This week on The Write Question, host Lauren Korn speaks with Wyoming-based author Nina McConigley about her novel, How to Commit a Postcolonial Murder (Pantheon; Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group).
About the book:
Summer, 1986. The Creel sisters, Georgie Ayyar and Agatha Krishna, welcome their aunt, uncle and young cousin—newly arrived from India—into their house in rural Wyoming where they’ll all live together. Because this is what families do. That is, until the sisters decide that it’s time for their uncle to die.
According to Georgie, the British are to blame. And to understand why, you need to hear her story. She details the violence hiding in their house and history, her once-unshakeable bond with Agatha Krishna, and her understanding of herself as an Indian-American in the heart of the West. Her account is, at every turn, cheeky, unflinching, and infectiously inflected with the trappings of teendom, including the magazine quizzes that help her make sense of her life. At its heart, the tale she weaves is:
a) a vivid portrait of an extended family
b) a moving story of sisterhood
c) a playful ode to the 80s
d) a murder mystery (of sorts)
e) an unexpected and unwaveringly powerful meditation on history and language, trauma and healing, and the meaning of independence
Or maybe it’s really:
f) all of the above.
Note: Nina will be appearing in Livingston, Montana, at Elk River Books on Thursday, April 16, 2025, at 7 p.m., as part of the Elk River Arts spring lecture series.
This conversation has been edited for time.
About Nina:
Nina McConigley is the author of How to Commit a Postcolonial Murder and the story collection Cowboys and East Indians, which was the winner of the PEN Open Book Award and the High Plains Book Award. She has received grants and fellowships from the NEA, the Radcliffe Institute, Bread Loaf, Vermont Studio Center, and the Sewanee Writers’ Conference. She was a recipient of the Wyoming Arts Council’s Frank Nelson Doubleday Memorial Writing Award and a finalist for a National Magazine Award for her columns in High Country News. Her work has also appeared in The New York Times, Orion, O: The Oprah Magazine, The Virginia Quarterly Review, Salon, among other outlets. Born in Singapore and raised in Wyoming, she now lives in Colorado.
Mentioned in this episode:
January 1986, the explosion of the Challenger space shuttle
Out of Africa, a film directed and produced by Sydney Pollack, starring Meryl Streep and Robert Redford
Esperanto, the most widely spoken constructed language created with a simple grammar and lengthy vocabulary based on European languages, intended to nurture international unity
Teen magazines, like YM, Seventeen, Cosmopolitan, CosmoGirl, and Teen
Humanimal: A Project for Future Children by Bhanu Khapil (Kelsey Street Press)
St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves by Karen Russell (Vintage Books)
Law & Order, a police and legal procedural drama series (with multiple spin-offs) set in New York City, featuring stories “ripped from the headlines”
Nina McConigley recommends these titles from her “Nontraditional West” course reading list:
Sabrina and Corina by Kali Fajardo-Anstine (One World; Penguin Random House)
The Collected Works of Billy the Kid: Left-Handed Poems by Michael Ondaatje (Vintage Books)
In the Distance by Hernan Diaz (Riverhead Books)
How Much of These Hills is Gold by Z Pam Zhang (Riverhead Books)
Prairie Lotus by Linda Sue Park (Clarion Books)
Diaspora Sonnets by Oliver de la Paz (Liveright Publishing)
West: A Translation by Paisley Rekdal (Copper Canyon Press)
The Laramie Project by Tectonic Theater Company (Vintage Books)
The Legend of Auntie Po by Shing Yin Khor (Kokila)
Half an Inch of Water and Wounded by Percival Everett (Graywolf Press)
Night of the Fiestas by Kirstin Valdez Quade (W. W. Norton & Company)
Battleborn by Claire Vaye Watkins (Penguin Random House)
Whereas by Layli Longsolider (Graywolf Press)
Western Journeys by Teow Lim Goh (University of Utah Press)
Wild Geese Sorrow translated by Jeffrey Leong (Calypso Editions)
Lauren Korn recommends:
How to Commit a Postcolonial Murder (Pantheon; Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group) and Cowboys and East Indians (Vintage Books) by Nina McConigley
Indian Country by Shobha Rao (Crown Publishing Group); listen to Lauren’s conversation with Shobha here!
When We Were Sisters by Fatimah Asghar (Penguin Random House; One World); listen to Lauren’s conversation with Fatimah here!
Culture Creep: Notes on the Pop Apocalypse and Dead Girls: Essays on Surviving an American Obsession by Alice Bolin (Mariner Books; HarperCollins); listen to the first and second parts of Lauren’s conversation with Alice!
This Country: Searching for Home in (Very) Rural America by Navied Mahdavian (Princeton Architectural Press); listen to Lauren’s conversation with Navied here!
Seeking Fortune Elsewhere by Sindya Bhanoo (Catapult); listen to Lauren’s conversation with Sindya here!
Transplants by Daniel Tam-Claiborne (Regalo Press); listen to Lauren’s conversation with Daniel here!
Four Treasures of the Sky by Jenny Tinghui Zhang (Riverhead Books); listen to Lauren’s conversation with Jenny here!
How Much of These Hills is Gold by Z Pam Zhang (Flatiron Books)
—
The Write Question team for this episode was Lauren Korn, host, co-producer, and editor; and Chris Moyles, co-producer, editor, and sound engineer. This episode is supported by Bookworks of Whitefish, offering new books of all genres, stationery, and puzzles. Open 11AM to 6PM Monday through Saturday. Located in downtown Whitefish, Montana, in the Third & Spokane Building.
The Write Question logo and brand (2022) was designed by Molly Russell. You can see more of her work at iamthemollruss.com and on Instagram @iamthemollruss.
Funding for The Write Question comes from members of Montana Public Radio; and from the Greater Montana Foundation—encouraging communication on issues, trends, and values of importance to Montanans. A hat-tip to Humanities Montana for supporting this program since 2008.
The Write Question is a production of Montana Public Radio.
