Shanta Acharya was born in India. After her Master’s in English, she served as a lecturer at Ravenshaw College before winning a scholarship to Oxford, where she was among the first batch of women admitted to Worcester College. A recipient of the Violet Vaughan Morgan Fellowship, she was awarded the Doctor of Philosophy for her work on Ralph Waldo Emerson. She was a Visiting Scholar in the Department of English and American Literature and Languages at Harvard University before moving to live and work in London. The author of thirteen books, her publications range from poetry, literary criticism and fiction to finance. Founder of Poetry in the House, Shanta hosted a series of monthly poetry readings at Lauderdale House, Highgate, London, from 1996-2015. Acharya served twice on the board of trustees of the Poetry Society in the UK. Her latest poetry publications are Dear Life (LWL Books, USA; 2025) What Survives Is the Singing (Indigo Dreams Publishing, UK; 2020) and Imagine: New and Selected Poems (HarperCollins Publishers, India; 2017). www.shanta-acharya.com