Erika Banerji is a prize-winning short-story writer.

She was born in Assam, raised in New Delhi and now lives in London. Her short story ‘Christopher’ won the 2025 Harper’s Bazaar Short Story Prize. Her fiction has appeared in journals and anthologies and listed for prizes including The Bridport, Bristol, V.S Pritchett and Fish.

Erika is currently working on a short story collection, alongside a novel set in eighteenth-century Bengal and England.

A woman with long dark hair, wearing a white shirt, blue jeans, and a yellow scarf, is standing in front of a white bookshelf filled with books, decorative items, and sculptures.

Winner of the 2025 Harpers Bazaar Short Story Competition for ‘Christopher’

“A sensitive and wryly amusing tale about two childhood friends crossing paths after years living in different countries.”

— Ben Okri (Judge for the 2025 prize)

Colorful illustrated map featuring various landmarks, figures, and elements representing different places, concepts, and activities with a central depiction of two people sitting, surrounded by clouds, planes, and other symbols.

Learn more →

‘Two Lads on a Delhi Street’ Shortlisted for the 2026 Bristol Short Story Prize

Long listed for the Bristol Short Story Prize 2025

Long listed for the HWA Dorothy Dunnet Short Story Prize 2024

‘The Hibiscus Thief’ is now published by Fairlight Books (14 March 2024)

Literary Musings and Book Reviews

Main blog

BOOK REVIEW: THE THINGS WE NEVER SAY By Elizabeth Strout (Penguin/Viking, 2026)

BOOK REVIEW: THE THINGS WE NEVER SAY By Elizabeth Strout (Penguin/Viking, 20226)

Elizabeth Strout has always written about the quiet lives of characters like Olive Kitteridge or Lucy Barton, lives that are not as ordinary as they seem. Her most recent book, shortlisted for the 2026 Booker Prize, The Things We Never Say is no exception.

Read more →

SHORT FICTION: THE PYTHON’S KISS Stories by Louise Erdrich (Corsair Books, 2026)

SHORT FICTION: THE PYTHON’S KISS By Louise Erdrich (Corsair Books, 2026)

Python’s Kiss is a body of work that ranges widely in tone and character. What unites the collection is Erdrich’s unique sensibility, her tapestry of mythic and mysterious and real, and the beauty and exactitude of Erdrich's mature prose.

Read more →

BOOK REVIEW: UNDER WATER By Tara Menon (Summit Books, 2026)

Tara Menon's debut novel, Under Water, is a haunting story of loss, the fragility of friendship, and the destructive relationship between humans and nature.

Read more →

Literary Musings & Book Reviews

Please do sign up here for my latest Literary Musings and Book Reviews

Bookshelf with various books, a green glass vase, a blue and white ceramic container holding pens, a large yellow and brown ceramic pitcher, a small colored ceramic owl figure, and a small white rabbit figure.