About

My novel, EVERY HAPPINESS, will be out with Bloomsbury in the U.S. and with Penguin Random House in India in 2026.

I’m a writer, editor, and educator. I used to be a dancer. I was born in Connecticut and escaped frequently to Mumbai. As an adult, I’ve lived in Pune, India, Brooklyn, New York, Monteverde, Costa Rica, Austin, Texas, and now Roosevelt Island, New York.

I am generally grateful to be alive and writing things.

I’ve been selected as a Steinbeck Fellow, Tin House Scholar, a Sustainable Arts Foundation Fellow, Crossfields Fellow at Cuttyhunk, and a Fulbright scholar. I have an MFA from the Michener Center for Writers at the University of Texas at Austin where I received the Keene Prize in Literature. I’ve also accrued many pages of Submittable rejections.

I’m a senior fiction editor at The Rumpus, a literary magazine I adore.

I used to dance with the Parul Shah Dance Company and studied with Parul Shah in NYC and Kumudini Lakhia in Ahmedabad, India. I taught in public schools for over a decade and spent several years in India with the Akanksha Foundation developing schools in Mumbai and Pune. I freelance edit, work as a writing coach, teach, and parent.

Contact: reena111000111@gmail.com

Agent: Iwalani Kim @ Sanford J. Greenburger Associates ikim@sjga.com