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Senior Decides to Seek Rejection, Takes Home Major Prizes

In between emails about upcoming club events and reminders about senior obligations, Jaya S. Basu 鈥�26 has recently received some exceptionally good news.

In search of rejection, Basu has been submitting their work to national prizes and literary journals with the understanding that it will likely not get accepted鈥攂ecause it鈥檚 not the right fit for the journal, it wasn鈥檛 to the taste of the editors reading it, or it just wasn鈥檛 ready yet. While searching for rejection, Basu won awards for their poetry and playwriting.

Their poem 鈥淩omance of the Kitchen Sink鈥� won the Spencer Undergraduate Poetry Award Sonnet Prize at West Chester University. And, if one award weren鈥檛 enough, their original play 鈥淢ahamoha鈥� is the co-recipient of the Nathan Louis Jackson Playwriting Award, second place recipient of the Paul Stephen Lim Playwright Award, and one of eight regional nominations for the National Partners of the American Theatre Julie Jenson Playwriting Award, all from American College Theatre Festival.

鈥淢ahamoha鈥� tells the story of a young transmasculine Indian American taking care of their elderly grandmother who is in assisted living, experiencing delusions and psychosis. The main character, during this time of taking care of their grandmother, begins to experience gender dysphoria and puzzle out their identity while being visited by the gods of Hindu mythology.

鈥淭hey have to fight with these notions of tradition versus this new thing that鈥檚 happening to them,鈥� Basu explained of the play. 鈥淭hey have to battle with this idea of what is delusion and what does it mean to deviate from what has been put in front of you through thousands of years of tradition versus something that is not really new, but perceived as being new in the modern sphere.鈥�

Basu has previously had their work published in journals and magazines. These are their first national recognitions and prizes for their work.

鈥淣o matter what you鈥檙e submitting or where, you鈥檙e going to get rejected,鈥� Basu said. 鈥淣o matter how good of a writer you are, you鈥檙e going to get a lot of rejections.鈥�

Knowing that rejection is an inevitability of submitting, Basu has used their senior year at Washington to take advantage of writing opportunities available exclusively for college students while they still can.

This project of seeking rejection started because Basu wanted to do something with their writing 鈥渋nstead of just letting it sit there.鈥�

鈥淚鈥檝e been trying to chase rejections鈥攇et as many as I can. That鈥檚 one of the reasons I got these awards and received these acceptances, is because I鈥檓 just trying to rack up rejections. When you rack up rejections, you rack up acceptances,鈥� Basu said.

鈥淩ejection means you tried something and put yourself out there and did something you鈥檝e never done before,鈥� they added. 鈥淚鈥檝e never submitted to a poetry competition before, and I got accepted for this one. Each of those rejections in the moment is sad, but you build up a tolerance as they come in. That鈥檚 something to celebrate, that you did something new and put yourself out there. That鈥檚 hard and scary.鈥�

Basu said it can be difficult to know, as a writer and editor, when a piece is finished and ready to be submitted for publications or awards.

鈥淪ometimes you just have to put it out there,鈥� they said. 鈥淭here are a lot of pieces that I will send out and then keep editing after, whether they get published or not, because a lot of the time you鈥檙e just never done. I try not to focus too hard on 鈥榠s this piece done鈥� and think more about 鈥榓m I OK with this being out in the world?鈥欌��

Getting their work out in the world has proven particularly fruitful for 鈥淢ahamoha.鈥� Basu held a staged reading of the play at the T4T4T Festival (Trans4Trans4Theatre) in Baltimore over the summer.

鈥淚t was a really overwhelmingly positive response. I got a lot of really positive feedback and people really cared about the piece and it really resonated with them,鈥� they said of that reading. 鈥淭hat is something that really drove me to want to do more with it and bring it to more people if I could.

