Shabnam Minwalla

Shabnam Minwalla has spent most of her life with words— editing her school magazine, working as a journalist with the Times of India and writing non-fiction, for example, a coffee-table book on her beloved alma mater, St Xavier's College.
At the moment she writes food columns, book reviews and features for publications like Business Line, The Times of India and The Indian Express. But what she most enjoys is writing books for children. Her first book, The Six Spellmakers of Dorabji Street (Hachette India), was critically acclaimed and a hit with children (many of whom refer to her as “that Dorabji Aunty”). It won the Rivokids Parents’ and Kids’ Choice Award and is being used as a reader by many schools and has also been converted into a play, performed in Mumbai schools.
Her second book, `The Strange Haunting of Model High School' (Scholastic), is an adventure story set in a Mumbai school. It, too, is being used as a reader. `The Shy Supergirl', `Lucky Girl’ and `When Jiya Met Urmila', (Duckbill) are popular with young readers. `What Maya Saw’ – a fantasy, clue-hunt in Mumbai—has been published by HarperCollins and has received excellent reviews.
`Nimmi’s Spectabulous Schooldays’ has just been published by Speaking Tiger, and is the first part in a middle-school series.
Shabnam has been a speaker at the Jaipur Lit Fest and has conducted book-readings and workshops around the country. She got her MA in Journalism at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. She was also a Chevening Scholar at Wolfson College in Cambridge.