Payal Kapadia

Payal Kapadia grew up being any sort of girl she wanted to be, reading everything she could get her hands on and following her imagination wherever it took her. She studied English literature at St Xavier’s College, Mumbai, and received an MSc degree in journalism from Northwestern University, Chicago. She worked with Outlook magazine in Mumbai and the Japan Times in Tokyo-and ended up interviewing teenage gangs in inner cities, an elephant who paints for Christie’s and Japanese soldiers who fought under Subhash Chandra Bose. Her critically acclaimed debut, Wisha Wozzariter, won the 2013 Crossword Book Award for Children’s Writing and is featured in the 101 Indian Children’s Books We Love! compilation. She went on to write the bestselling school adventure series Horrid High. Her first book for grown-ups, Maidless in Mumbai, was a top pick on Amazon. When Payal isn’t reading at festivals and schools, she loves singing karaoke and travelling to new and strange lands (not just the ones inside her head). She lives in Mumbai with her husband, two daughters who enjoy breaking the rules just as much as she does, more laptops than one family should own up to owning and no dogs. Yet.