Vikram Seth, born on 20 June 1952, is a distinguished Indian novelist and poet. He is celebrated for his contributions across various genres, including novels, poetry, travel writing, libretto, children’s literature, biography, and memoir. His notable works have earned him prestigious awards such as the Padma Shri, Sahitya Academy Award, Pravasi Bharatiya Samman, WH Smith Literary Award, and Crossword Book Award.

His journey in literature began with his studies in politics, economics, and philosophy at Oxford, followed by a stint at Stanford University, California, where he worked on a thesis concerning the demography of rural China. This period of academic pursuit was marked by his extensive field work in China, translating Hindi and Chinese poetry into English, and exploring diverse landscapes, which culminated in his acclaimed travel narrative From Heaven Lake: Travels Through Sinkiang and Tibet (1983), winner of the Thomas Cook Travel Book Award.

Seth's foray into novels began with The Golden Gate: A Novel in Verse (1986), detailing the lives of a group of friends in California, followed by the epic A Suitable Boy (1993), set in 1950s India, which garnered him the WH Smith Literary Award and the Commonwealth Writers Prize. His poetry volumes, such as Mappings and Beastly Tales, are significant contributions to the Indian English language poetry canon.