Priyanka Mattoo

Venice

Freelance Journalist and Producer at Freelance

• Bird Milk & Mosquito Bones: A Memoir (@aaknopf ‘24) • Writing @nytimes @newyorker @vulture • Reps: @wmebooks 📚, grandview mgmt 📺

Articles

'Bird Milk and Mosquito Bones' review: A Kashmiri's pursuit of finding home

Nov 23, 2024 | theweek.in | Reya Mehrotra |Priyanka Mattoo

Beauty so untouched that it is called ‘paradise on earth’, yet it feels like staring at the sun―painfully beautiful. Such is Kashmir, with its beauty and wounds intact. The Kashmiri phrase―chhari daud te mahe adij (bird milk and mosquito bones)―is used when someone is describing things so rare and precious that the listener should question their very existence.
Escape From the French Omelet

Nov 11, 2024 | tastecooking.com | Priyanka Mattoo

Eggs are foundational to my sense of self. Anecdotes from my family indicate that they became my favorite food early on, and they were served to me daily: scrambled, soft-boiled in a Peter Rabbit egg cup, or over medium and draped on toast. I’m 99% certain I’ve eaten eggs every day of my life and will continue to do so, from my homemade egg salad (the secret is smoked paprika) to my husband’s shakshuka or ordering doro wat in Little Ethiopia. It’s impossible to pick a favorite preparation.
Community building: Meet our giveaway winners!

Nov 8, 2024 | courtneymaum.substack.com | Courtney Maum |Priyanka Mattoo |Kate Webb |Dannie Lynn Fountain

Hello and welcome to the almost weekend, which we absolutely deserve. I have many thoughts about the election. Lots of dread and heaviness on top of burning rage. But I’m not a “hot-take” writer—rather, I’m someone who needs to sit with my feelings and distill them, so I’m not going to write a preamble about the election results today. Instead, I’m going to say that we need community more than ever, and we need our art.
Anchor Babies

Oct 16, 2024 | shorturl.at | Priyanka Mattoo

One convenient thing about a danger-adjacent childhood is that I don’t have to practice gratitude, because it consumes me. A timeline of near-misses, and also the general geopolitical tenor of things around me during my formative years, led to a firm belief I couldn’t possibly make it past 21. Statistically, there were simply too many people trying to kill each other in the world.
How to Build a Memoir

Oct 3, 2024 | primattoo.substack.com | Priyanka Mattoo

After my memoir proposal was out to publishers, I had a dream sequence of seven glorious meetings, but one lady looked perplexed and a little annoyed. Blonde and severe, she had just one question for me: Where’s the pain, she asked, on our Zoom. She got the family angle, sure. But what about the darkness? I didn’t know how to answer this.
Craft from the Couch: Episode 05 | Priyanka Mattoo

Sep 18, 2024 | courtneymaum.substack.com | Courtney Maum |Priyanka Mattoo

Today’s Craft from the Couch guest, , is no stranger to the creative process.
'Bird Milk and Mosquito Bones' book review: Echoes of a Lost Homeland

Sep 14, 2024 | newindianexpress.com | Priyanka Mattoo |Soumya Bhowmik

Priyanka Mattoo’s Bird Milk and Mosquito Bones is a heartfelt memoir that intertwines themes of identity, displacement and resilience. Through intimate storytelling, Mattoo offers a nuanced perspective on the complexities of growing up as a displaced Kashmiri Hindu, the impact of cultural heritage and family, and the longing for a homeland lost to conflict.
Book Review | Bird Milk and Mosquito Bones: Priyanka Mattoo’s Memoir Narrates a Kashmiri Pandit’s Odyssey from Srinagar to Hollywood

Sep 9, 2024 | frontline.thehindu.com | Priyanka Mattoo |Shakir Mir |Suhrid Sankar Chattopadhyay |Vaishna Roy

Like most Kashmiris, Priyanka Mattoo’s most memorable recollections of childhood are from the years she spent at her matamaal (literally, “maternal grandmother’s home”). The matamaal was a large, multi-storey structure in the suburban neighbourhood of Karan Nagar—a typical Kashmiri home with cantilevered balconies jutting out from the sides, and undulating eaves adorning the roofs. Mattoo remembers that the home possessed quite a feminist streak.
Just Famous Enough

Aug 30, 2024 | primattoo.substack.com | Priyanka Mattoo

I have a friend who is an established, celebrated actor, but not a movie star, and she’s achieved the exact perfect level of fame. I can walk down the street without being noticed, she says, but people are nice to me at a restaurant. I worked with famous people for most of my career, and very closely with one of my absolute favorites for over a decade. To exit the office with him was like showing up with Mickey Mouse. Everyone, of every age, wanted a hug, a touch, a conversation.
Crafting Personal Narratives: Writing About Yourself & Your Family in Essays

Jul 29, 2024 | girlswritenow.org | Priyanka Mattoo

virtual event; open to the publicincluding all mentees, mentors & alumWhat makes a personal essay resonate? How do I write about my family without ticking them off? And where do I even begin? Join the brilliant Priyanka Mattoo, author of “Bird Milk & Mosquito Bones,” as she guides us through her exploration of family, identity, and the impact of history on the present. Engage in thought-provoking writing prompts and conversations about the inspiration, themes, and creative process behind the memoir.