Rijula Das

Rijula Das was born in West Bengal, India and lives in the south of France. She earned her PhD in Creative Writing in 2017 from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, where she also taught creative writing.

Her debut novel Small Deaths, was first published by Picador India as A Death in Shonagachhi in July 2021. The novel received critical acclaim, winning the Tata Literature Live! First Book Award in 2021 and being longlisted for several prestigious awards, including the JCB Prize for Literature. It was released internationally as Small Deaths in September 2022 by Amazon Crossings. The novel has been translated into French, Russian, and German. The film rights were optioned in 2021. ​

She was awarded the  Dastaan Award in 2016, and longlisted for the Commonwealth Short Story Prize in 2019.  She was also a recipient of the 2019 Michael King Writers Centre Residency in Auckland.

Her translation of Nabarun Bhattacharya’s seminal novel Beggar’s Bedlam was published by Seagull Books in 2025. Her writing has appeared in Lit Hub, Electric literature, Newsroom New Zealand, and The Hindu. Rijula is currently working on her second book.