Shila Desai

 

Growing up in Nairobi in an extended family home with twelve other children, Shila began writing because it was impossible to be heard. Later, mid-career as a CA, she craved more creativity in her writing than that offered by crafting an audit report. She joined the U of T’s Creative Writing program, and ever since, has been making up for muzzled years. Currently she is working on a memoir of her years of transition from Kenya to England to Canada. If it is published, she fervently hopes her extended family will continue to talk to her. She is thankful for the grounding provided by her writing group, her husband, two teenage daughters and Mithoo, her African Grey parrot. In 2011 she won the University of Toronto/Random House Award for her short story. See it here.