I felt so proud to share that story, from that moment on, I decided I wanted to be a writer. SUPRIYA: I always loved drawing and wanted to illustrate from a young age but I really fell in love with writing in third grade, after my teacher had us work on a story and bound each kid’s story into their own hardcover book. NAVJOT: What were your dreams of hope growing up? (Were you first drawn to illustrating or writing or something else, perhaps?) Many different coloured patkas are lying on his bed. Title is hand-lettered and a young child who identifies as Sikh is wearing a red patka/dastaar and red polka-dot pajamas. Supriya’s books include AHIMSA, THE MANY COLORS OF HARPREET SINGH (Sterling, 2019), AMERICAN AS PANEER PIE (Aladdin/Simon & Schuster, 2020) THE SANDALWOOD PYRE (Tu Books, 2020), and THAT THING ABOUT BOLLYWOOD (Aladdin/Simon and Schuster, 2021).Ĭover of The Many Colors of Harpreet Singh. Winner of the New Visions Award for her middle grade novel AHIMSA, (Tu Books, 2017), Supriya is a screenwriter who has worked on the writing teams for several Hindi films, including Lage Raho Munnabhai and Eklavya: The Royal Guard, India’s entry into the 2007 Academy Awards. Supriya grew up in the Midwest, where she learned Hindi as a child by watching three Hindi movies a week. I would like to welcome screenwriter and children’s author, Supriya Kelkar. We will learn about their work and the work of representing the Sikh identity in their children’s books. Some wonderful creators have generously accepted an invitation to share knowledge. Here at the Pod, we advocate passionately for accurate diverse representation.

This kind of diverse community knowledge is what I wish had existed, when I was starting out with Saffron Press. Our Seeds of Knowledge Series hopes to share the voice of creators in children’s publishing and also, offer guidance to aspiring writers and illustrators.

Supriya kelkar ahimsa