• This is me. My name is Rahul Kanakia.

• I’m 27
• I’m enrolled in an MFA creative writing program (in fiction) at Johns Hopkins University.
• Since the age of 18, I’ve been writing and submitting stories. Most of these have been science fiction and fantasy short stories. A number of these stories have been published. If you want to read some, I guess I’d recommend: Ted Agonistes (very short) and What Everyone Remembers (a bit longer).
• I’ve written three novels (three of them were science fiction, two for adults, and one for young adults; a fourth was a contemporary young adult nove) I never revised or submitted the two adult SF novels. The second novel (the YA SF novel) was finished, polished, and submitted to both agents and publishers. It won the Honor Award in the first annual Tu Books New Visions contest, and got me an offer of representation from my current agent: John Cusick of Greenhouse Literary. Hopefully, it will soon go out on submission to publishers. I am currently revising the fourth novel (the contemporary YA novel).
• I’ve been interviewed by the Baltimore Sun.
• I’ve been maintaining this blog since the summer of 2008 (though it’s only been regularly updated since about 2010). I used to blog on political topics, but nowadays I tend to steer clear of those. I mostly blog about books, my writing, and the writing life. I’m flirting with an expansion to more confessional topics, though.
• I’m queer.
• I’m super-tall (6′ 7″). That’s almost exactly two meters, for those of you who swing that way.
• I’m of Indian descent. My parents both grew up in Mumbai and came to the U.S. for graduate school.
• I currently live in Baltimore.
• I quit smoking in the spring of 2011.
• I quit drinking in the winter of 2010. I consider myself to be a recovered alcoholic.
• Before coming to Baltimore in the summer of 2012, I lived in Oakland, California for eighteen months.
• Before that, I lived in Washington, DC for two years.
• While I was in Oakland and DC, I worked for the World Bank, primarily on environmental operations in Bangladesh, Pakistan, and India.
• Before moving to D.C., I was in Palo Alto, trying lackadaisically to find a job in the news media.
• Before living in Palo Alto, I interned for three months at a tiny newspaper in Northern California.
• Before that, I was in college for four years. I attended Stanford University and graduated in June 2008 with a B.A. in Economics (the best degree ever). In college, I lived for two years in a vegetarian co-op named Synergy that I still heart extensively. Yes, it is totally the equivalent of the old fratboy who still waxes nostalgic about his fraternity.
• I spent grades 6-8 and 10-12 at a small all-boys Catholic prep school in Washington, D.C. called St. Anselm’s Abbey School. I spent ninth grade at the American Embassy School of New Delhi. My parents still live (sort of) in Washington, DC (which is why I went there after striking out in California).
• Prior to that, I lived in College Park, Maryland; New Providence, New Jersey; and various locations in California.
• I was born in Redwood City, CA in 1985

I think that about does it. Perhaps this is a bit of a bio-dump, but, honestly, I read tons of blogs, and I always find it quite annoying to have to figure out, from context, who (and where!) people are. Also, yes, I will accept your facebook friend request.