Bindu Bhaskar Balaji is Associate Professor at the Asian College
of Journalism, Chennai. She began full-time teaching after varied assignments across India, as a frequently transplanted journalist.
In My Vote Counts, her first book with Tulika, she draws on her experiences to bring to children the canvas of the world's largest democracy at work – with a a broad perspective and a light touch.
 

Cathy Spagnoli is American, but she's a storyteller and writer with a special interest in Indian and Asian cultures and their stories. For over twenty years, she has travelled throughout Asia collecting tales and telling them through performances, workshops and books. She shares her trade secrets through three resource books, Simple Wonders: toy stories to make and tell, The World of Indian Stories and The World of Asian Stories, and, the magic of stories through two picture books,
It’s Only A Story and Priya’s Day, all published by Tulika. Cathy lives
in Seattle.

Chitra Soundar. a writer currently based in London, has worked as
a teacher, programmer and a placement guide. She is inspired by
her Indian heritage and equally fascinated by world cultures. She
has published over fifteen titles for children and regularly writes for
children's magazines. Where is Gola’s Home? is Chitra’s first for Tulika.
 

Deepa Balsavar and Deepa Hari work for Avehi-Abacus, a curriculum enrichment project for municipal schools in Mumbai. Sameer's House (the first in a series of picture books co-written by them and being published by Tulika) is a re-telling of an Avehi-Abacus story for children. Deepa Balsavar is also the author and illustrator of Tulika's bilingual picture book, The Seed, that was conferred the honour of being included in the prestigious White Raven's Catalogue 2007 at a special evening at the Bologna book fair.

Ever since Deeya Nayar walked into the Tulika office, it was clear
that this was where she belonged. Deeya is an uncompromising editor who can make a spade blush with pleasure and confidence. She is the author of All About Nothing, and occasionally translates into Hindi.
She has also written Tulika’s hot-selling craft and design diaries. She
is proud of the way Tulika has raised the bar for ‘mainstream’ children’s books in India, and finds it fascinating to work with so many languages. She loves books, music and Chennai.

Evelien Pullens is the co-author of Tulika's Aiyappan and the Magic Horse. She is a puppeteer, theatre teacher and author of nine children’s books. Evelien is based in The Netherlands, where she works as theatre teacher and director. Since 2003, she has been a regular visitor to India, doing drama/puppetry workshops at the Kattaikuttu Sangam (Kancheepuram), Ninasam (Heggodu) and Rangayana (Mysore), Kalakshetra Manipur (Manipur).

Dr Graeme MacQueen is a specialist in Buddhism, with a great
love for India's storytelling traditions nurtured over three decades.
He has been a university professor and peace activist and founded
the McMaster University’s Centre for Peace Studies in Ontario,
Canada in 1989. Since 2003, he has been a full-time writer.
Journey to the City of Six Gates is his first with Tulika.

Hanne M. de Bruin studied Indology at the University of Leiden,
The Netherlands. Her Ph.D. thesis about the Kattaikuttu theatre tradition has been published as a book. Hanne has worked as a research fellow in several institutions in India and abroad. She
speaks Tamil and has lived in Tamilnadu for the last fifteen years.
Since 2002 she has been working with her husband Rajagopal,
full time for the Kattaikuttu School in Kancheepuram. Some of the photographs for Aiyappan and the Magic Horse were taken by Hanne.

Harini Gopalswami Srinivasan is a nomad at heart who has lived
all over the country. Presently based in Bangalore, she meanders
along cooking, writing, digging, feeding or editing whatever crosses
her path. She has written a picture book for children, called Zoo Duck. The Smile of Vanuvati is her first novel, published by Tulika. It was inspired by a visit to Lothal, an important archaeological site. 

Indira Mukherjee is a Delhi-based writer and storyteller. She has written Who Will Be Ningthou?, a gentle, evocative story from Manipur.

Jacob Samson Mutthada is Deputy Director, Public Relations Department of the Kerala Government, and the editor of Kaliveena,
a children’s monthly. He has authored several books in Malayalam
and written scripts for All India Radio. He received the NCERT
National Award for his book, Oru Thenmavinte Kadha. Thakitta
Tharikitta Bouncing Ball, in Malayalam, is his first book with Tulika.

Chennai-based poet and writer, Jaya Madhavan began her writing career as a copywriter and a columnist. An alumnus of Jawaharlal
Nehru University, she uses storytelling, theatre, songs and Carnatic music to create learning modules for children. Kabir The Weaver Poet, her second novel and her first book with Tulika is a labour of love.

