Sohaila Abdulali

Sohaila Abdulali was born in Mumbai, India, and moved to the United States with her family when she was a teenager. She has a BA from Brandeis University in economics and sociology and an MA from Stanford University in communication.

She is the author of two bestselling novels – The Madwoman of Jogare and Year of the Tiger – as well as children’s books and short stories.

Sohaila speaks widely and teaches people in hospitals, schools and many other institutions about sexual assault. Her op-ed in the New York Times broke readership records and her book on the same topic, What WeTalk About When We Talk About Rape, addresses the issue of rape on many levels, from international policy to bedroom dynamics. Published in 2018 and simultaneously released on four continents, it is also available in Dutch, Korean, Portuguese, Spanish and Turkish editions, with Polish and Tamil translations underway.

She is currently writing a book is about women, land and belonging.

Sohaila has appeared on broadcast television in the US and India and on the BBC in the UK. She has addressed an audience of thousands at the Sydney Opera House, taught a course on South Asian Civilization at New York University, and been a guest speaker at universities across the world, including at Clark University in Massachusetts, Northwestern University in Chicago, and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

She won two Ford Foundation grants. The first was to research, produce and distribute three children's books on women's health in India: the RangBibi and Langra series was sold in four languages. The second grant was to write a book about aboriginal people in Western India: Bye Bye Mati: A Memoir in a Monsoon Landscape.

Sohaila is a founding board member of Point of View, a women's media group in Mumbai, India. She lives in New York with her family.

Please get in touch to discuss publishing rights for Sohaila Abdulali and visit her website for her latest news and upcoming events. For speaking engagements, Sohaila is represented by Keppler Speakers in the USA and Penguin Random House Speakers Bureau in Australia. 

Photo of Sohaila Abdulali © Brandeis University