Photos by Elena Bessi
SHORT BIO
Namrata Poddar writes fiction and nonfiction, and teaches contemporary American literature at UCLA. Her debut novel, Border Less, was a Silver Medalist for Best Regional Fiction from Independent Publisher Book Awards, a finalist for Foreword Indies Book of the Year Award and Louise Meriwether First Book Prize, and longlisted for The Center for Fiction First Novel Prize. Her other writing has appeared in several publications including Poets & Writers, Literary Hub, Longreads, The Kenyon Review, and The Best Asian Short Stories. She holds a PhD in French literature from the University of Pennsylvania, an MFA in Fiction from Bennington College, and a Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowship in Transnational Cultures from UCLA. Find her on Instagram and Threads, @writerpoddar, and on Bluesky, @namratapoddar.
LONG BIO
Namrata Poddar (pronounced: Nuhm-ruh-thaa Poe-dhaar) is a South Asian American writer of fiction and nonfiction. She teaches contemporary American literature in the Honors Program at UCLA and has served as Interviews Editor for Kweli (2017–2023), where she curated the series “Race, Power and Storytelling.” For more than two decades, her writing and teaching have explored the intersection of storytelling and power through questions of colonialism, race, class, caste, gender, religion, and migration. Her current work extends this inquiry into questions of consciousness, embodiment, and decolonial healing.
Her debut novel, Border Less (2022), was published by 7.13 Books in North America and HarperCollins India in South Asia. The novel received the Silver Medal for Best Regional Fiction (West-Pacific) at the Independent Publisher Book Awards and was a finalist for the Foreword Indies Book of the Year Award (Multicultural Adult Fiction) and Feminist Press’s Louise Meriwether First Book Prize. It was longlisted for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize and the C&R Press Book Award and was a semi-finalist for Black Lawrence Press’s The Big Moose Prize. It was featured among the most anticipated, best or favorite books, and other book lists for 2022 by The Millions, Ms. Magazine, Brown Girl Bookshelf, BuzzFeed News, Chicago Review of Books, Washington Independent Review of Books, Aster(ix) Journal, and others.
Namrata’s writing has appeared in several publications including Poets & Writers, Longreads, Literary Hub, The Kenyon Review, Electric Literature, Catapult, The Millions, The Margins, Transition Magazine, Raising Mothers, and The Caravan. Her short fiction has received the New Asian Writing Prize, first prize at the 14th International Short Story Conference (judged by Bharati Mukherjee and Clark Blaise), and recognition from American Short Fiction.
She holds a Ph.D. in French Studies from the University of Pennsylvania, an MFA in Fiction from Bennington Writing Seminars, and was an Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow in Transnational Cultures at UCLA. Her early literary criticism and journalism focused on oceanic migration, environmentalism, tourism, and decolonial storytelling by Francophone South Asian diaspora from the Indian Ocean region. She has contributed to anthologies on the Caribbean, Pacific, and Indian Ocean regions. Her fiction and creative nonfiction continues to explore how writers of the global majority, including herself, experiment with form to tell stories that question and move beyond colonial assumptions of narrative. Across genres, her writing centers the lives of a global 21st-century South Asian community, including migrant women in North America and South Asia.
Namrata has taught courses and workshops in the Humanities, often with a focus on contemporary literature or creative writing, for different institutions in the U.S. and India, including the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Mumbai, and UCLA, where she taught in the departments of English, French & Francophone Literature, and Global, African, and Asian American Studies. She works with organizations such as Poets & Writers and Narratively Academy to teach craft and professional development for writers—helping them navigate the creative, editorial, institutional, and administrative aspects of writing.
She has spoken on contemporary Anglophone and Francophone storytelling at conferences and literary events across the world and has judged national as well as state-level writing contests. She was a contributor to The Los Angeles Times, where she focused on the art and sociocultural diversity of Orange County. In 2020, she also curated a fashion blog on Instagram (@stylegully) to highlight stories of clothing, identity, and diversity via South Asia.
Namrata is currently at work on a memoir about motherhood, transnational family life, power, and healing. As part of her longstanding spiritual practice and interest in decolonial healing, she has completed her teacher training in multi-style yoga. She holds certifications in Ayurveda, Reiki, and chakra healing, and continues training in Pranayamas (breathwork) and restorative yoga.
Born in Kolkata and raised in Mumbai, with roots in the Thar Desert’s Marwari community, Namrata has lived in Tours and Avignon (France), Quatre Bornes (Mauritius), Philadelphia, and Los Angeles. She is multilingual, and now lives with her family in Orange County, in Greater Los Angeles. She is represented by Saba Sulaiman of Talcott Notch Literary Services.
Beyond the world of books, Namrata is passionate about food, travel, music, yoga, meditation, the natural world, and spending time with loved ones.