Jeeva Raghunath is a popular performance storyteller from Chennai.
She also writes stories in Tamil and translates children's books from English into Tamil. Jeeva conducts workshops on storytelling, drama
and language skills. She has represented India twice at the Asian Children’s Festival organised by the National Library Board of Singapore. She is part of an Indo-Swedish children's literature project and gets invited to storytelling festivals across the world. Jeeva's way with words brings a delightful exuberance to Gadagada Gudugudu,
Malli, Aa Villurundu Akku Varai and Gasa Gasa Para Para.

Jonathan Lindstrom is an archaeologist, prize-winning writer and illustrator who loves science and the big questions about the universe, like life, death and why we have a toothache. He lives in Sweden with
his wife and two children, and has a garden where it snows in winter
and roses and grapes grow in summer. As part of an Indo-Swedish children's literature project, he co-authored the picture book Crocodile Tears with Sandhya Rao.

The chirpy Eecha Poocha is Kala Sashikumar's first book with Tulika. She enjoys dance and theatre and runs Saradhi, a school for dance
and music. Kala has written songs and stories for popular television programmes such as Chirakukal and Koothukaar.

Kalpana Swaminathan is a surgeon and writer who lives and works in Mumbai. She shares the pseudonym Kalpish Ratna with Ishrat Syed, and their writings on science, the arts and literature have appeared in several publications. Kalpana has published several stories for children and novels for adults. Ordinary Mr.Pai is her first book with Tulika.

Kamla Bhasin specialised in Sociology of Development. As a result,
her work with NGOs and women's groups has equipped her to write extensively on women’s empowerment, rural development and sustainable agriculture. Her writings for children inlcude Dhammak Dham: rhymes for children in Hindi, Urdu, English, Gujarati and Punjabi and Ulti Sulti Mito (Kali for Women). Malu Bhalu, a picture book in verse, is her first for Tulika. Kamla lives in New Delhi.

Lata Mani is a historian, poet and cultural critic. She has published
on a broad range of issues from feminism to contemporary politics and spiritual philosophy. Her adventures with writing for children began in 2008 with a request for a story from her four-year-old nephew, Gautam, and, as it can sometimes happen, one story led to another. . .
The Tamarind Tree and The Spider's Web, her first two picture books with Tulika, have a meditative quality and make profound statements about childhood ever so delicately. Lata lives in Bangalore.

Lathika Nath Rana is a wildlife biologist with a Ph.D. from Oxford University, U.K. on the management of tigers in the wild. She is
married to Nanda Shumshere Jung Bahadur Rana, considered to
be the best among the internationally acknowledged experts on tiger behaviour. He is a wildlife photographer and filmmaker and has made films for National Geographic, Discovery Channel and the BBC. Her
text and his endearing pictures track a day in the life of Takdir the
Tiger Cub, a bilingual picture book for Tulika.

Libby Hathorn, an Australian writer, has been writing for children
and young adults for close to twenty years – picture books, novels, poetry, fiction, libretti and even screenplays for Hollywood. Libby's picture book, Sky Sash So Blue was named one of the best books
of '98 in the USA and Way Home won the Kate Greenaway Award in
the U.K. A Face in the Water is her first book with Tulika. She lectures part-time in Creative Writing (children’s literature) at Sydney University.

Mamata Pandya is deeply interested in children, education, environment and writing. She works with the Centre for Environment Education, Ahmedabad, where she is involved in developing educational materials (print and multimedia) for teachers and children. Mamata wrote All Free, a retelling of a folktale from Gujarat that's part of the Under the Banyan series, and has translated many of Tulika's titles into Gujarati.

Columns, short stories, novels, plays, a long-running cartoon strip Suki which finally turned into a book...Manjula Padmanabhan traverses all these genres with ease. Harvest, her fifth play, won the 1997 Onassis Award for Theatre in Greece, the first from India ever to receive this international honour. She has illustrated twenty-four books for children. which include her own two novels for children – Mouse Attack! and Mouse Invaders. (Macmillan, U.K.). Manjula has done two unique books with Tulika. I am Different!, an illustrated, multilingual puzzle book and
The Travel Puzzle Book. German rights for the first have been sold.

Mariam Karim Ahlawat studied at Jawarharlal Nehru University,
New Delhi, and the Sorbonne in Paris, and is a university teacher in French language and literature. She has been writing for children for
over fourteen years, does creative writing workshops and scripts and designs multimedia for children. She writes and illustrates a regular
page in the magazine, Parenting. Her two picture books with Tulika, Putul and the Dolphins and The King and the Kiang, enchantingly portray the tenuous but abiding relationship between man and nature.

