About

My novel, EVERY HAPPINESS, will be out with Bloomsbury in the U.S. and with Penguin Random House in India in 2025.

I’m a writer, editor, and educator. I used to be a dancer. I was born in Connecticut and escaped frequently to Mumbai. As an adult, I’ve lived in Pune, India; Brooklyn, New York; Monteverde, Costa Rica; and now Austin, Texas where I’m a Michener Fellow at the University of Texas, Austin. My debut novel, currently titled Every Happiness will be out with Bloomsbury Pub in 2025.

I am generally grateful to be alive and writing things.

I’ve been selected as a Steinbeck Fellow, Tin House Scholar, a Sustainable Arts Foundation Fellow, Crossfields Fellow at Cuttyhunk, and a Fulbright scholar. In 2023, I received the Keene Prize at the University of Texas at Austin. I’ve also accrued many pages of Submittable rejections.

I’m a senior fiction editor at The Rumpus, a literary magazine I adore.

I used to dance with the Parul Shah Dance Company and wrote the biography Movement in Stills: the Dance and Life of Kumudini Lakhia (MapinLit). I taught in public schools for over a decade and spent several years in India with the Akanksha Foundation developing schools in Mumbai and Pune. I freelance edit, work as a writing coach, teach, and parent.

Contact: reena111000111@gmail.com

Agent: Iwalani Kim @ Sanford J. Greenburger Associates ikim@sjga.com