PUFFIN LIVES

Payal Kapadia

Payal Kapadia's debut novella, Wisha Wozzariter, won the Crossword Book Award 2013
for Children's Writing and is also featured in the 101 Indian Children's Books We Love! compilation.

Payal finds that stories abound everywhere, sometimes in real life, sometimes in the imagination. She studied English Literature at St Xavier's College, Bombay, and earned a Master of Science degree in Journalism from Northwestern University, Chicago. She worked with Outlook in Bombay and The Japan Times in Tokyo. Journalism, however, was meant only to be a pit stop, and today Payal is living her dream of being a full-time author.

Aravinda Anantharaman

Aravinda has always loved books and stories and it seemed only natural that when she grew up, she too would write. She has had several jobs in dotcoms and other places. Her longest and most enjoyable stint has however been with a children's library called Hippocampus.

Aravinda is part of a small group called Think Tibet that organizes events to introduce people to the Tibetan community. For Think Tibet, Aravinda set up Lama Mani Books to publish Tibetan stories for children. She has authored two books, Dorje's Holiday at the Gyenso Khang and Dolma Visits the City (2009).

Subhadra Sen Gupta

Subhadra Sen Gupta wrote since college and worked as a copywriter in many advertising agencies. She specialized in historical fiction and non-fiction, travel writing, detective and ghost stories as well as comic
strips.

Sreelata Menon

When computers hit the scene, life changed for Sreelata Menon. The Internet introduced her to a whole new way of writing and working. A Masters in History, she was with the Onlooker and World Trade Magazine before teaching History to undergraduates and doing a stint in an advertising agency. Now working from home, she is a widely-travelled freelance writer who enjoys writing on all kinds of topics.

She writes weekly blogs on freelance writing and content for a variety of websites. She is the author of Freelance Writing for the Newbie Writer, which has been released to rave reviews. Married to a civil servant, she has two grown-up sons and now keeps flitting between Delhi and Bangalore.

Aditi De

Aditi De is a Bangalore-based author, dreamer, traveller, editor (though not necessarily in that order). She loves children and the world of the word. In 1989, she launched Junior Quest, the popular magazine from the Chandamama group, and later edited the Open Sesame children's supplement at the Deccan Herald. Her books include A Twist in the Tale: More Indian Folktales (Puffin India). She has written children's columns for Chatterbox magazine, Deccan Chronicle and Young World.

Rukmini Chawla

Born in 1974 in Delhi, Rukmini Chawla has Masters' degrees from the University of Delhi and the University of Oxford. Among other things, she has worked in television, done freelance writing for adults and children, and
published a magazine called The Dance of Life. She currently works for Dorling Kindersley, a publishing firm.
Rukmini is married, and lives with her husband and daughter in Delhi.

Anu Kumar

Anu Kumar is a writer and editor based in Gurgaon, India. She studied history at Lady Shriram College and also has a degree in management from XLRI, Jamshedpur. Her first novel, Letters for Paul, was published by Mapin in 2006. She has written two books for young readers, Atisa and the Seven Wonders (Puffin, 2008) and In the Country of Gold-digging Ants (Puffin, 2009). The next Atisa book, Atisa and the Time Machine: Adventures with Hiuen Tsang, is due out shortly (Puffin Books).

Monideepa Sahu

Monideepa Sahu is a former banker, who had a whale of a time writing her fantasy adventure novel, Riddle of the Seventh Stone. Her short stories for both adults and young people have been widely anthologized in India
and abroad. She enjoys concocting tall tales, and can also wax eloquent on deathly serious subjects. She lives in Bangalore with her extended family of people, a vintage PC and countless arthropods. You can connect with her at www.monideepa.blogspot.in.

Devika Rangachari

Dr Devika Rangachari has won several awards for her children's writing. Her book, Growing Up (Children's Book Trust, 2000) was on the Honour List of the International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY) in 2002. Her other books include Harsha Vardhana (Scholastic, 2009), The Merry Mischief of Gopal Bhand (Scholastic, 2007), The Wit of Tenali Raman (Scholastic, 2007), When Amma Went Away (CBT, 2002) and Stories from Rajatarangini-Tales of Kashmir (CBT, 2001). Devika helps to run the Children's Book Forum at the India Habitat Centre, New Delhi. She is currently engaged in post-doctoral research in Indian history. She is also excessively fond of books and chocolates and not necessarily in that order!

Deepa Agarwal

Author, poet and translator, Deepa Agarwal writes for both children and adults and has published about fifty books. She has received, among others, the NCERT National Award for Children's Literature for her picture book
Ashok's New Friends, while her historical fiction Caravan to Tibet featured in the IBBY Honour List 2008. Five of her books have been listed in the White Raven Catalogue of the International Youth Library, Munich. She is a regular contributor to children's magazines in India and abroad, and her stories have appeared in many anthologies and school textbooks.