Melanie Kunz was taking a degree in International Business and Studies in Passau, Germany when she looked at a map of India and decided to go ‘there.’ An interest in publishing led her to an internship with Tulika where she was inspired to do A Gift from the Sea, her first book. The memory of hot days spent on the beach kept her warm
when she returned to a cold Germany.

Meena Raghunathan has many years of experience in developing educational material for teachers, students, decision-makers and the general community. Currently, she is Director (Community Services), GMR Varalakshmi Foundation, Hyderabad, which is involved in education, health and livelihoods. Her special interest is children's education. Brahma's Butterfly, her first book for Tulika, and Who Will Rule? her latest, feature unlikely heroes with plenty of attitude!

Mini Srinivasan lives and writes in Pune, where she works with teachers and children in government-run schools. She is also part
of a child rights advocacy group focusing on making education more meaningful for underprivileged children. She loves to write for pre-teens, who she thinks are smart, feisty and fun. Just A Train Ride Away is
her first book with Tulika.

Since the publication of her two picture books Pranav's Picture (2005) and What Shall I Make? (2006), Nandini Nayar has continued to do what she likes (and does) best: writing for children. In fact, What Shall I Make? is delighting children elsewhere too. Its U.K. and North American rights have been sold. Her recent work has appeared in publications such as The Hitavada, Tinkle, Dimdima and Sakal Herald.

Young Nirupama Raghavan is from Arasavanangadu, near Tiruvarur. Entirely home-schooled by parents who run a unique school called Shikshayatan, Nirupama was only sixteen when Tulika published
her translation of Parthiban Kanavu by renowned Tamil writer, Kalki.
Pavo and Cavo, a picture book Tulika published in 2006 was conceived when she was only eight years old! She is currently working on a set
of original short stories. Nirupama has been a volunteer teacher at her parents' school for over a year now and intends to get proficient in
several foreign languages.

Niveditha Subramaniam completed her undergraduation in English Literature from Stella Maris College, Chennai. A love for children's books led to an internship with Tulika where she happily wrote and doodled. Since she shares the same love for jalebis and picture books, she's delighted that two of her favourite things share the same space in Jalebi Curls, her first book with Tulika. Niveditha was also lucky to work with a friend over a series of picture books with Think Big Books. Passionate about photography, she hopes to make photo books for children sometime soon.
 

T V Padma did her post-doctoral research in Chemical Environmental Engineering at Johns Hopkins, U.S.A. From an early age, she was interested in the world of mathematical sciences and literature. The two interests competed for many years. She now works at the University of Rhode Island and devotes a few days exclusively to writing. She has written many books for children and young adults. Her first novel Climbing the Stairs (Penguin USA), is written under the name Padma Venkatraman. Her two books with Tulika are The Forbidden Temple
and Mathematwist. Korean rights for the second have been sold.

After regularly contributing to her college literary journal, Priya Krishnan fell off the map, or so it seemed! But she was traversing it, literally, with a family that had tennis on its mind. The range of children's books she got to read to her children sparked off an abiding interest in them. As editor with Tulika, she enjoys the small quibbles and the grand debates that surround every book. Priya is the author of the Read and Colour River Stories. She is Tulika’s obliging resident researcher and also lets readers in on happenings at Tulika, through the website and newsletters. She reviews fiction for The Hindu Literary Review and unwinds with classical music and films. She lives in Chennai.

Radhika Chadha is a consultant in innovation and strategy. Her children’s stories began as bedtime tales to entertain her young son. She is the creator of the much loved, I’m So Sleepy, Snoring Shanmugam, Basava and the Dots of Fire and Colour-Colour Kamini.
 

Radhika Meganathan's trips to south India during her college days inspired the bilingual picture book, The Village Fair, her first with Tulika. A graduate in architecture and a postgraduate in English literature, she is the author of more than twenty picture books for children. Currently, Radhika works as the managing editor for Chandamama.com. She lives in Chennai with her family and a ten year old "mewse", Jojo.
 

Radhika Menon is the brain and spirit behind Tulika, a name she often gets called! With degrees in psychology and education, she taught at some of the most progressive schools in Delhi and Chennai. Her interest in Indian content for children extends to other media as well. In fact,
she was always one step ahead of the times, whether it was creating innovative children’s programmes for television in English, Hindi and Malayalam, or setting up the one of its kind exclusive children’s bookstore and activity centre, Goodbooks.
          She carried the spirit of creative enterprise into publishing with Tulika’s first book, which she wrote, a bilingual bestseller called
Line and Circle, which has since been published in 23 languages. Radhika’s drive, imagination and poise give the company its profile as
a trendsetter in children’s publishing. She, of course, will laugh and
point to her team. It is this vision that sees her on committees of the NCERT, NBT, Ekalavya and others engaged in developing books for the marginalized. She lives in Chennai and travels all over the world.

