Tanuja Desai Hidier

Tanuja Desai Hidier is a bestselling and award-winning author that is also the innovator and singer-songwriter of the booktrack. The author was the winner of the APALA Young Adult and Children Honor Award, the Waterstones/London Writers Award, the James Jones First Novel Fellowship, and the South Asia Book Award in 2015. Her short fiction has been featured in several anthologies over the years. Hidier made her debut with the 2002 published novel “Born Confuse”d which was a landmark novel that was named Best Book for Young Adults as the first South Asian American Young Adult novel. The work was critically acclaimed by the likes of “Paste Magazine,” “Entertainment Weekly,” and “Rolling Stone Magazine.” It was included on lists of the best young adult novels of all time that included titles such as “Huckleberry Finn,” “To Kill A Mockingbird,” “Harry Potter,” “Little Women,” and “The Catcher in the Rye.” “Bombay Blues” her second novel won the South Asia Book Award. Kirkus Review called it an immersive blend of lyricism, external drama, and introspection. Hidier’s novels have been translated into several languages over the years.