Aditya Tiwari

Aditya Tiwari is a writer, activist, and one of India’s few openly gay poets.

He was born in 1998 in Jabalpur and led a life that’s hopscotched around the world from America to Britain. His debut poetry collection April is Lush earned international recognition from Lambda Literary in the U.S. in 2019 and is part of the curriculum at the Centre for Studies in Gender & Sexuality at Ashoka University.

Aditya holds an MA in Journalism from the University of East Anglia. He has worked as a journalist and producer at the BBC and is the host of a six-part BBC podcast series on men’s mental health. His second book, an anthology, Over the Rainbow: India’s Queer Heroes (Juggernaut Books), was published during India’s historic Marriage Equality verdict to critical acclaim in 2023. His third book, Lilac Dreams and Bruises (forthcoming) was short-listed for the 2022 Verve Poetry Prize, which HuffPost lauded as “alluring” and The Times of India described as “raw, whimsical, and moving”.

Aditya’s work has appeared in publications including The Telegraph, PinkNews, Vice Magazine, The Times of India, Hindustan Times, and the BBC. He was named in GQ’s 5 Indian Poets to Watch list in 2021, Outlook Magazine’s 75 Changemakers of Modern India list in 2022, and Cosmopolitan’s The Ones to Watch issue in 2023.

Learn more about Aditya on Instagram and Twitter at @aprilislush.