Sheela Tomy

Sheela Tomy is a Malayalam novelist and short-story writer hailing from Wayanad, Kerala. Her fiction explores universal themes of migration, displacement, ecological crisis, memory, marginalization, social justice and the complex meanings of home and belonging. Her debut novel, Valli, received widespread critical acclaim and was shortlisted for several prestigious national and international awards, including the JCB Prize for Literature and the ALTA National Translation Award. Set against the ecologically fragile landscape of Wayanad, the novel explores the intertwined lives of people, land and resistance.

Her other major works include the novel Aa Nadiyodu Peru Chodikkaruth (Do Not Ask the River Her Name) which explores the Palestine conflict through the experiences of migrant women, as well as themes of displacement, borders, and human solidarity and short story collections Melquiades’ Book of Floods, and Butterflies of Kilinochchi. Tomy has received several prominent Malayalam literary awards, including the Cherukad Award, Muthukulam Parvathy Amma Award, Rajalakshmi Award, and the KCBC Media Award and shortlisted for Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award and Kendra Sahitya Akademi Award. Translations of her works have received significant recognition, including the Wise Owl Fiction Award (First Runner-up), V. Abdulla Translation Award, Muse India Jury Mention, FICCI Book of the Year Award and PEN & Paper Award, among others and shortlisted for Green lit book prize, Valley of Words award and more.

Sheela has been residing in the Middle East for more than two decades. She has a post graduate degree in Journalism and Mass Communication and has contributed as a lyricist and script writer for Asianet radio, Dubai.