Hello,
I’m a writer and proud daughter of South Asian immigrants. I love writing stories exploring human desires, motivations, and behavior, especially within cultural communities.
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Work
Life
Monika (pronounced Moh nee kah) was raised in the heartland of Missouri. She’s also lived in Michigan, California, and now resides in the Pacific Northwest.
She is at work on her novel-in-progress, The Right Kind, of which the first two chapters were chosen by Jean Kwok as the Fiction Winner for The Tucson Literary Festival of Books. Jean Kwok said: “The Right Kind is a compassionate, complex exploration of family ties and the bonds of race, class and culture. Subtlety and humor illuminate the story. I can’t wait to see how this talented writer will develop.” Monika also writes both realism and speculative short stories.
She formerly worked in finance, consulting, marketing, and cybersecurity. Her last corporate job was Vice President of Marketing at a cybersecurity startup, where she built the marketing team from scratch and helped take the company from seed money through a successful Series B.
Bio
Monika Gupta is an alum of Tin House, Kenyon, One Story, and Roots.Wounds.Words workshops. She holds a Masters in Business Administration from University of Michigan Ross School of Business and is a former Vice President of Marketing for a cybersecurity startup. Her work has been featured in the New York Times Modern Love at 13 project and her short story, Baby Arjun, won So to Speak’s fiction competition.The first two chapters of her novel-in-progress, The Right Kind, won first place in fiction in Tucson’s Festival of Books Literary Competition. She studied under Marjan Kamali as a student in Grubstreet Novel Generator. She’s a 2024 Reese Book Club LitUp Fellow and a reader for Bellevue Literary Review.
Volunteer
Monika volunteers annually with The Baldwin Prize. Each year at Baltimore City College High School, students compete in an essay competition inspired by James Baldwin. Volunteers can help from anywhere in the world and work remotely with students or evaluate essays. Volunteer sign-up happens around January each year.