design reflects the book’s themes of tradition, return, and transience.
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