Mary Anne Mohanraj is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Utah, specializing in post-colonial literature and creative writing. She is the author of several books, including Torn Shapes of Desire (a collection), Kathryn in the City and The Classics Professor (choose-your-own-adventure-style books for adults), and A Taste of Serendib (a Sri Lankan cookbook). She is also the editor of Aqua Erotica and Wet (waterproof erotica anthologies), and The Best of Strange Horizons (an anthology of speculative fiction). Her most recent publications include “Lakshmi’s Diary” (Oasis), "A Gentle Man" (Harpur Palate), "Wild Roses" (The Mammoth Book of Best New Erotica, vol. 3) and "How It Started" (Best Lesbian Erotica 2003).
Mohanraj founded and served as editor-in-chief from 2000-2003 for Strange Horizons, a Hugo-nominated speculative fiction magazine. She currently serves as director of the Speculative Literature Foundation (www.speculativeliterature.org). Mohanraj has recently received a Neff fellowship in English, a Steffenson-Canon fellowship in the Humanities, and the Scowcroft Prize for Fiction. She lives in Chicago and is currently finishing her dissertation, Bodies in Motion, an exploration of sexuality, marriage, and Sri Lankan/American immigrant concerns.
1 Which brings up the question of whether sign language would be a less pure system of signs for Saussure, since so much of it is not arbitrary at all—unlike the word ‘mother’, which varies from language to language, the sign for mother is a hand combing hair. Not necessarily obviously my concept of mother, but clearly not entirely arbitrary either. (You’re not used to seeing footnotes in my letters, are you? We’ll come back to this later.)
2 Did you think I’d changed the subject? Aren’t all my letters to you about love, in the end?