Archives: Authors

Khyrunnisa A., prize-winning author of children’s fiction, loves reading, writing and children. She created the popular comic character Butterfingers for the children’s magazine, Tinkle. Her three previous novels in the Butterfingers series are Howzzat Butterfingers! (2010), Goal, Butterfingers! (2012) and Clean Bowled, Butterfingers! (2015). This collection includes stories that have appeared in Tinkle in comic-strip form.
Some of her stories, for children and for adults, have been published in various anthologies by Puffin, Children’s Book Trust and Unisun Publications. A collection, Lost in Ooty and Other Adventure stories, was brought out by Unisun Publications in 2010. Her stories appear regularly in Dimdima and she has an ongoing fortnightly column, ‘Inside View’, in The Hindu Metroplus.
She worked as Associate Professor of English at All Saints’ College, Trivandrum, and is now a full-time writer. Visit her at www.khyrunnisa.com and connect with her at khyrubutter@gmail.com.

Amrita Shah is a journalist and writer. She has worked for Time magazine, edited Debonair and Elle and been a contributing editor with The Indian Express. She is the author of Hype, Hypocrisy & Television in Urban India and Ahmedabad: A City in the World. She is an alumna of the Institute for Public Knowledge, New York University and visiting faculty at the Centre for Contemporary Studies, Indian Institute of Science,Bengaluru.

Ajay Chowdhury is a businessman and theatre director. He started directing plays in India and now runs a theatre company in London. He has served on various boards, including Arts Council England and the Department of Culture, Media and Sport in the UK.

Anupa Lal’s storytelling mesmerizes children. She has written over 20 books including picture books, collections of poems, mythology, folk tales and translations.
Some of her works include Birbal Ek Chatur Darbari, Akbar Aur Birbal Ki Kahaniyaan, Sheikh Chilli Ki Kahaniyaan, and The Comic Capers of Sheikh Chilli.

Tabish Khair is a critically acclaimed author and poet whose recent novels have been shortlisted for the Encore Award (UK) and the Crossword Prize (India). He has won the All India Poetry Prize, and his novels have been shortlisted for various major awards and translated into several languages. The Thing about Thugs was shortlisted for the Man Asian Literary Prize (2010) and the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature (2012). His works include Where Parallel Lines Meet (2000) and How to Fight Islamist Terror from the Missionary Position (2012). Having worked as a journalist in India, he currently teaches English at Aarhus University, Denmark.

Acclaimed writer Shamsur Rahman Faruqui is also modern Urdu’s most celebrated critic. HE was editor and publisher of the highly regarded literary journal Shabkhoon, and is the author of a landmark four – volume study of the poet Mir Taqi Mir, and another four – volume work on urdu’s immense oral romance, Dastan -e Amir Hamza. He received the prestigious Saraswati Samman in 1996 for his contribution to Urdu literature. The Mirror of Beauty, originally published in Urdu to huge acclaim, is his first novel.

Sampurna Chattarji is a poet, novelist and translator.

K.R. Meera, an independent journalist and writer, made her mark in Malayalam journalism when she won the PUCL Human Rights National Award for Journalism in 1998 for an investigative series on the plight of women labourers in Kerala. She started writing fiction in 2001 and her first short story collection Ormayude Njarambu was published in 2002. Since then she has published four collections of short stories, a novella and three novels. Meera is one of the most widely read authors of her generation in malayalam and has won many prestigious literary prizes.

Poile Sengupta has written several books for children. Her published works include The Exquisite Balance, The way to my Friend’s House, Story of the Road, How the Path grew (CBT), Waterflowers ( Scholastic), Role Call and Roll Call Again(Rupa). Her stories have appeared in various anthologies like The Puffin Treasury of Modern Indian Stories, Sorry, Best Friend, One world ( Tulika), and The Best of Target. Her column, “Aletter to you, ran in Children’s World for nearly three decades. Polie is also a playwright. She has written several plays for adults, of which Manglam has been publishing by Seagull Books, Calcutta. She has also written one full – length musical and a number of short plays for children. She has been a teacher at school and college and is a well- know threatre person in Banglore, which is her home. Polie has recently moved to Delhi to be with her husband who is a senior civil servant.

Amita Sarin is a teacher and a writer based in the US.