Uma Krishnaswami
@brokentusk1.bsky.social
Writer, author of children’s books
Thank you, Nihar Malaviya, PRH CEO and fellow immigrant from India, for taking a stance for the freedom to read and thank you, Publishers Weekly, for recognizing him for it: www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/...
PW’s 2025 Person of the Year: Nihar Malaviya
The Penguin Random House CEO has gone all in on protecting the First Amendment and the freedom to read. For his efforts and those of PRH, he is Publishers Weekly’s Person of the Year.
www.publishersweekly.com
December 12, 2025 at 7:21 PM
Thank you, Nihar Malaviya, PRH CEO and fellow immigrant from India, for taking a stance for the freedom to read and thank you, Publishers Weekly, for recognizing him for it: www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/...
Here's my conversation with Mitali Perkins about her middle grade novel, The Golden Necklace:
www.umakrishnaswami.com/blog/process...
www.umakrishnaswami.com/blog/process...
Process Talk: Mitali Perkins on The Golden Necklace — Uma Krishnaswami
Mitali Perkins has been my fellow traveler on the long road of writing books for young readers with the specific aim of crossing cultural and geographical boundaries. In 2017, her novel, You Bring t...
www.umakrishnaswami.com
December 9, 2025 at 7:43 PM
Here's my conversation with Mitali Perkins about her middle grade novel, The Golden Necklace:
www.umakrishnaswami.com/blog/process...
www.umakrishnaswami.com/blog/process...
I've been reading Together by Ece Temelkuran through the fiction writing lens that helps me create meaning while not losing my mind.
www.umakrishnaswami.com/blog/the-opp...
www.umakrishnaswami.com/blog/the-opp...
The Opposite of More is Not Less: Together by Ece Temelkuran — Uma Krishnaswami
Together by political thinker and poet Ece Temelkuran traces upon the imagination the contours of a better world, a fairer world, a world where the toxic power play of a few need not create unre...
www.umakrishnaswami.com
December 2, 2025 at 6:46 PM
I've been reading Together by Ece Temelkuran through the fiction writing lens that helps me create meaning while not losing my mind.
www.umakrishnaswami.com/blog/the-opp...
www.umakrishnaswami.com/blog/the-opp...
Reading/listening helps us make sense of the world.
www.umakrishnaswami.com/blog/everyth...
www.umakrishnaswami.com/blog/everyth...
“Everything is Getting More Farcical.” Listening to Patriot: A Memoir by Alexei Navalny — Uma Krishnaswami
Headlines used to be about information, about what was going on in the world. I remember those times with nostalgia. Possibly the world was a clown show back then as well, and I just wasn’t paying att...
www.umakrishnaswami.com
November 26, 2025 at 7:29 PM
Reading/listening helps us make sense of the world.
www.umakrishnaswami.com/blog/everyth...
www.umakrishnaswami.com/blog/everyth...
Guest post on Writing With a Broken Tusk: Karen Leggett Abouraya and Susan L. Roth on Zamzam.
www.umakrishnaswami.com/blog/guest-p...
www.umakrishnaswami.com/blog/guest-p...
Guest Post: Karen Leggett Abouraya Talks Art Process with Susan L. Roth — Uma Krishnaswami
Karen Leggett Abouraya and Susan L. Roth have collaborated on picture books for years. Yes, collaborated, which isn’t something authors and illustrators are known to do in North American publishing...
www.umakrishnaswami.com
November 18, 2025 at 5:10 PM
Guest post on Writing With a Broken Tusk: Karen Leggett Abouraya and Susan L. Roth on Zamzam.
www.umakrishnaswami.com/blog/guest-p...
www.umakrishnaswami.com/blog/guest-p...
Memory, place, family: my conversation with Ann Dávila Cardinal on her YA/adult crossover novel, The Storyteller’s Death
www.umakrishnaswami.com/blog/process...
www.umakrishnaswami.com/blog/process...
November 12, 2025 at 3:29 PM
Memory, place, family: my conversation with Ann Dávila Cardinal on her YA/adult crossover novel, The Storyteller’s Death
www.umakrishnaswami.com/blog/process...
www.umakrishnaswami.com/blog/process...
Not content to kill climate measures in the US, 47’s taking aim at the whole planet. Anyone surprised?
Trump Officials Accused of Bullying Tactics to Kill a Climate Measure www.nytimes.com/2025/11/06/c...
Trump Officials Accused of Bullying Tactics to Kill a Climate Measure www.nytimes.com/2025/11/06/c...
