Visiting Scholar in India Studies

Tishani Doshi is a Welsh-Gujarati poet, novelist, and former lead dancer with the Chandralekha company, based on the coast of Tamil Nadu. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, winner of the Forward Prize for Best First Collection, and her latest book, Egrets, While War is shortlisted for the 2026 Forward and PEN Heaney prizes. Her novels The Pleasure Seekers and Small Days and Nights have been recognized by the Orange Prize, the RSL Ondaatje Prize, and the Hindu Fiction Prize, with Small Days and Nights named an Irish Times Book of the Year. Her writing has appeared in The New York Review of Books, Granta, The Guardian, and The New York Times, and she has performed at venues including the Sydney Opera House and the Sorbonne. She currently serves as Visiting Assistant Professor of Practice at NYU Abu Dhabi. Her fifth poetry collection, Egrets, While War, was published in 2026 from Copper Canyon Press.

Doshi opened her residency with Egrets, While War, a staged work of poetry, film, and movement drawn from her new collection, performed alongside a filmed ensemble of masked dancers at Raisbeck Auditorium. The evening opened with a reading by Jaykumar Shah, presented by Mehfil Stories, and closed with a conversation with Loyola Endowed Professor and novelist Sonora Jha, an audience Q&A, and a book signing with Elliott Bay Book Company.

Doshi also met with Professor Liza Birnbaum's Intro to Creative Writing class at Cornish College of the Arts to discuss the work of building a life as a multidisciplinary artist.