Neela Vaswani is an American writer of Indian heritage. She was born in 1974 in

Port Jefferson, New York Port Jefferson, also known as Port Jeff, is an incorporated village in the town of Brookhaven in Suffolk County, on the North Shore of Long Island, in New York, United States. The population was 7,962 at the time of the 2020 census. Port J ...

, and received degrees from

Skidmore College Skidmore College is a Private school, private liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Saratoga Springs, New York. Approximately 2,700 students are enrolled at Skidmore pursuing a Bachelor of Arts or Bachelor of Scien ...

Vermont College Vermont College of Fine Arts (VCFA) is a private graduate-level college affiliated with California Institute of the Arts. It offers Master's degrees in a low-residency format. Its faculty includes Pulitzer Prize finalists, National Book Award wi ...

, and

the University of Maryland The University of Maryland, College Park (University of Maryland, UMD, or simply Maryland) is a public land-grant research university in College Park, Maryland, United States. Founded in 1856, UMD is the flagship institution of the Universi ...

. She narrated the audio version of ''

I Am Malala ''I Am Malala: The Story of the Girl Who Stood Up for Education and was Shot by the Taliban'' is an autobiographical book by Malala Yousafzai, co-written with Christina Lamb. It was published on 8 October 2013, by Weidenfeld & Nicolson in the ...

'' by

Malala Yousafzai Malala Yousafzai (; , pronunciation: ; born 12 July 1997) is a Pakistani female education activist, film and television producer, and the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize laureate at the age of 17. She is the youngest Nobel Prize laureate in history, ...

, and won a

Grammy The Grammy Awards, stylized as GRAMMY, and often referred to as The Grammys, are awards presented by The Recording Academy of the United States to recognize outstanding achievements in music. They are regarded by many as the most prestigious a ...

for this in 2015. She is married to actor

Holter Graham Holter Ford Graham (born February 11, 1972) is an American actor and voice actor and the son of historian Hugh Davis Graham. He appeared in his first film, Stephen King’s ''Maximum Overdrive'', at age thirteen. He is best known for his film ...

and lives in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

. She is the founder of the Storylines Project, which she did with the

New York Public Library The New York Public Library (NYPL) is a public library system in New York City. With nearly 53 million items and 92 locations, the New York Public Library is the second-largest public library in the United States behind the Library of Congress a ...

Books

* ''Same Sun Here'', co-authored with

Silas House Silas Dwane House (born August 7, 1971) is an American writer best known for his novels. He is also a music journalist, environmental activist, and columnist. His fiction is known for its attention to the natural world, working-class characters, a ...

. *''Where the Long Grass Bends'' *''This is my Eye'' *''You Have Given Me a Country''

Reviews about her work

Deborah Stevenson, editor of the Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books at

Johns Hopkins University Press Johns Hopkins University Press (also referred to as JHU Press or JHUP) is the publishing division of Johns Hopkins University. It was founded in 1878 and is the oldest continuously running university press in the United States. The press publi ...

, wrote: "While a few spreads digress less usefully, albeit playfully, it's that emphasis on varying perspectives that makes this valuable, since kids in all kinds of places will benefit from the prompt to reexamine their surroundings through fresh eyes." Maryn Wheeler of

Brigham Young University Brigham Young University (BYU) is a Private education, private research university in Provo, Utah, United States. It was founded in 1875 by religious leader Brigham Young and is the flagship university of the Church Educational System sponsore ...

wrote: "Vaswani easily captures the intricacy of perspectives in this vivid yet simple picture book. The first-person point of view draws the reader in and challenges them to see what she sees." ''

Kirkus Reviews ''Kirkus Reviews'' is an American book review magazine founded in 1933 by Virginia Kirkus. The magazine's publisher, Kirkus Media, is headquartered in New York City. ''Kirkus Reviews'' confers the annual Kirkus Prize to authors of fiction, no ...

'' wrote: "While readers may be prompted to wonder how a photo series taken by an actual child photographer might have differed, Vaswani’s debut picture book is an elegant and playful look at perspective, photography, and a familiar (to many) cityscape."

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Vaswani, Neela 21st-century American women writers 1974 births Living people Skidmore College alumni Vermont College of Fine Arts alumni University of Maryland, College Park alumni Grammy Award winners People from Port Jefferson, New York