Shailaja refers to herself as a poet-in-exile disguised as a software engineer living in the San Francisco Bay Area. (This exile is  entirely self-imposed, and let’s call her out: it’s more likely her cowardly hideout)

She was born and raised in a small town, Ranchi, in India, and now shares a slightly chaotic home in Los Altos, California, with her husband, two almost-grown children, a dog, and more useless objects than she would ever agree to labeling thus. When she is not navigating her professional life or tending to her family, she is an occasional writer,  an occasional hiker, and an occasional collector of rocks and other such useless things.

She is drawn to concise, image-rich lyrics that explore inner life and place.  Most of her writing is born from a place of dark and grainy light — truth is always elusive, sometimes stumbled upon, and often unrecognizable.  Her work has appeared in an anthology Turning the Corner by Eber & Wein publishers, and is forthcoming in Superlative, A Literary Journal,  in Beyond Words Magazine, and in an anthology by Wingless Dreamers Publishers.

She can be contacted at just.my.space@gmail.com and on the handles @shailaja.vats (facebook) @shailajavats (insta) and @shailaja-vats-das (linkedin)