Trump Officials Accused of Bullying Tactics to Kill a Climate Measure
www.nytimes.com
November 10, 2025 at 9:43 PM
Not content to kill climate measures in the US, 47’s taking aim at the whole planet. Anyone surprised?
Trump Officials Accused of Bullying Tactics to Kill a Climate Measure www.nytimes.com/2025/11/06/c...
Trump Officials Accused of Bullying Tactics to Kill a Climate Measure www.nytimes.com/2025/11/06/c...
Zohran Walks New York by Millie von Platen--a love song to NYC and a tribute to Mamdani's journey.
www.umakrishnaswami.com/blog/zohran-...
www.umakrishnaswami.com/blog/zohran-...
November 4, 2025 at 6:30 PM
Zohran Walks New York by Millie von Platen--a love song to NYC and a tribute to Mamdani's journey.
www.umakrishnaswami.com/blog/zohran-...
www.umakrishnaswami.com/blog/zohran-...
Reflections on Timothy Snyder's book, On Freedom.
www.umakrishnaswami.com/blog/erroneo...
www.umakrishnaswami.com/blog/erroneo...
Erroneously Informed, Unnecessarily Dead — Uma Krishnaswami
On Freedom is Timothy Snyder’s ( On Tyranny ) meditation on the nature of people, especially Americans, and the meaning of freedom. Historian Snyder argues that freedom is a concept in need of rescui...
www.umakrishnaswami.com
October 28, 2025 at 10:07 PM
Reflections on Timothy Snyder's book, On Freedom.
www.umakrishnaswami.com/blog/erroneo...
www.umakrishnaswami.com/blog/erroneo...
Why bother bargaining over Ukraine when there's a ballroom to build, the East Wing to demolish, and a universe of taste-free, fake-king AI videos to conquer?
October 21, 2025 at 6:02 PM
Why bother bargaining over Ukraine when there's a ballroom to build, the East Wing to demolish, and a universe of taste-free, fake-king AI videos to conquer?
Caroline Carlson chats with me about her middle grade fantasy with real-world implications, The Tinkerers.
www.umakrishnaswami.com/blog/process...
www.umakrishnaswami.com/blog/process...
Process Talk: Caroline Carlson on The Tinkerers — Uma Krishnaswami
Stargazers Valley is an isolated village where Peter, the young protagonist of The Tinkerers , gazes at st ars, listens to stories, and tries not to step on star-eating newts. Peter lives an ordin...
www.umakrishnaswami.com
October 21, 2025 at 5:56 PM
Caroline Carlson chats with me about her middle grade fantasy with real-world implications, The Tinkerers.
www.umakrishnaswami.com/blog/process...
www.umakrishnaswami.com/blog/process...
Reposted by Uma Krishnaswami
Reposted by Uma Krishnaswami
My conversation with Cynthia Leitich Smith about her picture book, Firefly Season
www.umakrishnaswami.com/blog/process...
#picturebooks
www.umakrishnaswami.com/blog/process...
#picturebooks
Process Talk: Cynthia Leitich Smith on Firefly Season — Uma Krishnaswami
Among the many voices bringing contemporary Indigenous stories to young readers in North America, one narrative has been conspicuous in its absence. By that I mean stories of relationships between Nat...
www.umakrishnaswami.com
October 14, 2025 at 3:46 PM
My conversation with Cynthia Leitich Smith about her picture book, Firefly Season
www.umakrishnaswami.com/blog/process...
#picturebooks
www.umakrishnaswami.com/blog/process...
#picturebooks
As Children's Book Press Turns 50, here's a look back to when they turned 35. www.umakrishnaswami.com/blog/childre...
Children’s Book Press Turns 50! — Uma Krishnaswami
Children’s Book Press, founded by Harriet Rohmer in 1975, published my second picture book, Chachaji’s Cup , a story set against the history of India’s partition, at a time when American pictur...
www.umakrishnaswami.com
October 7, 2025 at 9:37 PM
As Children's Book Press Turns 50, here's a look back to when they turned 35. www.umakrishnaswami.com/blog/childre...
Process Talk: Karen Krossing on My Street Remembers
www.umakrishnaswami.com/blog/process...
#picturebooks
www.umakrishnaswami.com/blog/process...
#picturebooks
Process Talk: Karen Krossing on My Street Remembers — Uma Krishnaswami
In a big-hearted treatment of place and history, akin to Australian writer Nadia Wheatley’s iconic picture book, My Place , Karen Krossing’s latest release, My Street Remembers , is grounded in con...
www.umakrishnaswami.com
October 2, 2025 at 10:11 PM
Process Talk: Karen Krossing on My Street Remembers
www.umakrishnaswami.com/blog/process...
