Akhila Mohan CG is a poet, writer, and theatre artist currently based in Bengaluru, India. She likes writing free verse and haiku poetry, essays, short stories, and research articles. 

 

A former journalist, she started her career as a casual anchor in Doordarshan, Indore. Simultaneously she worked as a journalist in national Hindi Dailies like Dainik Bhaskar and Patrika in Indore and Bhopal. Later she shifted to public relations and corporate communications and worked in different Indian cities like Delhi, Raipur, Rajnandgaon, Baroda, Hyderabad, Chennai and Bengaluru. 

 

She has a bachelor’s and master’s in Journalism and Mass Communication from Devi Ahilya Vishwavidyalaya, Indore and a major in English literature from St. Thomas College, Bhilai. She is a PhD in English Literature from MATS University, Raipur. Her topic of research is ‘A Study of Trauma in the Exile Narratives of Rahul Pandita and Siddhartha Gigoo.’

 

  Her creative write-ups have appeared in or are forthcoming in Yearbook of Indian Poetry in English 2022 published by Hawakal, Muse India, Usawa Literary Review, Madras Courier, Purple Pencil Project, Unstamatic, TMYS Review, Verse of Silence, Whiptail Journal, Failed Haiku, Juggernaut, Readomania, YKA, and others. Tamarind: Sweet and Sour Poems about Love, Loss, Longing, and Life, published by Kitaab, Singapore, is her debut poetry collection. 

 

She was shortlisted for the Orange Flowers Awards (2023) in the Poetry category organized by Women’s Web and is the recipient of the P.B. Shelley – Youth’s Unextinguished Fire International Poetry Award (2021) by Sarojini Naidu Vanita Maha Vidyalaya, Hyderabad. She participated as a panelist at the New Delhi World Book Fair 2023, for the session ‘Who Needs a Poem?’ at the author’s corner on February 28. 

 

Akhila’s parents, Sri. K.C.C.S. Pillai and Smt. V.P. Geetha, are settled in Bhilai. She has an elder sister, C.G. Anjali, who is a software engineer and lives with her husband and two daughters in California, USA. 

 

She is married to Dr. V. Mohan Kumar, a renal transplant surgeon working as a consultant in Manipal Hospitals, Yeshwantpur, Bengaluru.

 

A domestic violence survivor, Akhila, through her second book which is fiction, is trying to create awareness in society about the issue and crush dogmas surrounding divorce and remarriage.

Akhila is also a creative writing trainer and conducts workshops in schools, colleges, and corporate houses.