Inderjeet Mani is an Indian-born former US professor and scientist retired in Thailand. His first novel Toxic Spirits (now in its second edition) is based on his experiences volunteering with hill-tribes in Thailand’s Golden Triangle, the subject of a documentary called The Wrong Light (from Tribeca Films). Reactions to the novel have included “A complex and enthralling international intrigue with a treasure of remarkable detail” (Frederick Barthelme) and “Mani tells his story in taut, highly descriptive prose, capturing his Thai setting’s cornucopia of sights and tastes” (Kirkus Reviews). Mani's second novel The Conquest of Kailash is a tale of cruelty and marginalization, and the struggle to find meaning in a world of mounting prejudice and false belief.
Mani has also published six other books and nearly fifty shorter literary pieces, along with a hundred-odd scientific papers. Mani’s previous books (two of which have been translated into Japanese) include The Imagined Moment, on the computing of time in narrative, and other titles are from Oxford and MIT Press.
His shorter work has appeared in 3:AM Magazine, Aeon, Apple Valley Review, Cargo Literary, Drunken Boat, Eclectica, Future Library: Contemporary Indian Writing, Litbreak, New World Writing, Nimrod, PANK, Short Fiction Journal, Slow Trains, Streetlight, Storgy, The Deccan Herald, The Hindu, Unsung Stories, Word Riot, and many other venues.
Mani studied creative writing at Penn (with Carlos Fuentes), Bread Loaf (with Patricia Hampl) and Harvard (with Paul Harding). His affiliations have included Georgetown University (Associate Professor), Yahoo (Senior Director), Cambridge University (Visiting Fellow), MITRE (Senior Principal Scientist), Brandeis University (Visiting Scholar), and MIT (Research Affiliate). He is currently a full-time writer.
