Mona Dash writes fiction and poetry. She is the author of Let Us Look Elsewhere (Dahlia Books, 2021), A Roll of the Dice : a story of loss, love and genetics (Linen Press, UK, 2019), Untamed Heart (Tara India Research Press 2016) and two collections of poetry; Dawn-drops (Writer’s Workshop 2001) and A certain way (Skylark Publications UK, 2017). She has a Masters in Creative Writing (with distinction) from the London Metropolitan University. Mona was awarded a Poet of Excellence award in the House of Lords in 2016.  Her work has been published widely in journals such as Muse India, Kavya Bharati, The Lake, Setu, Episteme, LakeView International, Apocrypha and Abstractions, 3Elements and in anthologies such as In the Kitchen, May We Borrow Your Country, Hibiscus, Resonance, The Lie of the Land and The Other, to name the more recent ones.

Mona has also participated in readings in prestigious venues such as Lauderdale House, Nehru Centre, the House of Lords, National Poetry Library, South Bank, Library, Yurt Café in London; and in literary festivals in the UK such as SouthBank, Durham, Rochdale and Wolverhampton Literature festivals.

Mona won the Asian Writer 2018 short story competition for her short story Formations.  Her short story collection Let us look elsewhere was shortlisted for the SI Leeds Literary Prize 2018 and is a forthcoming publication from Dahlia Publishing UK.

She is a member of The Whole Kahani, a British South Asian Writers’ Collective. Their first anthology Love Across a Broken Map (Dahlia Publishing UK) was published to critical acclaim and the second anthology May We Borrow Your Country (Linen Press UK) has been published in January 2019.

Mona leads a double life; apart from being a writer, she is also a Telecoms Engineer with a MBA and works full time in a global technology organisation.

Originally from India, she lives in London.

She is represented by Portobello Literary.

Mona’s work has been listed as follows:
Shortlist Tagore Literary Prize 2023
Shortlist Eastern Eye Award for Literature 2022
Finalist SI Leeds Literary Award 2022
Shortlist Eyelands Book Award 2021
Shortlist Eastern Eye Award for Literature 2020
Winner Eyelands Books Awards 2020 (Memoir)
Finalist Novel London 2020
Finalist (Non-fiction) People’s Book Prize 2020
Bath Short Story Longlist 2019
Bristol Short Story Shortlist 2019
Winner Asian Writer 2018
2nd prize Momaya Press Poetry 2018
Shortlist SI Leeds Literary Award 2018
Shortlist Leicester Writes 2018
Shortlist Asian Writer 2017
Longlist Fish Publishing 2017
Longlist Words and Women Prose 2017