Padma Viswanathan's 2008 novel, The Toss of a Lemon, was published in eight countries, been a bestseller in three, and was a finalist for the Commonwealth (Regional) First Book Prize, the Amazon.ca First Novel Prize and the Pen Center USA Fiction Prize. Her second novel, The Ever After of Ashwin Rao, was published first in Canada in 2014, where it was a finalist for the Scotiabank Giller Prize, and several other countries, including the US, in 2015. In it, a cranky Indian psychologist comes to Canada to do what he calls a 'study of comparative grief,' tracing the effects of a 1985 jet bombing. He finds himself unexpectedly embroiled in the lives of one family, though, and, in learning their secrets, is made to reveal his own. Padma's short fiction has appeared in various journals; one story took first prize in the 2006 Boston Review Short Story Contest. Her plays include House of Sacred Cows and Disco Does Not Suck. She also writes cultural journalism and reviews, and received a 2009 NEA fiction fellowship.

Website: www.padmaviswanathan.com

Twitter Username: @padmav

Publications

• The Toss of a Lemon , Harcourt (September 2008)

Awards

• National Endowment for the Arts(2009)

Employment

• Assistant Professor at University of Arkansas (August 2014 - )

Degrees

• Master of Arts in Creative Writing--Fiction from Johns Hopkins Writing Seminars (May 2004)
• Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing--Fiction from University of Arizona (May 2006)

Genres of Interest

Fiction, Creative nonfiction, Playwriting, Screenwriting, Children's literature , Poetry