Reshma Ruia

Reshma is a writer and poet based in Manchester. Her first novel, Something Black in the Lentil Soup was described in the Sunday Times as ‘a gem of straight-faced comedy.’ Her second novel, A Mouthful of Silence, was shortlisted for the SI Leeds Literary Award. Her short stories and poetry have appeared in various British and international journals and anthologies and commissioned for BBC Radio 4.

A Dinner Party in the Home Counties is her debut poetry collection. It won the 2019 Word Masala Award. Lemn Sissay said of the collection, ‘Reshma lures the reader into her world through a vivid imagination. Her skill is in how she paints pictures with words, which become whole landscapes and scenes in one’s imagination. She ignites the reader. I feel I am reading someone whom everyone will be reading in future. Read her now! “

She is also the co-founder of The Whole Kahani, a writers’ collective of British South Asian writers. Her short-story collection, Mrs Pinto Drives to Happiness will be out in September 2021.