P.Rajagopal and his wife Hanne M. de Bruin, started the Kattaikuttu Sangam in 1990 in Kancheepuram, a union that fights for better social and economic conditions for its players. In 2002 he set up the Kattaikkuttu Youth Theatre School. Rajagopal, a well-know Kattaikuttu actor himself, is its principal teacher and artistic director. He also writes and directs plays and has conducted workshops in Europe. He wrote Aiyappan and the Magic Horse with Hanne and Evelien Pullens. The play, Maya Kudirai (The Magic Horse), has been translated from Tamil into English by Hanne and published by Tulika.

Ranjit Lal brings a keen eye and a robust sense of humour to his writings on birds, animals and. . .insects. And he knows them well!
In That Summer at Kalagarh, his first with Tulika, elephants had starring roles. Korean rights for the book have been sold. Then followed Birds from my Window. The third, a picture book called Dancing Bees, heads into the mad, mad world of creepy crawlies. His list of fiction and non-fiction for children includes, The Caterpillar Who Went on a Diet and Other Stories (Puffin), The Battle for No. 19 (Puffin), The Small Tigers of Shergarh (Roli/IndiaInk) and The Bossman series and Water Birds (Rupa). Ranjit lives in New Delhi.

Samina Mishra studied history at St Stephens College, Delhi University and  Mass-Communications at the Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi, where she currently lives. She juggles roles as a writer, sound recordist and documentary filmmaker. Her first book for children, Hina in the Old City was published by Tulika. She is also the creator of My Friends in the City, a bilingual picture book that uses photographs.

Sandhya Rao is Senior Editor at Tulika Publishers. One of the finest writers for children in India today, her books have won awards and accolades: My Friend the Sea won the Ambitious Children’s Book Project award at the Berlin Children and Youth Literature Festival, 2005. My Mother’s Sari was chosen as an Outstanding International Book, 2007, by the United States Board for Books for Young People (USBBY) and the Children’s Book Council. Rights to the book have been sold for USA, Canada, Australia and the U.K.
          But what Sandhya cherishes most is that she has been able to follow her dream – doing books for children. For this, she cheerfully gave up a promising career in mainstream journalism and joined longtime friend Radhika to create multilingual books for children at a time when independent children’s publishing in India was nascent. She has written over 20 books and translated Astrid Lindgren’s Pippi Longstrump into Hindi. Sandhya has an eclectic taste in books, music and films and likes to ‘make’ things. She loves listening to stories, especially real stories. She occasionally writes for The Hindu-Business Line and Housecalls. She enjoys different kinds of vegetarian cuisine and lives in Chennai. Sweden is her heart’s home.

Shama Futehally studied English at the universities of Bombay and Leeds. After teaching English and Cultural History for eight years in Bombay and Ahmedabad, she moved to Delhi where she spent most
of the last few decades. She has two anthologies of short stories to
her credit and her first novel, Tara Lane (Ravi Dayal) won critical acclaim. She, along with Githa Hariharan, edited Sorry, Best Friend! a collection of children's stories for Tulika. Shama passed away on 3^rd December 2003, after battling cancer for several years. She was just fifty-two.

Shamim Padamsee is keenly interested in early childhood learning
and is director of an educational organisation that runs schools in Maharashtra, Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh. She lives in Mumbai and In her spare time, dreams up stories like Dancing on Walls, her first book for children, and Birdywood Buzz: The Vulture Returns, both published by Tulika.

Dr Shanti Pappu is the director of The Sharma Centre for Heritage Education, (Chennai/Pune). A professional archaeologist, Dr. Pappu is
a former Homi Bhabha fellow and has held numerous awards and fellowships, published books as well as academic and popular articles. Along with her team, she has been directing research programmes into the prehistoric archaeology of Tamilnadu, and conducting excavations
at the site of Attirampakkam in this region. She has always been  passionate about involving children in the process of archaeological research. This interest evolved into a book with Tulika called
The Shining Stones.  

