Sheena Kalayilwas born in Zambia in 1970 where her parents were teachers seconded from India. She arrived in the UK aged eighteen and, after graduating, worked all over the world in countries such as Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Tunisia, Equatorial Guinea, Slovenia and Spain, before returning to the UK, to Edinburgh in 2002. She has a doctorate in Linguistics and teaches at the University of Manchester. She is the author of three novels, and lives near Manchester with her husband and two daughters. She was Longlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction in 2026.