Padma Viswanathan on 'On Earth As it is Beneath'(Nominated for the International Booker Prize-2026)

In this episode we have with us Padma Viswanathan.

Padma Viswanathan is a Canadian-American writer and translator.

Her novels have been published in eight countries and shortlisted for the PEN USA Prize, the Scotiabank Giller Prize, and others. She has published short fiction, essays and translations in Granta, The Boston Review, BRICK, and elsewhere. Full-length translations include São Bernardo, by Brazilian novelist Graciliano Ramos and Where We Stand, by Djamila Ribeiro. Her most recent novel, The Charterhouse of Padma, was published in 2024.

She is Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Arkansas-Fayetteville, where she is Founding Director of the Arkansas International Writer-at-Risk Residency Program.

Her English language translation of On Earth As it is Beneath by Ana Paula Maia was longlisted for the International Booker Prize 2026.

Author photo © Alex Tran

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