Harshi Syal Gill

Harshi Syal Gill was born and raised in Kenya; after her graduate and post-graduate studies in Literature, she taught at the prestigious Kenya High School until she moved to Canada in 1974. She lived there, and briefly in England, before moving to California more than four decades ago.

Harshi’s creative and critical prowess has been acclaimed through the course of her literary career. As a fresh graduate at the age of 20, she inherited a book review program from a literary giant, Dr. Angus Calder, for weekly presentation over the Voice of Kenya. She is often sought after for her invaluable ability to research material and summarize it in a cohesive fashion – whether it be for a shelved documentary on the Ghadar movement or for the recent movie, The Black Prince.

While she pursued careers in multiple professions, including teaching, technical writing, systems analysis and medical and legal administration, she continued to express her creativity in several genres. In addition to contributions to several anthologies of poetry and literary magazines, she has penned an anthology of poetry, Reflections and, with her brother, Parvin Syal, a play on the life of Buddha, God Minus: Buddha – The Light of Asia, and a collection of short stories, African Quilt. She also collaborated with Indian actor, Parikshat Sahni, on a book, The Non-Conformist, on the life of his iconic actor father, Balraj Sahni.

Her prowess as a literary critic is apparent in the multitude of book reviews she has contributed to both print and digital media. Her article Kabir: A Literary Perspective, was published in the book Thus Says Kabir, Listen, O’Brethren Sadho! and her essay (on Abha Dawesar’s book, Babyji) – Sexual Realisation in a Historical, Social and Cultural Context was published in a collection of literary essays edited by Sandhya Rao Mehta in the book Exploring Gender in the Literature of the Indian Diaspora.

Supplementing her work as a literary critic, she edits manuscripts ranging from poetry, to short stories, to novels, and movie scripts. She has also been an active volunteer in various community projects and serves as a volunteer editor of an Indian seniors’ magazine – Sangama.

Harshi now resides in Granada Hills, California.