Shabnam Minwalla is a mother of three teenagers, an ardent saree-shopper and a Mumbai-holic. She has spent most of her life with words-editing her school magazine, working as a journalist with the Times of India and writing non-fiction. What she most enjoys, though, is writing fiction.

Many of her books for children and young adults-including When Jiya Met Urmila, Saira Zariwala is Afraid, Murder at Daisy Apartments and The Six Spellmakers of Dorabji Street-have won prestigious awards. Her non-fiction book on the Mumbai Neighbourhood of Colaba is very popular.

Shabnam was a student at St Xavier's College in Mumbai and got her MA in Journalism at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. She was a Chevening Scholar at Wolfson College in Cambridge.