SHOBHA RAO is the author of the short story collection An Unrestored Woman and the books Girls Burn Brighter: A Novel and Indian Country: A Novel (Crown). She is a winner of the Katherine Anne Porter Prize in Short Fiction and was a Grace Paley teaching fellow at The New School. Her story Kavitha and Mustafa was chosen by T.C. Boyle for inclusion in Best American Short Stories. Girls Burn Brighter was longlisted for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize and was a finalist for the California Book Award and the Goodreads Choice Awards.