Selected list of AWARDS/HONORS/FELLOWSHIPS

Border Less: A Novel, Silver Medalist for 2023 Independent Publisher Book Award for Best Regional Fiction (West-Pacific)

Border Less: A Novel, Finalist for 2022 Foreword Indies Book of the Year Award

Non-Senate Faculty Professional Development Award; UCLA, 2022-2023

Border Less: A Novel, Longlisted for 2022 Center for Fiction First Novel Prize

Grant from Center for Cultural Innovation, California, February 2020, May 2021 & 2022

Semi-finalist, The Black Lawrence Press’s The Big Moose Prize for Border Less, formerly titled Ladies Special, Homebound

Longlisted for C&R Press Book Award for Border Less, formerly titled Ladies Special, Homebound

2019 New Asian Writing Short Story Contest Award for my short story “Victorious”

Finalist for Feminist Press’s Louise Meriwether First Book Prize for Border Less, formerly titled Ladies Special, Homebound

UC Faculty Fellowship 2017 for “The OpEd Project: Write to Change the World,” offered to selected faculty from across nine UC campuses by UC Merced’s Center for the Humanities

Non-Senate Faculty Professional Development Award; UCLA, 2016-2017; 2015-2016

First Prize for my story “Excursion” at the contest organized by 14th International Short Story Conference, judged by Bharati Mukherjee and Clark Blaise, Shanghai, July 2016

Liam Rector Scholarship in Fiction, Bennington Writing Seminars, 2014-2016

French Forum Editorial Assistant Fellowship, University of Pennsylvania, 2009-2010

Summer Research Grant, University of Pennsylvania, 2010 & 2009

The African Studies Graduate Research Assistant Fellowship, University of Pennsylvania, 2008-2009

Dean’s Summer Research Fellowship; University of Pennsylvania, 2008

Benjamin Franklin Fellowship, University of Pennsylvania, 2002-2008 

Pre-doctoral Research Grant (Mauritius), University of Pennsylvania, 2007

Graduate Summer Program at “Institut d’Études Françaises d’Avignon” (France); Bryn Mawr College & University of Pennsylvania, 2003

Francophone Cultural Exchange Scholarship at “Centre International de Rencontres Universitaires” (Tours, France); Lions Club of France, 2002