Progression of South Asian Women's Covers
So to reiterate, I plan to argue that in general, when South Asian women publish debut fiction with major American publishers, unless they have prior literary credentials, they almost invariably receive the 'red sari' cover, as if that it is the only possible way to market their work. By gaining literary credibility (through awards, generally), women authors may progress eventually to the type of covers that male authors receive, that signal 'literary text.'
My own case with Bodies in Motion is complicated by the fact that I primarily wrote and published erotica for a decade before I turned to more mainstream literary fiction, and by the fact that while Bodies in Motion is a mainstream literary work, it does have a strong focus on sexuality in many of the stories included. So let's look at some work by other South Asian female authors, who don't necessarily focus on sexuality, love, or marriage in their work -- or no more than male authors do.
PLEASE NOTE: I have tried my best to track down the original cover for each title discussed, but I may have gotten some wrong; the web can be misleading in this regard, especially for older titles. Please do let me know if you find an error, so that I can correct it.
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