Mishi Saran was the 2022-2023 recipient of the David T.K. Wong Creative Writing Fellowship, awarded annually by the University of East Anglia to an author working on a novel about East Asia and Southeast Asia. She has an MFA in Writing from the Vermont College of Fine Arts and has previously been awarded writing residencies at Ledig House (USA) and Chateau Lavigny (Switzerland). Saran's first novel, The Other Side of Light (Harper Collins India, June 2012) was shortlisted for the 2013 Commonwealth Book Prize. Her short stories have won awards and been broadcast on the BBC.

 
 

  • Following a B.A. in Chinese Studies from Wellesley College (USA) and a year at the Johns Hopkins University -Nanjing University Center in China, Saran worked in Hong Kong as a journalist, including with Reuters News Agency, and as the books page editor at Dow Jones’ Far Eastern Economic Review. As a freelance writer her articles appeared in a number of travel magazines and international publications including the Los Angeles Review of Books and Quartz, as well as in the Financial Times, the International Herald Tribune, the South China Morning Post and The Wall Street Journal. 

  • Born in the city of Allahabad, in the north Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, lived her first ten years in New Delhi. Moved to St. Legier in the Canton de Vaud, Switzerland and then finished high school in Jakarta, Indonesia. Travelled to Wellesley College on the US East Coast, where she discovered Mandarin Chinese, which shaped her choice of major and led to stints in Beijng, Nanjing and Guangzhou in China. Shanghai is the city that stole her heart but the majority of her years thus far have found her in Hong Kong. In between she lived in Seoul, Korea for 16 months. For the academic year of 2022-23 she calls Norwich, UK home.

    As a result of such peregrination, and though she writes in English, Saran is fluent in Mandarin, French and Hindi. She can bargain in Bahasa Indonesia, greet people in Korean, and deploy taxi Cantonese. She can hear the difference between Hochdeutsch and Schweizerdeutsch. She is coming to accept that her sole permanent address might lie in the country of fiction.

  • David T.K. Wong Creative Writing Fellowship • UK

    Vermont College of Fine Arts scholarship towards an MFA in writing • USA

    Commonwealth Book Prize, Fiction Shortlist • UK

    Chateau de Lavigny Writers Residency • Switzerland

    Ledig House International Writers Residency • USA

    Lettre Ulysses Award for the Art of Reportage, Longlist • Germany

    Hutch-Crossword Literary Award for Non-Fiction, Shortlist • India

    Chasing the Monk’s Shadow on bestseller lists • India

    BBC World Service Short Story Competition, One of ten winning entries • UK

    Arts Development Council Literary Committee Award • Hong Kong

    Wellesley College Mary Elvira Stevens Traveling Fellowship • USA

    South China Morning Post Short Story Competitions, First Prize & Third Prize • Hong Kong

    Johns-Hopkins University – Nanjing University Center for Chinese and American Studies, scholarship for a year of study • Nanjing, China

Photo portrait of author Mishi Saran - photo by Baljit Gidwani

Photo by Baljit Gidwani