I am an author, a literary translator, and a 2025 National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Translation Fellow. Currently, I am also a Ph.D. Candidate in Literature at the University of Texas at Dallas, where I also teach undergraduate workshops in creative writing and literary translation. On August 17, 2026, I will begin serving full-time as the Associate Director for the Center for Translation Studies at the University of Texas at Dallas.
Building on a twenty-year career in global technical leadership, I work at the intersection of the literary and the academic, applying research-based inquiry to my creative practice and exploring critical interventions through storytelling. More specifically, my aim is to amplify underrepresented stories and voices.
Scholarship and Pedagogy
Research & Education
Ph.D. Candidate (Literature; expected 2028)
Dissertation Title: “Intervenient Theôros: The Translator-Figure in Postmodern Historical Fiction”
Research Interests: Literary Translation; Postmodern and Contemporary Literature; Creative Writing
Degrees & Honors:
MA (Literature); University of Texas at Dallas
Graduate Certificate in Literary Translation; University of Texas at Dallas
BEng (Hons.); University of Hertfordshire, England
Pedagogy
Creative Writing; Literary Translation
University of Texas at Dallas (Instructor of Record:
Undergraduate Literary Translation Workshop
Undergraduate Introduction to Creative Writing
Undergraduate Rhetoric
Writing Workshops Dallas (Workshop Lead):
Historical Fiction (6-week)
Magical Realism (6-week)
Advanced Fiction (8-week)
PEN America:
Fiction Lead for Emerging Voices Fellowship (5-month)
Awards & Fellowships
Creative Writing; Literary Translation
2025 Translation Fellowship (National Endowment for the Arts)
University of Texas at Dallas:
2026 Bill Swart Essay Prize
2025 Bill Swart Essay Prize
2025 Harry W. Bass Jr. Graduate Travel Award
2024 Harry W. Bass Jr. Graduate Travel Award
[The postmodern historical novel’s] hybrid structure and formal techniques enable a high-stakes dramatization of the translator-protagonist as a counter-archivist—a figure whose interventions contest and destabilize the notion of the dominant archive as the singular historical record.
From the dissertation: Intervenient Theôros: The Translator-Figure in Postmodern Historical Fiction
Professional Service & Literary Citizenship
2025-2026 Student Success Center Communication Advisory Board, University of Texas at Dallas
2025 Mentor, Emerging Translator Fellowship (Gujarati-to-English), American Literary Translators Association (ALTA)
2025 Jury Member, PEN Translation Prize, PEN America
2023 Jury Member, Mozhi Prize for Translation, Mozhi
2020-2023, Founder of Desi Books, a global forum showcasing South Asian literature from the world over
Key Speaking Topics
Translation: Theory, Art, Craft, & Praxis
The ethics, aesthetics, and politics of world literature
“Works in Progress: 2025 NEA Translation Fellows Conversation Series,” Center for the Art of Translation, Virtual Event, September-October 2025.
“Translating South Asian Literature, Enriching World Literature,” Center for Asian Studies, University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, TX, April 2025.
“Marketing and Promoting Literary Translations with Less Noise and More Signal,” British Center for Literary Translation, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK, July 2023.
Fiction & the Historical Archive
Strategies for fiction that reclaims forgotten or erased histories
“Balancing Research and Creativity in Historical Fiction.” Regency Fiction Writers Inc. Virtual Event. September 2023.
“Going Back in Time with Historical Fiction.” Dallas-Fort Worth Writers Conference. October 2022.
“How Can We Make Historical Fiction More Diverse?” The History Quill Writers Convention. Virtual Event. February 2022.
South Asian Literature in the World
The evolution from regional classics to contemporary global voices
“There is No Editor: Adventures in Translating Less-edited Works,” American Literary Translators Association (ALTA) Annual Conference, November 2025.
“Translation and World Literature; The Shehnai Virtuoso and Other Stories by Dhumketu,” Greenhill School, Addison, TX, September 2022.
“Shaam-e-Tarjuma, An Evening of Translation,” Ashoka Center for Translation Studies, Ashoka University, Sonipat, India, August 2022.
. . . I aim to be the kind of diasporic writer who’s truly transnational, who has immersed themselves in and studied both worlds of their hyphenated identities. A writer whose art can speak for both their peoples. A writer who can honor what , not fetishize or exoticize, left behind while also embracing what they call home now.
Keynote Address, Qissa Literature Festival 2022:What
Diaspora, Culture, and Identity Mean to Me
Recent Books
First Gujarati-to-English Translation in the US
“Complex characters, vibrant imagery, and descriptions of rural Gujarat State bolster each of the stories.” ~Publishers Weekly
Included in Best American Mystery & Suspense
“…a tightly woven mystery, while effortlessly balancing a broad cast of diverse characters and voices…” ~Alafair Burke (guest editor)
Winner of a 2020 Foreword INDIES Award
“A formally diverse collection with exquisitely crafted stories about longing, striving, and learning what we can control.” ~Kirkus Reviews
Select Publications
Corporate and Freelance Career
Digital Ventures (2012–2024)
Global Leadership (2001–2012)
Engineering (1993-2001)
Early Foundations (1990–1996)
Fashion Choice
Academic Coach Hub
