© Author's Archive
Bhavika Govil
Bhavika Govil was born in New Delhi and dreams of the sea. Her debut novel, Hot Water, is forthcoming with HarperCollins India. An early portion of the manuscript won the 2021 Pontas & JJ Bola Emerging Writers Prize and was a finalist for the David Higham New Writers’ Open Week.
She has received a Master's in Creative Writing with Distinction from the University of Edinburgh. Her short fiction has been shortlisted for the 2021 Queen Mary Wasafiri New Writing Prize, and won the 2019 Bound Short Story Prize. It has also been longlisted for the Toto Funds the Arts Awards for Creative Writing in English from 2021 till 2023, and has been mentioned as a notable contender for the 2020 Bristol Short Story Prize.
Her stories have been published in a number of magazines and anthologies internationally such as Wasafiri, Extra Teeth, Gutter, Vogue, Outlook Traveller and A Case of Indian Marvels: Dazzling Stories by the Country’s Finest New Writers edited by David Davidar. One of her stories is forthcoming in the anthology 100 Stories, 100 Writers, 100+ Years in 2025, edited by A.J. Thomas by Aleph Book Company. She has performed her work at literature festivals including the Edinburgh International Book Festival, Paisley Book Fair and Push the Boat Out Festival. She facilitates creative writing workshops for adults.
After living in Edinburgh, London and Doha over the past few years, she is now based in India.
