Uma Krishnaswami

Uma Krishnaswami is an Indian author of picture books and novels for children, and a writing teacher. She is "recognized as a major voice in the expanding of international and multicultural young adult fiction and children's literature."[1]

Uma Krishnaswami
reading at the 2014 Gaithersburg Book Festival
Born1956
OccupationWriter, writing teacher
Period1990s–present
GenreChildren's literature, picture books, non-fiction
Website
umakrishnaswami.org

Biography

Uma Krishnaswami was born in 1956 in New Delhi, India. She received a degree in Political Science, and a master's degree in Social Work from the University of Delhi in India.[2] In 1979, she and her husband moved to the United States where she received an additional graduate degree.[2][3] They have one son [4] and live in Aztec, New Mexico.

Her first published story appeared in Children's World, a magazine published in India, when she was thirteen. Her stories and poems have been published in Cricket, Highlights and Cicada.[1] Her books, which include picture books, collections of stories of India, non-fiction books and novels, are published in English, Spanish, Hindi, Tamil and six other languages.[5][6]

Chachaji's Cup, one of Krishnaswami's picture books, was adapted into a musical and performed in several theaters in both New York City and California in 2010.[7]

Krishnaswami was a founding co-director of the Bisti Writing Project, a site of the National Writing Project in New Mexico.[3] She is a member of the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators and a nonresident member of The Children's Book Guild of Washington DC.[8] She has taught writing to adults and children for years, and for over ten years she was the writer in residence at the Aztec Ruins National Monument.[9][10] During that time she also taught writing classes online through Writers on the Net.[11] She currently teaches in the MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults program at Vermont College of Fine Arts.[12]

Awards

Bibliography

Novels

  • Step Up to the Plate, Maria Singh (2017)
  • The Grand Plan to Fix Everything (2011)
  • Naming Maya (2004)

Picture books

  • Out of the Way! Out of the Way! (2010)
  • Remembering Grandpa (2007)
  • Bringing Asha Home (2006)
  • The Closet Ghosts (2006)
  • The Happiest Tree (2005)
  • Monsoon (2003)
  • Chachaji's Cup (2003)

Easy readers

  • Holi (2003)
  • Hello Flower (2002)
  • Yoga Class (2001)

Retold story collections

  • The Broken Tusk: Stories of the Hindu God Ganesha (2006, 1996)
  • Shower of Gold: Girls and Women in the Stories of India (1999)
  • Stories of the Flood (1994)

Short fiction

  • "The Gift," in Period Pieces (2003)
  • "Going to Kashi," in Soul Searching (2002)

Nonfiction

  • Beyond the Field Trip : Teaching and Learning in Public Places (2002)

Co-authored

  • Many Windows : Six Kids, Five Faiths, One Community. Written with Rukhsana Khan and Elisa Lynn Carbone (2008)

References

Interviews

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