#picturebooks
www.umakrishnaswami.com/blog/process...
#picturebooks
Talking to Payal Kapadia about Woebegone's Warehouse of Words: www.umakrishnaswami.com/blog/process...
#middlegrade
#middlegrade
Process Talk: Payal Kapadia on Woebegone’s Warehouse of Words — Uma Krishnaswami
“Where nothing can be named, nothing is.” In the tradition of novels that play with words ( The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster, The Wonderful O by James Thurber, The Neverending Story ...
www.umakrishnaswami.com
September 25, 2025 at 7:56 PM
Talking to Payal Kapadia about Woebegone's Warehouse of Words: www.umakrishnaswami.com/blog/process...
#middlegrade
#middlegrade
Lulu Delacre on her little coquis in the final book of the Rafi and Rosi Series. www.umakrishnaswami.com/blog/guest-p...
#earlyreading #childrensbooks
#earlyreading #childrensbooks
Guest Post: Lulu Delacre on A Recipe for a Beginner Reader Series — Uma Krishnaswami
I fell in love with Lulu Delacre’s little coquí characters from the first time I laid eyes on Rafi and Rosi . These little siblings frolic in their Puerto Rican habitat where Rafi makes magic and a...
www.umakrishnaswami.com
September 9, 2025 at 9:33 PM
Lulu Delacre on her little coquis in the final book of the Rafi and Rosi Series. www.umakrishnaswami.com/blog/guest-p...
#earlyreading #childrensbooks
#earlyreading #childrensbooks
Stop Acting Like This Is Normal www.nytimes.com/2025/09/07/o...
Opinion | Stop Acting Like This Is Normal
www.nytimes.com
September 7, 2025 at 1:57 PM
Stop Acting Like This Is Normal www.nytimes.com/2025/09/07/o...
On celebrities who insist on writing children's books: www.umakrishnaswami.com/blog/on-cele...
September 2, 2025 at 6:24 PM
On celebrities who insist on writing children's books: www.umakrishnaswami.com/blog/on-cele...
Jamilah Thompkins-Bigelow on picture books and the playfulness of children:
www.umakrishnaswami.com/blog/guest-p...
www.umakrishnaswami.com/blog/guest-p...
Guest Post: Jamilah Thompkins-Bigelow, Picture Books and the Playfulness of Children — Uma Krishnaswami
Jamilah Thompkins-Bigelow knew she wanted to be a writer at the age of seven when she wrote a story called “Little Ballerina” and wasn’t satisfied with it when she finished it. She added a sequel ...
www.umakrishnaswami.com
August 26, 2025 at 6:16 PM
Jamilah Thompkins-Bigelow on picture books and the playfulness of children:
www.umakrishnaswami.com/blog/guest-p...
www.umakrishnaswami.com/blog/guest-p...
Trump Administration Orders Work Halted on Wind Farm That Is Nearly Built www.nytimes.com/2025/08/22/c...
Trump Administration Orders Work Halted on Wind Farm That Is Nearly Built
www.nytimes.com
August 24, 2025 at 4:34 PM
Trump Administration Orders Work Halted on Wind Farm That Is Nearly Built www.nytimes.com/2025/08/22/c...
The Endangered Species Act brought the bald eagle back from the brink of extinction. Now 47’s regime is after it.
insideclimatenews.org/news/2408202...
insideclimatenews.org/news/2408202...
The ‘Hotel California’ of Biodiversity - Inside Climate News
Go behind the scenes with executive editor Vernon Loeb and conservation reporter Kiley Price as they explain why everyone’s talking about the Endangered Species List.
insideclimatenews.org
August 24, 2025 at 3:08 PM
The Endangered Species Act brought the bald eagle back from the brink of extinction. Now 47’s regime is after it.
insideclimatenews.org/news/2408202...
insideclimatenews.org/news/2408202...
From Lola Opatayo, a meditation on what happens when you refuse to treat this writing business as a competitive sport.
Guest Post: The Gift of Fire by Lola Opatayo — Uma Krishnaswami
Lola Opatayo is a crafter of words and the host of a generous, welcoming literary podcast, Journey of the Art, on which she invites writers and storytellers to talk about their art. I ...
www.umakrishnaswami.com
August 19, 2025 at 5:36 PM
From Lola Opatayo, a meditation on what happens when you refuse to treat this writing business as a competitive sport.