Padma, author & speaker

My school visit season began this September with a marvelous visit to Frederica Academy (virtually, of course)! Unfortunately, my chronic shoulder injury is also acting up, so I may not be able to celebrate every other school visit this fall, as I'll be limiting social media activity a little. Especially as I'm hard at work [...]

The Bridge Home represents RI at the National Book Festival What a busy few months it's been. Not always easy, but certainly busy. I've been writing so many other articles that I haven't had time to write a blog post for a while: an Author's Quarantine Stories post for PW Weeding Out Racism's Invisible Roots [...]

Yesterday  was amazing. A hashtag that began with one tweet grew into something that, according to this wonderful PW article, "went viral." I actually wasn't paying attention.  I'd promised every author that I would respond and amplify their signals and at one point it started coming in really fast, then my ig wouldn't refresh or keep up [...]

Unusual times, unusual measures. I don't usually blog more than once a month, but an idea popped into my head that I can't get rid of. Last week, I heard from a parent and then a teacher, both of whom were speaking about how hard it is for young people to stay home. Yesterday, when [...]

Thanks so much for visiting my blog! Given what we're facing as a world, I wanted to do my little bit to help out and so, here's what I'm hoping and planning to do: Every week, by Wednesday, I'll be uploading a short writing prompt (in April, as it's national poetry month, these will be [...]

The past few weeks have been quite a shock for everyone, I'm sure. Not even my older friends or the senior citizens in my family have ever lived through a global pandemic. At this difficult time, it's important to remember, I think, how lucky we are that this virus isn't more virulent, and how fortunate [...]

One of the most unforgettable evenings of my life as an author came this February, when I was privileged to address the audience at SCBWI's New York conference, and accept the Golden Kite award for Middle Grade Fiction, for THE BRIDGE HOME. While, on the one hand, I feel like I can't express my gratitude [...]

Didn't expect I'd be taking a break from writing my next novel to write another post this month, but I realize I need to bubble over with gratitude before I can dive into my revising my next novel this morning. Over the past week, I developed an abiding empathy for champagne bottles under pressure because [...]

  What a marvelous year 2019 was! Being part of #GRABridge and #GRA19 was one of the highlights of my entire writing career, and it touches me deeply that so many of my readers loved THE BRIDGE HOME and that some were moved enough to build bridges of their own, by taking action to help [...]

Hi, everyone! Can't believe it's the final week of #GRA19! It's been a privilege to have shared #TheBridgeHome with you and an honor to be part of #GRABridge. I do hope you'll stay in touch, by filling out the form at the very end of this post (for a chance to win a special thank [...]