Kiran Manral published her first book, The Reluctant Detective, in 2011. She has published a total of 15 books across genres since. Her books include romance and chicklit with Once Upon A Crush (2014), All Aboard (2015), Saving Maya (2017), The Kitty Party Murder (2020); horror with The Face at the Window (2016), More Things in Heaven and Earth (2021), scifi and horror with All Those Who Wander (2023), psychological thriller with Missing, Presumed Dead (2018), and nonfiction with Karmic Kids (2015), A Boy’s Guide to Growing Up (2016), True Love Stories (2017), 13 Steps to Bloody Good Parenting (2019), Raising Children with Hope and Wonder in Times of a Pandemic and Climate Change (2020 ) and Rising-30 Women Who Changed India (2022).
Her short stories have been published on Juggernaut, in magazines like Verve and Cosmopolitan, and have been part of anthologies like Chicken Soup for the Soul (Westland), Have a Safe Journey (Amaryllis, 2017), Boo (Penguin, 2017) and The Best Asian Speculative Fiction (Kitaab, 2018) and City of Screams (Halfbaked Beans, 2019). Her articles and columns have appeared in the Times of India, Tehelka, DNA, Yowoto, Shethepeople, TheDailyO, Scroll, Buzzfeed, New Woman, Femina, Verve, Elle, Cosmopolitan, Conde Nast Traveller, DB Post, The Telegraph, The Asian Age, iDiva, People, Sakal Times and more.
She is a TEDx speaker and was a mentor with Vital Voices Global Mentoring Walk. She was awarded the Women Achievers Award by Young Environmentalists Association in 2013, in 2017 she was shortlisted for the Femina Women Awards for Literary Contribution. The Indian Council of UN Relations (ICUNR) supported by the Ministry for Women and Child Development, Government of India, awarded her the International Women’s Day Award 2018 for excellence in the field of writing. She was named as one of the Womennovator 1000 Women of Asia 2021. In 2022, she was named amongst the 75 Iconic Indian women in STEAM by Red Dot Foundation and Beyond Black, in collaboration with the Office of the Principal Scientific Advisor, Government of India, and British High Commission, New Delhi.
Her novella, Saving Maya, was long listed for the 2018 Saboteur Awards, UK, supported by the Arts Council England. Her novels, The Face at the Window and Missing, Presumed Dead were both long listed for JioMAMI Word to Screen. The Face at the Window was showcased at the Singapore South Asia Film Festival. The Kitty Party Murder was shortlisted for Popular Choice at the JK Papers Times of India AutHER awards 2021.
Her books are in prestigious libraries around the world like the Columbia University Library (NY), Library of Congress (Washington DC), University of Chicago Library, Duke University Library, University of North Carolina, University of Pennsylvania, National Library of Wales, Auckland Libraries, Dalat University (Vietnam), Libris (Stockholm) and Marburg University (Germany) amongst others.
Kiran Manral 