Vayu Naidu is a PhD scholar in Epic and Oral traditions of Ramayana and Mahabharata. She is Royal Literary Fund Fellow, Visiting Fellow at Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) teaching Indian Theatre, and is Professor of Practice at SOAS in the School of Arts.

Sita’s Ascent (Penguin: 2013) a novel, was a fictional discourse about women in exile and nominated for the Commonwealth Book Award. Her storytelling – written and oral – spans diaspora urban, epic, folk and tribal stories inspired from multiple literary and performance traditions. Cultural binaries immersing characters in challenging interior landscapes, while speaking across borders is a feature of her writing.

Her second novel The Sari of Surya Vilas (Speaking Tiger, Affirmpress: 2017) is historical fiction set in the Madras Presidency from 1857-1916. The silenced stories woven in a wedding sari is symbolic of India’s independence.

Her PhD (Leeds) and AHRC Post-Doctoral Fellowship (Kent) enabled academic research and Apprenticeships in Intercultural Storytelling validating oral performative traditions. She received the Humanities Teaching Award University of Kent, and donated it while conducting post-traumatic workshops with Tsunami survivors and the Fishing community Tamil Nadu.

In Britain, her work in category A Prisons, with women emerging from domestic violence, and young people has strengthened her belief in the transformative capacity of the Word and the Arts. Vayu Naidu Intercultural Storytelling Theatre, an Arts Council England RFO enabled new writing and International touring across Scandinavia, Europe, and to India while engaging in participatory work with Refugees at Margate. She was also the first Sage-in-Residence at Eton College.