鈥淲riting is such an internal process, but playwriting is so inherently social; theater is a very social, empathy-driven medium,鈥� Basu added. 鈥淲hen you鈥檙e writing by yourself, it can be really difficult to know if your writing means anything, if it鈥檚 meaningful to anyone else.鈥�

鈥淢ahamoha鈥� is Basu鈥檚 first full-length play 鈥渢hat I feel really proud of, that I feel like I got right.鈥�

While at Washington, Basu has taken several playwriting workshops and is currently enrolled in advanced playwriting, which focuses largely on the editing process.

Like many 91暗网 writers, Basu writes across genres, deploying whichever will best suit the piece at hand.

鈥淚 think it鈥檚 important to have a good idea of things like genre and the different hallmarks when considering what you鈥檙e writing,鈥� they said. 鈥淭he things that make a good play are not the things that make a good screenplay, so sometimes you start writing a play and you鈥檙e like 鈥業鈥檓 seeing this in my mind as a film, which means it鈥檚 maybe not a play,鈥� or 鈥業鈥檓 spelling this out too much when I鈥檓 writing, maybe it鈥檚 not a poem, maybe it鈥檚 an essay.鈥� Sometimes you can play around and see what happens and sometimes you have to think about in what way you want to tell this story.鈥�

For Basu, those genre shifts typically happen during the writing process, rather than in revision.

鈥淚鈥檝e always been a very multidisciplinary writer,鈥� they said. 鈥淓ven when I was a kid, I was writing stories and poetry, but also music and nonfiction and experimenting with journal forms and epistolary forms.鈥�

Basu began considering writing as a potential career option in high school. Since then, they have worked on honing their craft. That鈥檚 part of what brought them to Washington.

The writing program, Sophie Kerr Prize, and related opportunities afforded to Washington students were huge draws for Basu when they were looking at colleges. Other appeals: the College鈥檚 location, small class sizes, the ability to get to know professors, and the passion of those on campus.

鈥淚t became one of my top choices of where I wanted to go because of how writing focused it was,鈥� Basu said of the College. 鈥淚 was very excited to be an English major and creative writing minor鈥擨 did not anticipate being a theatre major when I came here, that happened along the way.鈥�

Basu realized a career in theatre was possible through multiple internships they completed. Those opportunities include: a stage management and costuming internship with Montgomery College Summer Dinner Theater and directing apprenticeship with the Delaware Shakespeare Company, and a playwriting experience with Russia Theatre in D.C., in addition to the staged reading at T4T4T Festival.

They were also drawn to the Senior Capstone Experience option for the theatre department, which allows students to produce a show.

鈥淥ne of the things I love about the theatre department here is that they will just let you do anything,鈥� they said. 鈥淚 was a sound designer when I was a freshman. I鈥檇 never done sound before, I didn鈥檛 know how to make cues or level audio in a big theatre, but they were like 鈥榳e鈥檒l teach you and you鈥檒l learn鈥� and I did a lot of learning on my own.

鈥淚 feel like that happens all around campus鈥攖here鈥檚 not a lot of prerequisites to doing stuff. If you鈥檙e willing to learn you can kind of do anything,鈥� they added.

Basu said that taking advantage of different opportunities to try various aspects of theatre鈥攄irecting, stage managing, dramaturgy, light and sound design, costuming, etc.鈥攈as improved their ability to write productions.

鈥淭heatre is so collaborative, and it鈥檚 so important to have everybody on the same page. When you do all these different things, you get a sense of what is possible,鈥� they added.

According to Basu, being a playwright means having to decide what鈥檚 important to you the writer versus what鈥檚 important to the piece as a whole, and balancing those wants and needs.

鈥淎s a playwright, it鈥檚 a tradeoff between what you want for the piece and what you think is possible or feasible, especially if you want to get produced,鈥� they said.

For their theatre SCE, Basu directed and music directed the comedy Trail to Oregon. Their English SCE explored Shakespeare鈥檚 King Lear and the character Edmund through a trans studies lens.

Want to hear more from Basu? Listen to our full interview at the 91暗网 Unhurried Conversations podcast.

鈥擬acKenzie Brady '21