Bio

Mani Rao is the author of twelve poetry books including Love Me in a Hurry (Atta Galatta 2022), New & Selected Poems (Poetrywala 2015) and three books in translation including Kalidasa for the 21st Century Reader (Aleph Books 2015) and Saundarya Lahari – Wave of Beauty (HarperCollins 2022). Her writing is in numerous journals and anthologies including Poetry Magazine, Fulcrum, WestCoastLine, Bloodaxe Book of Contemporary Indian Poets, and Penguin Book of the Prose Poem. She held writing residencies at Iowa International Writing Program, Omi Ledig House and International Poetry Studies Institute Canberra. She has performed at festivals such as NY PEN World Voices, The Age Melbourne Writers’ Festival and Hong Kong International Literary Festival. After working in advertising and television in India, Hong Kong and New Zealand for 20 years, she turned to writing and higher studies, and did an MFA in Creative Writing from UNLV, and a PhD in Religious Studies from Duke University. She returned to India in 2017, and now mostly lives in Bangalore. www.manirao.com