Shreya Sen-Handley is currently writing her fourth book, a colourful history of British-Indian food and foibles, to be published by Penguin in 2026.

She’s also the author of three books with HarperCollins, the award-winning ‘Memoirs of My Body’ (2017), acclaimed short story collection ‘Strange’ (2019), and bestselling travelogue ‘Handle With Care’ (2022).

‘Handle With Care’ was longlisted, in a very short list of eight, for the Times of India (English-language newspaper with widest circulation in the world) AutHer Awards Best Nonfiction Book 2023. In 2024, ‘Handle With Care’ was selected from reader favourites from across Britain, and presented to The Queen by Britain’s biggest literacy charity, the National Literacy Trust, at its 30th anniversary celebrations.

‘Memoirs of My Body’ is a UNESCO Cities of Literature Best Read 2017, Best Nonfiction Book at the NWS Writing Awards 2018, and an International Women’s Day 2019 pick by the worldwide book-sharing organisation Book Fairies.

‘Strange’ was hailed as “masterful” by the grand old man of Indian-English literature, Ruskin Bond. All three books have been Amazon, WH Smith, and Oxford Bookstores bestsellers in India.

The first South Asian woman to be commissioned to write international opera, Shreya co-wrote Welsh National Opera’s film series ‘Creating Change’ (2020), and epic production ‘Migrations’ (2022). Directed by Sir David Pountney, and lauded by both The Times and The Guardian as one of the best shows of 2022, ‘Migrations’ received glowing reviews from the press (The Observer, The Stage, and more), and audiences around Britain.

In 2021, her play ‘Quiet’ premiered in London at award-winning Tara Theatre, alongside new work from celebrated writer Hanif Kureishi.

Her short fiction, poetry, and essays, published in anthologies, broadcast by BBC and Australian radio, and shortlisted for prizes in India and Britain, have spearheaded British social justice campaigns too (e.g. National Bystander Awareness Day 2020 and 2021).

These anthologies include Five Leaves Publications’ UNESCO City of Literature bid-winning ‘These Seven’ (2015), ‘The Third Script’ (2016) published by Australia’s Transportation Press, University of East Anglia’s ‘Writing Places’ (2019) and, unusually for both a living writer and one of colour, British secondary school textbooks (‘Detectives’, Hodder Education, 2020).

She has been fiction judge for Writing East Midlands and The Society of Authors’ Aurora Prize 2022, Derby Book Festival 2023, New Writers UK 2025, and a poetry judge for British secondary schools. For excellence in writing for a range of genres and artforms, she won the Most Versatile Writer award at NWS Writing Awards 2018.

Former television journalist and producer for CNBC, MTV and STAR, and East India head for Australasian Channel [V], Shreya continues to be a columnist for the international media, writing for National Geographic, CNN, Times of India, The Guardian, The Hindu, and more.

Having filmed features for multiple award-winning ‘Amul India Show’ on STAR TV and made music videos for MTV, Shreya makes the occasional short film still. She’s also a presenter and commentator on culture and current affairs for the BBC, other British and international media, and literary festivals in India and Britain.

She is a creative writing teacher for British and Indian institutions, including the Universities of Cambridge and Nottingham, Calcutta and Punjab, as well as for British national initiatives, such as Beyond the Spectrum, a programme for autistic writers (2023). Shreya is also a writer-in-residence for First Story, Britain’s leading creative writing charity.

She is an illustrator for Hachette, HarperCollins, Nottingham UNESCO City of Literature, Nottingham City Council, and Welsh National Opera. Her art has been exhibited in galleries in Britain and China.

Shreya is a National Literacy Trust Champion, for whom she also translates literature. She was Nottingham UNESCO City of Literature’s successful Bid Ambassador and a Collaborative Board member, as well as a Nottingham Festival of Literature director.

Alongside her latest book, she also writes monthly columns (amongst the ‘best weekend opinion columns’, according to newsmagazine The Quint) for widely-circulated international newspapers, living quietly in Sherwood Forest with her husband, two children, dog, books, unfinished paintings and jars of spices.