About Me

Rajni Mala Khelawan is an Indo-Fijian Canadian writer and researcher. She has given numerous inspirational speeches and public readings in Canada and in the Fiji Islands. In addition to being a visiting writer at the University of South Pacific, Fiji Islands in 2011, Khelawan was profiled on hit TV and radio shows such as Bollywood Boulevard, CBC Radio, Omni News, NUTV, and Asian Magazine TV. She was the Writer-in-Residence at Fiji National University in 2014. Her short story “Bucket of Cherries” was a winning entry for New Asian Writing Journal; and "Still Standing" was published in The Voice Magazine. Khelawan's two novels are Kalyana (2016) and The End of the Dark and Stormy Night (2008). Her third novel In the Shade of a Bougainvillea Hedge is looking for a home. In 2024, her first children’s book, I am a Hindu, was published by Beech Street Books for their identity series for Canadian schools. Khelawan holds a Master of Arts Degree from the University of Toronto. Her SSHRC-funded research entitled "Gender and Ritual among Fijian Hindu Women" studied gender and Hinduism among descendents of indentured Indians. Khelawan's areas of academic research includes South Asian religions; indentured history and colonization; and transnational and diaspora studies. Currently, she lives in Toronto, Ontario, and is working on completing her fourth novel on her indenture ancestral past under the Canada Council for the Arts grant.

Favorite Films/Movies: Water by Deepa Mehta; Namesake by Mira Nair; The World Before Her (Documentary) by Nisha Pahuja; Brick Lane by Sarah Gavron; Sin Nombre by Cari Joji Fukunaga; The Game of Thrones series by David Benioff and D. B. Weiss and The Lord of the Rings trilogy by Peter Jackson; The Schindler’s List by Steven Spielberg; Parched by Leena Yadav, and more.

Favorite Books: One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez; Life of Pi by Yann Martel; Interpreter of Maladies & Lowland by Jhumpa Lahiri; Carrie and Misery by Stephen King; Flowers in the Attic by V. C. Andrews; Funny Boy by Shyam Selvadurai; Brother by David Chariandy; Mister Pip by Lloyd Jones; A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry; Everything was Goodbye by Gurjinder Basran; Secret Daughter by Shilpi Somaya Gowda; The Parcel by Anosh Irani; The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy; Polar Vortex by Shani Mootoo; The Henna Artist by Alka Joshi; The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini; The Book of Negroes by Lawrence Hill; Falling Angels by Barbara Gowdy; Burnt Sugar by Avni Doshi; and The Sisters Brothers by Patrick deWitt.