About Anuja Varghese
Anuja Varghese (she/her) is an award-winning writer of literary fiction, fantasy, and erotica/romance – and combinations of all three – where women of color get leading roles!
Her debut novel A KISS OF CRIMSON ASH is the first book in a lush new romantasy trilogy inspired by medieval India, following a naïve young queen, a heartsick prince, a streetwise thief, and a courtesan with magic in her blood who join forces with an ancient goddess to challenge the empire’s most powerful men. Pitched as Dungeons & Dragons x Bollywood’s most epic love stories, AKOCA was released in early 2026 with Penguin Random House Canada, Orbit US, and Orbit UK.
JUST ANNOUNCED: A CURSE OF EMERALD FLAME – book 2 in the Games of the Goddess series, coming June 2027!
Anuja’s short story collection titled CHRYSALIS (House of Anansi, 2023), explores South Asian diaspora experience through a feminist, queer, speculative lens. In 2023, Chrysalis won the Writer’s Trust of Canada Dayne Ogilvie Prize for LGBTQ2S+ Emerging Writers and the Governor General’s Literary Award for Fiction. In 2024, it was longlisted for the Carol Shields Prize for Fiction and shortlisted for the Rakuten Kobo Emerging Writer Prize for Fiction.
Anuja’s work has also been featured in many literary magazines and anthologies, including Best Women’s Erotica Volume 6 (Cleis Press, 2020), When Other People Saw Us, They Saw the Dead, (Haunt Press, 2022), Queer Little Nightmares (Arsenal Pulp Press, 2022), and Devouring Tomorrow: Fiction from the Future of Food (Dundurn Press, 2025).
Anuja holds a degree in English Literature from McGill University, a Creative Writing Certificate from the University of Toronto, and a Nonprofit Sector Management Certificate from Toronto Metropolitan University. She has mentored emerging writers, taught several creative writing workshops, as well as a Short Story course for the University of Toronto School of Continuing Studies, and will be faculty for the Fantastic & Futuristic Literary Arts Residency at the Banff Centre in fall 2027. Alongside her creative writing practice, Anuja is an experienced nonprofit professional and grants consultant, and works with individual artists and arts organizations to develop funding, programming, and partnership strategies.
Anuja lives in Hamilton, Ontario with her partner, two kids, and two cats.
Anuja is represented by Hana El Niwairi at CookeMcDermid Literary Management
