Jini Reddy

Jini Reddy is an award-winning author and journalist. Her most recent book, Wanderland (Bloomsbury 2020) was shortlisted for the Stanford Dolman Travel Book of the Year and for the Wainwright Prize for UK Nature Writing. A blend of travel memoir, nature writing and spirituality, it also touched on themes of identity and belonging. In 2017 the British Guild of Travel Writers awarded her the Adele Evans Award for Wild Times, a hybrid narrative-guidebook (Bradt, 2016).  She has contributed to anthologies, including the landmark Women on Nature (Unbound, 2021). Her texts and poems have been displayed in London, including at the Royal Festival Hall, where she was commissioned to write six poems for a Winter Light exhibition — the sole writer among twenty visual artists.

Jini has spoken widely at book events and festivals and delivered the inaugural Jan Morris Lecture at the Hay Festival in Wales. She has been a contributor to podcasts and radio programmes, among them The Verb for Radio 3 and The Compass for the BBC World Service. She occasionally delivers guest lectures to universities, coaches aspiring authors and especially enjoys working with those from underrepresented backgrounds.

As a seasoned travel and features writer, Jini’s work has appeared in numerous publications, among them the Guardian, The Times, Sunday Times Style, Financial Times, The Sunday Telegraph, the Independent, National Geographic Traveller and TIME. In 2019, she was named one of National Geographic’s Women of Impact. Jini started her career writing back jacket copy for Penguin Books and has worked as an editor and TEFL teacher.

Born in the UK to Indian parents from South Africa, she grew up in Quebec. She completed a BA in Geography from McGill University, and an MA in English Literature at Avignon University in France. Jini now lives in a leafy London suburb.