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.
