Jasbinder Bilan

Jasbinder won The Times Chickenhouse Fiction Prize for her debut Asha And The Spirit Bird in 2017.

Jasbinder studied for an MA in Creative Writing at Bath Spa University, which is where she began writing her magical adventure Asha And The Spirit Bird.

She was born in India close to the Himalayas on the family farm. Her mum told her that she was born in a stable which all her brothers and sisters think is very funny!

On the farm they had lots of animals including a grumpy camel and a monkey called Oma who they adopted and became part of the family. Oma used to love carrying Jasbinder’s brother off to the neem tree in the farm-yard where she would rock him to sleep in her arms.

One of the things that Jasbinder’s family used to love doing was to sit outside under the starriest of skies, build a big fire and make pop-corn. This is when her uncles and grandma (her majee) would tell stories. Even though she was only a baby, it was those nights that gave her a love for the magic of stories.

When she was one and a half her family moved from India to Nottingham. But India was kept alive by continuing to talk about the farm and all the funny things that happened there during big family feasts.

As a young girl, Jasbinder always loved writing. In fact she can’t remember a time when she didn’t invent stories, but she never imagined that one day she’d write a story that would win a major prize and be published.

Jasbinder loves visiting schools and doing festivals. She will be appearing at The Southbank Centre as part of The Imagine Festival in Feb 2019.