Mridula Koshy

Mridula Susan Koshy (born 1969) is an Indian writer and free library movement activist. She lives in New Delhi with her three children.

Professional life

Koshy was born in New Delhi and migrated to the US in the 1984, at the age of 14. She has worked as a trade union organiser and community organiser, parent and writer.

She returned to India in 2004 and currently works as a librarian and community organiser wit
The Community Library Project
, which runs four free community libraries, which together serve over 4000 members in Delhi NCR.

Her writing about the free library movement can be read in Caravan Magazine, on the blog of TCLP, All About Book Publishing, Scroll, Yahoo News, and Goethe Institut India's website.

Her collection of short stories, ''If It Is Sweet'' won the 2009 Shakti Bhatt First Book Prize and was shortlisted for the 2009 Vodafone Crossword Book Award.

Her first novel, ''Not Only the Things That Have Happened'' (Harper Collins, 2012) was shortlisted for the 2013 Crossword Book Award.

Koshy's books often explore the lives of Delhi's working class. Her latest novel ''Bicycle Dreaming'' focuses on family life in a waste worker community in Delhi. It follows a 13-year-old girl named Noor, who dreams of owning a bicycle and working as a ''kabadiwala'' like her father. However, the loss of his job forces him to work as a ragpicker, adversely affecting her family.

Her stories have appeared in literary journals including ''Wasafiri'', as well as in anthologies in India, the United Kingdom and Italy.

Bibliography

* ''Bicycle Dreaming'' (Speaking Tiger, 2016)
* ''Not Only the Things That Have Happened'' (Harper Collins India, 2012)
* ''If It Is Sweet'', a collection of short stories (Westland/Tranquebar Press, 2009; Brass Monkey, 2011)
* "Intimations of a Greater Truth" in ''Existere''.
* "Romancing the Koodawallah" in
Wasafiri
', Summer 2008.
* "Stray Blades of Grass" in ''The Dalhousie Review'', Autumn 2008.
* "Companion" in ''Prairie Fire''.
* "Good Mother" in ''India Currents'', winner first place, Katha 2008

* "The Large Girl" in ''21 Under Forty'' from Zubaan and ''Katha: Short Stories by Indian Women from Saqi'', March 2007.
* "When the Child was a Child" in ''First Proof 3 from Penguin India'', April 2008.
* "Jeans" in ''India'' from ''Isbn Edizioni''.
* "Same Day" in ''Tehelkas first fiction special, December 2008
online text
.

Reviews

Review
of Bicycle Dreaming in ''The Hindu'', February 2016


of Bicycle Dreaming in ''Hindustan Times'', August 2016


of ''Not Only The Things That Have Happened'' in ''India Today'', January 2013

Review
of ''Not Only The Things That Have Happened'' in ''Sunday Guardian'', February, 2013

Review
of ''Not Only The Things That Have Happened'' from ''People Magazine'', May, 2-13

Review
of ''If It Is Sweet'' in ''Outlook Magazine'', June 2009

Review
of ''If It Is Sweet'', in ''Tehelka'', June 2009


of "The Large Girl" in ''The Hindu Literary Review'', July 2007


of "The Large Girl" in ''India Today'', April 2007

Further reading

* Indian English literature
* Women writers

References

External links

‘I want to be fair to the reader’
Anupama Raju interviews Mridula Koshy in ''The Hindu'', February 2013

‘Interview with Indian Writer, Mridula Koshy’
Video Clip (in Malayalam) on Asianet News, January 2013

‘Mridula Koshy-If It Is Sweet'
Video Clip, Back Page #272, Oregon Public Broadcasting, December 2013.


Video Clip on CNN-IBN, September 2007



Website of publisher
Westland Books

Author's blog

The Community Library Project

{{DEFAULTSORT:Koshy, Mridula
English-language writers from India
Indian women short story writers
Women writers from Delhi
1969 births
Living people
21st-century Indian short story writers
Writers from Delhi
20th-century Indian women writers
20th-century Indian writers
21st-century Indian women writers