Manjul Bajaj

Manjul Bajaj is a novelist, short fiction writer, poet and translator. She lives in Goa. She graduated in Economics from Delhi University and then did a Masters in Rural Management and another in Environmental Science. For much of her adult life she worked in the field of rural development. Through her fiction she attempts to explore and understand the beauty and confusion of India, and what being a modern person belonging to this very ancient civilization and culture entails.

Her debut novel Come, Before Evening Falls was shortlisted for The Hindu Literary Prize 2010 and her collection of short stories Another Man's Wife was shortlisted for The Hindu Literary Prize 2013 Her 2019 novel In Search of Heer, a modern retelling of the Heer Ranjha epic, was listed for the JCB Prize 2020, the Mathrubhumi Literature Prize 2020, the Times of India AutHer Award 2020 and the Atta Galatta Prize 2020. She is also the author of Elbie's Quest and Nargisa's Adventures, for children.

In 2024 she published The Book of Bullah, a selection of the Punjabi mystic poet Bulleh Shah's verses, the first book of her series on the Sufi and Bhakti poets of India. The second book of the series, The Songs of Meera is due out in August 2025.

Once Upon a Summer, is her latest novel. It is a multigenerational ode to love and a meditation on the hold of memory, spanning continents and generations in its vast arc.