Mani Rao

Mani Rao (b.1965 India) is a poet, translator and independent scholar. Her poetry books include New and Selected Poems (Poetrywala 2014), Ghostmasters (Chameleon Press 2010) and echolocation (Chameleon 2003; Math Paper Press 2014). Her book-length translations are Bhagavad Gita as a poem (Autumn Hill Books 2010; Fingerprint 2015), and Kalidasa for the 21st Century Reader (Aleph Books 2014). Her most recent book is non-fiction— Living Mantra- Mantra, Deity and Visionary Experience Today (Palgrave Macmillan 2019) is based on fieldwork in South India.
Mani’s poems and essays are, or are forthcoming in, numerous journals including Wasafiri, Meanjin, Washington Square, Fulcrum, West Coast Line, Interim and Poetry Magazine, and in anthologies including Zoland Poetry, W.W.Norton’s Language for a New Century, Penguin’s 60 Indian Poets, and the Bloodaxe Book of Contemporary Indian Poets. She was a Visiting Fellow at the Iowa International Writing Program in 2005 and 2009, the 2006 University of Iowa International Programs writer-in-residence, and held the Omi Ledig Fall residency in 2018. She has an MFA in Creative Writing from University of Nevada Las Vegas (2010), and a PhD in Religious Studies from Duke University (2016). See www.manirao.com for links.