Shreya Sen-Handley is 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 for the Times of India AutHer Awards Best Nonfiction Book 2023.

‘Memoirs of My Body’ was a UNESCO Cities of Literature Best Reads 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 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 listed by both The Times and The Guardian amongst their 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, alongside new work from celebrated writer Hanif Kureishi, at award-winning Tara Theatre.

Her short fiction, poetry, and essays, published, broadcast, and shortlisted for prizes in India, Britain and Australia, have spearheaded British social justice campaigns, such as National Bystander Awareness Day 2020 and 2021.

Besides featuring in numerous anthologies, including Five Leaves Publications’ UNESCO City of Literature bid-winning ‘These Seven’ (2015), ‘The Third Script’ (2016) published by Australia’s Transportation Press and broadcast on Australian radio, University of East Anglia’s ‘Writing Places’ (2019), Nottingham Trent University and University of Plymouth’s ‘Poetry and Covid’ (2020, her poems from which were also broadcast by BBC), she is one of the few writers of colour to be included in British school textbooks (‘Detectives’, Hodder Education, 2020).

She has also been fiction judge for Derby Book Festival 2023 and Writing East Midlands and Society of Authors’ Aurora Prize 2022. 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 and MTV, 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 created 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 is 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, Nottingham, Calcutta, and Punjab. She delivers masterclasses in creative writing for projects with purpose, such as Beyond the Spectrum, a British national 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 Bid Ambassador and a Collaborative Board member, as well as a Nottingham Festival of Literature director.

Currently writing her latest book and her monthly newspaper columns (amongst the ‘best weekend opinion columns’, according to newsmagazine The Quint), Shreya lives with her husband, two children, dog, books, unfinished paintings, and jars of spices, in Sherwood Forest.