Sheila Dhir creates advertising campaigns, builds corporate identity, designs brochures, writes and illustrates children's books. Gandhi, a book in Braille for the National Association for the Blind, received the 1984 Public Relations Society Award. The thesis she developed while
at the National Institute of Design (N I D), Ahmedabad, was 'Visual Aids and Materials for Children with Physical Disabilities'. Why Are You Afraid To Hold My Hand? her first book with Tulika, deals sensitively with attitudes towards these children with special needs. Sheila spends
time between the USA and India.

Shekar Dattatri’s fascination with wildlife began at 13 when he joined the Madras Snake Park as a volunteer. This led to an interest in photography and filmmaking. He has made several award-winning documentaries on wildlife such as Silent Valley, an Indian Rainforest
and The Ridley’s Last Stand which have been shown around the world.
          Over the last few years he has been focussing on conservation and his films on the olive ridley and mining in Kudremukh, Mindless Mining, have gone a long way in impacting policy. His efforts to raise environmental awareness recently won him Sweden’s Edberg Foundation award. The theme of conservation also runs through his two books with Tulika: Lai-Lai the Baby Elephant and Riddle of the Ridley. Shekar lives
in Chennai.

Suchitra Ramadurai is a Radio Broadcaster who hosts the power-packed 4-hour live breakfast show on Mid Day-BBC's Radio One FM Station in Chennai. She is also a professional singer and has toured the world, giving singing performances. Suchitra enjoys writing for children and hopes to make a difference with "refreshing, non-patronising writing". The Runaway Peppercorn, her first book with Tulika was one of the winners of the Commonwealth Short Story Competition 2003-2004.

Suniti Namjoshi is a fabulist and poet whose work is characterised
by wit, irony, lyricism and pithy satire. Her books, published in India, Canada, Britain, the U.S., Europe and Australia, include the path-breaking Feminist Fables and Sycorax: New Fables and Poems. In the past few years she has been writing prolifically for children – the Aditi series, of which eight have been published and more are forthcoming.     The tone here is much gentler, but the questioning imagination which constantly surprises, so characteristic of her work for adults, is also found here. Set in different parts of the world, the Aditi books can justifiably be termed the first truly ‘Indian’ series for children with an appeal that relates to children everywhere, with Chinese rights sold.
          Suniti lives in Devon, U.K., designated an area of “outstanding natural beauty”, a home she loves. She spends time in the garden, watching birds, walking, observing, and grappling creatively with the computer. She loves kulfi and hard rock of the candy kind, and is an obliging photographer.

Suroopa Mukherjee teaches English Literature in Hindu College, Delhi University and writes fiction and non-fiction for adults and children in her spare time. She is co-coordinator of a student group that creates youth awareness on issues relating to environmental damage and corporate crime. Suroopa has authored Bhopal Gas Tragedy for Tulika. She is a Fellow, Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, Teen Murti, doing a full time research project on women survivors of Bhopal. Her academic book on Bhopal is forthcoming in 2009 as part of the Palgrave Studies in Oral History. Across The Mystic Shore (Macmillan, 2007), was her debut novel for adults.

‘Gaana’ Ulaganathan has been singing since he was nine years old. He is an expert on the Opari, the lament rendered at funerals. His songs draw inspiration from daily struggles and routines. "I love eating fish and used to buy freshly caught fish when I was working at the harbour. One night, I just imagined a marriage between fishes. That's when I wrote the song, Vaalameenukkum Vilaangameenukkum Kalyanam," he says. It's lively rhythm never fails to get people on their feet. The song is now a Tamil picture book, published by Tulika.

Dr Vayu Naidu was the first Indian to be awarded a Ph.D. in performance oral tradition from the University of Leeds. She is Founder and Artistic Director, Vayu Naidu Company based in the U K. It specialises in storytelling in performance, collaborating with  composers, symphony orchestras, contemporary music groups. Vayu performs at storytelling, literature and music festivals around the world. She has authored four books for Tulika’s Under the Banyan series; folktales adapted to suit the modern reader while still retaining the flavour, idiom and rhythm of the language and region from which they come. 

Vishakha Chanchani is an artist and a writer. She writes both in Hindi and in English and has written lots of books for children. Baawre Beej
is her first with Tulika.

Zai Whitaker  went to school and college in Mumbai, then moved to Chennai where she worked at the Chennai Snake Park and Crocodile Bank for many years. She has also lived in Papua New Guinea, and
now teaches at the Kodaikanal International School. Zai's interests are natural history, writing, and teaching. Her books Andamans Boy and
Kali and the Rat Snake have been published by Tulika. Dutch and German rights for the first book and North American and Canadian rights for the second, have been sold. She is one of the founding members of the Irula Women’s Society, which helps women from the Irula tribe of
hunter-gatherers.