Reshma Ruia is an award winning author and poet. Her first novel, Something Black in the Lentil Soup, was described in the Sunday Times as ‘a gem of straight-faced comedy.’ Her second novel manuscript, A Mouthful of Silence, was shortlisted for the 2014 SI Leeds Literary Prize. Her short stories and poems have appeared in various British and International anthologies and magazines and commissioned for BBC Radio 4. Her debut collection of poetry, A Dinner Party in the Home Counties, won the 2019 Debut Word Masala Award. Her short story collection, Mrs Pinto Drives to Happiness will be published next year.

She has a PhD and Masters in Creative Writing from Manchester University (Distinction) as well as a Bachelor, and Masters Degree with Distinction from the London School of Economics. Reshma worked as a development economist with the Food and Agriculture Organisation and the World Food Programme of the UN in Italy and the OECD in Paris, prior to moving to Manchester. She is the co-founder of The Whole Kahani-a writers’ collective of British South Asian writers, fiction editor of Jaggery magazine and book reviewer for Words of Colour.

Born in India and brought up in Rome, her writing reflects the inherent preoccupations of those who possess a multiple sense of belonging. @RESHMARUIA

www.reshmaruia.com