Born in Varanasi, raised in Pune, and now writing from Singapore, Shilpa Dikshit Thapliyal inhabits the in-between—where languages blur and homes echo across distances. Her poetry reflects a transnational sensibility, weaving memory, migration, and belonging into lyrical, resonant forms.
Her collections, including Between Sips of Masala Chai, linger like unfinished conversations, while her award-winning manuscript Aerial Roots reaches into the unseen threads that bind us to place and past. Her poems have travelled widely—appearing in The Best Asian Poetry and The Yearbook of Indian Poetry in English—and have crossed into other artistic forms, including music.
During the stillness of the pandemic, her poem Hymn of Hope, created for the Homeward project by Revolution of Tenderness, was brought to life by the Carnegie Mellon Philharmonic Orchestra—affirming poetry as a shared, collective breath.
Her work has also been translated into Japanese, Spanish, and Chinese ink-art forms, reflecting a poetics that resists stillness—one that transforms, migrates, and remembers. Beyond the page, she is an active cultivator of literary communities, serving on the organising committee of the Poetry Festival Singapore, where she continues to nurture emerging voices and meaningful conversations.