About the author

Sarada Thompson

<p>I am an Indian artist and writer, resident in the U.K.&nbsp;since&nbsp;1973, and in Wales since 1990. Born in Singapore, I worked as a journalist for local newspapers. When I arrived in London, it looked like I was set to read law, but then spent the next two decades raising a family, and writing for the Northampton and Milton Keynes weeklies during this time. I have conducted story-telling workshops through art, drama and writing in schools and universities; and also art therapy for mental health patients. The Hindu Story-Telling workshops involved art, writing and drama, as part of the National Curriculum. I have also exhibited my artwork in various venues in England and Wales, Ireland and Australia.<br /> <br /> I have won awards for mini-tales in the National Association Writers&rsquo; Groups and in the local writers&rsquo; circle. My short stories have been published in both the University&rsquo;s Anthology &lsquo;Shadow Plays&rsquo; in 2010, and more recently in the writing group anthologies. I was short-listed in the NAWG 2016 Competition for my entry, &lsquo;Footprints in the Sand&rsquo; in the Memoir Section and again in historical fiction, &lsquo;He&rsquo;s No Saint,&rsquo; in the NAWG 2017 Competition. In 2018, I was awarded two highly commended certificates in the &#39;Memoir,&#39; and &#39;Travel,&#39; sections. In the beginning of the year I was awarded the Brenda Lewis Award for non-fiction-Travel, in our Llanelli Circle Dinner.&nbsp;<br /> Recently, I have written and illustrated picture-booklets, &lsquo;Meenakshi-The Green Goddess-The Warrior Princess;&rsquo; &lsquo;Savitri,&rsquo; the Ten Tales of &lsquo;Ganesha&rsquo; and &lsquo;Durga &ndash; The Demon Slayer.&rsquo; My debut novella &ndash; &lsquo;The Neem Tree,&rsquo; was published on 5th December 2018 , by Wordcatcher Publishing.<br /> <br /> We were also interviewed on Showboat TV Pembroke as a husband and wife writing team, Thompson-Authors. With daughter Gayatri Thompson Cook, we have successfully organized the Carmarthen Book Fair 2016-2018, showcasing about thirty local writers, for the last three years and hopefully for the forthcoming future.&nbsp;<br /> I was awarded a Master&rsquo;s Degree in Creative Writing at University of Wales, Trinity Saint David, Carmarthen in 2012. The first 20,000 words of &lsquo;The Neem Tree,&rsquo; formed the dissertation titled &lsquo;Outcaste.&rsquo;</p>