Mani Rao

Mani Rao Biography

Mani Rao is a noted Indian writer who writes in English.  Most recently she translated ancient Indian scripture work Bhagavat Gita to English. Ghostmasters, Mani Rao: 100 Poems, Living Shadows, Wing span, Catapult Season, Echolocation, The Last Beach and Salt are her original works. Bhagavad Gita - A Translation of the Poem was published in 2010 in USA by Autumn Hill Books. She regularly publishes poems in journals. She has published 8 poetry works and one translation work till now.

Mani Rao was born in India on 28 February 1965. Later she moved to Hong Kong. She completed MFA from the University of Nevada-Las Vegas. Rao worked in advertising and television from 1985 to 2004. She has served as the Visiting Fellow at the Iowa International Writing Program 2005 and 2009 and University of Iowa International Programs’ writer-in-residence 2006. Now she regularly writes poems and essays for journals like Tinfish, Wasafiri, Meanjin, Washington Square, Fulcrum etc.

Many of her poems have been translated to foreign languages like Latin, Italian, Korean, Chinese, Arabic, French and German. She regularly attends literary festivals across the globe. She learnt some slokhas of Gita as a school kid. But she never got opportunity to read the Gita in original. It happened only a few years back and she got stuck by its beauty. She also noticed that many of its translations to other languages have not captured the real essence of Gita and hence she decided to translate it her own. Personally, she was very struck by the love that Krishna had for Arjun. This contemporary translation is her last published work.

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Updated: June 19, 2014