Santhini Govindan is a widely published, award-winning author of children’s literature in English. She has written more than 50 books for
children, including poetry, picture books, and short stories for children of all ages. Her publishers include the National Book Trust (India),
Children’s Book, Trust, Harper Collins India, Scholastic India, India Book House, Pushtak Mahal, Vikas Publishing House, and Publications
Division, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, (Govt. of India), among others. Her books have been translated into many Indian
languages and she written more than 300 stories and features for children that have appeared in children’s magazines and national dailies
in India and overseas.
She was awarded a two-year Junior Fellowship in Literature from the Ministry of Human Resource Development, Department of Culture,
Government of India in 1996, to write historical fiction for children in the short story form. .
In 1998, she was awarded a two-year Senior Fellowship in Literature by the Department of Culture, Govt. of India, for a research project on
‘Children’s Literature in English in India.’ In July 2001, she was the first Indian writer to be invited to attend the annual Highlights Foundation
Writers Workshop, held at Chautauqua, New York in the United States. ‘Highlights for Children’, published from the USA, is the largest selling
children's magazine in the world with a circulation of 3 million worldwide.
Many of Santhini Govindan’s books are now used as readers at schools across India. She wrote two columns in the well-known monthly
children’s magazine 'Chandamama' on historical fiction and mythology for two years till the magazine ceased publication in 2013. She has
conducted workshops for children at schools across Mumbai, and has taught creative writing at the under- graduate level at Mumbai
University.
