Vikas Prakash Joshi, an Indian by nationality, is a writer by ‘nature’, not by choice, coincidence or compulsion. He was born and lives in the city of Pune, in western India, known for its rich cultural traditions. His writing career started in school and college at 13 where his contributions were published in the school newsletters and he won prizes in essay competitions at school level. He wrote over 150 letters to prominent English newspapers in classes 9 and 10, winning five ‘letter of the week’ contests in leading newspapers and magazines before becoming a newspaper columnist in a major newspaper at the age of just 18. His columns and short stories thus reached tens of thousands of readers. He subsequently won awards in city, state, national and then international-level writing essay contests. His articles and stories have been translated into 10 languages: Hindi, Gujarati, Marathi, German, Sinhalese, Bengali, Greek, Italian, Russian and Serbian, and more are on the way. He has been published in India, New Zealand, Belgium, Italy, Germany, Greece and Romania. He has a B.A. in English Literature from the Symbiosis College of Arts and Commerce, a postgraduate diploma in journalism from the Asian College of Journalism, Chennai (where he received the Madanjeet Singh South Asia Foundation Scholarship) and an MA in Development Studies from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai. He has written for leading Indian publications like Caravan, The Wire, The Hindu, DNA, and reported from very diverse parts of India, from metropolitan cities like Pune and Bangalore, to the small, rustic villages. You can reach Vikas at joshi.vikas500@gmail.com