Archives: Authors

Gaur Gopal Das studied electrical engineering from the College of Engineering, Pune. After a brief stint
with Hewlett Packard, he decided to live life as a monk in an ashram in downtown Mumbai. He has remained
there for twenty-two years, learning the antiquity of ancient philosophy and the modernity of contemporary
psychology, to become a life coach to thousands in the city.

Marguerite Richards is an American writer and editor with a background in literature, translation, and magazine publishing. Focusing on world cultures, she travels to understand the nuances that separate us, with the resolve to further our understanding of each other through her work. Based in Sri Lanka, she is currently editing two memoirs by Iranian and Kuwaiti authors, and writing short fiction vignettes for an artist book about birth traditions around the globe. Read more about her at margueriterichards.com

Nathan Gardels is Cofounder of the Berggruen Institute and Editor-in-Chief of The WorldPost, a partnership with the Washington Post. He is the coauthor of Intelligent Governance for the 21st Century: A Middle Way between East and West, a Financial Times best book of 2012. His previous books include American Idol after Iraq, The Changing Global Order and At Century’s End.

Nicolas Berggruen is the Founder and Chairman of the Berggruen Institute. He is coauthor of Intelligent Governance for the 21st Century: A Middle Way between West and East and is copublisher of The WorldPost. He is also Chairman of Berggruen Holdings.

M.M. Monippally is a Professor of Communications at IIM Ahmedabad. A specialist in strategies of managerial communication, persuasion, and bad news delivery, he has designed and run training workshops for middle and senior managers at Morgan Stanley, Reuters India, ICICI Bank, MICO Bosch, Global Trust Bank, and many other organizations.

Elaine Chiew is a writer and a visual arts researcher, and editor of Cooked Up: Food Fiction from Around
the World (New Internationalist, 2015). Twice the winner of the Bridport Short Story Competition, she has
published numerous stories in anthologies in the UK, US, and Singapore. Originally from Malaysia, Chiew
graduated from Stanford Law School and worked as a corporate securities lawyer in New York and Hong Kong
before studying for an MA in Asian Art History at Lasalle College of the Arts Singapore, a degree conferred by
Goldsmiths, University of London. She lives in Singapore and blogs at www.invisibleflaneuse.blogspot.com.

Akshita Nanda’s first book Nimita’s Place, was a finalist for the Epigram Books Fiction Prize in 2017. Born in
Pune, she has lived in Singapore since 1995 and has a B.Sc. (Hons) from the National University of Singapore.
Her columns on arts and culture for The Straits Times are well-received. Akshita was one of the speakers at the
Singapore Writers Festival 2018.

Noelle Q. de Jesus is a Filipino American writer whose first book, BLOOD: Collected Stories (Ethos Books) won
the US-based 2016 Next Generation Indie Book Award for the Short Story. A Palanca Award winner and a
University of the Philippines’ Writers Workshop fellow, she has published short stories in Southeast Asia and
the United States, including Puerto del Sol and Mud Season Review. She is currently working on her first novel,
Dome of Another Sky. She lives with her husband in Singapore and they have two children.

Vittoria D’Alessio is a British/Italian writer and editor. As a journalist, she has contributed to newspapers and
magazines around the world, focusing mainly on topics relating to women, health and human rights.

Zoӫ Richardson is an award-winning English Literature and Language teacher who has taught both in Asia and the UK. She’s an Oxford University graduate who has had a number of academic papers and poems published; this is her first co-authored work for children. Prior to teaching, Zoӫ worked in advertising and broadcasting. She has two sons, both born in Singapore, and it is their emotional journey that has been the primary inspiration for Archie’s Cloud.