Asian Authors Directory
Uma Krishnaswami is the author of numerous books for young readers, from picture books (The Girl of the Wish Garden, Out of the Way! Out of the Way! And Bright Sky, Starry City), to novels for young readers (The Grand Plan to Fix Everything and Step Up to the Plate, Maria Singh). Her nonfiction middle grade book, Threads of Peace: How Mohandas Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. Changed the World, is currently in press with Caitlyn Dlouhy Books/Atheneum. A picture book on the ascent of Everest is due out from Groundwood Books in 2021. Uma teaches at Vermont College of Fine Arts, Montpelier, Vermont, in the MFA program in Writing for Children and Young Adults. Many of her students have gone on to establish successful writing careers.
Step Up to the Plate, Maria Singh (Tu Books/Lee & Low, 2017), Bright Sky, Starry City, illustrated by Aimee Sicuro (Groundwood Books, 2015), The Girl of the Wish Garden: A Thumbelina Story, illustrated by Nasrin Khosravi (Groundwood Books, 2013), Book Uncle and Me (Scholastic India, 2012, Groundwood, 2016), The Problem with Being Slightly Heroic (Atheneum, 2013), The Grand Plan to Fix Everything (Atheneum, 2011), Out of the Way! Out of the Way! illustrated by Uma Krishnaswamy (Tulika Books/India, 2010, Groundwood, 2012), Remembering Grandpa, illustrated by Layne Johnson (Boyds Mills Press, 2007), Bringing Asha Home, illustrated by Jamel Akib (Lee & Low, 2006), The Closet Ghosts, illustrated by Shiraaz Bhabha (Children’s Book Press, 2006), The Happiest Tree, illustrated by Ruth Jeyaveeran (Lee & Low, 2005), Naming Maya (Farrar Straus Giroux, 2004), Monsoon, illustrated by Jamel Akib (Farrar Straus Giroux, 2003), Holi (Children’s Press/Grolier, 2003), Chachaji’s Cup, illustrated by Soumya Sitaraman (Children’s Book Press, 2003), Hello Flower/Hola Flor, illustrated by Winifred Barnum-Newman (Bebop/Lee & Low, 2001), Yoga Class/La Clase de Yoga, illustrated by Stephanie Roth (Bebop/Lee & Low, 2000), The Broken Tusk: Stories of the Hindu God Ganesha (Linnet Books, 1996, August House, 2006), Stories of the Flood, illustrated by Birgitta Säflund, Roberts Rinehart, 1994).
Uma’s books have been picked for CCBC Choices, Parents’ Choice, Junior Library Guild, USBBY’s Outstanding International Books, South Asia Book Award Honor, Bank Street Best Books of the Year, Children’s Choice nominations in the US and Canada, the Scholastic Asian Book Award (Singapore), Crossword Award (India), APALA award, FOCAL award, and others.