Description
Winner of Sahitya Akademi Yuva Puraskar Award 2024!!
After discovering she’s lesbian and dyslexic at 20, Vaishali begins to untangle her anxieties around reading and writing. She comes out to her mother at 22 and leaves her Bombay home to make her own way. In a dingy, insect-ridden yet rent-free hostel room in Hyderabad with a door that doesn’t quite close, she tries to make the best of the situation by writing a book about her experiences. As she writes, she finds the past has a way of catching up with her, even as she explores her dyslexia, homosexuality, and the clitoris; falling in love and recovering from a harrowing breakup; academic failure, loneliness, and homophobia; living with sickness, anxiety, depression, and her caste, gender, and body. This is the story of Vaishali’s relationship with her many truths and the truths of many young people in India.
K Vaishali is an author, speaker, and diversity and inclusion advocate based in Hyderabad. Her memoir Homeless: Growing Up Lesbian and Dyslexic in India, published by Yoda Press and Simon & Schuster in 2023, was shortlisted for The Rainbow Awards in the Non-fiction category.
She is the delegate for Learning Disabilities at the International Purple Fest, a festival that celebrates people with disabilities and is organized by the Government of Goa and the Government of India.
She works at a tech company writing documentation for their products and leading their LGBTQ+ Business Resource Group for the Japan and Asia-Pacific region. She’s the host of the podcast Queerious Connections available on Spotify and Amazon Music.
NOMINATIONS FOR THE BOOK
• Best Non-Fiction Award- 2024 by Pragatie Vihaar Literature Festival.
• Best Nonfiction 2024 by Rainbow Literary Awards
Recent engagements
• Featured in a round table discussion Kashish Mumbai International Queer Film Festival- 2023 on LGBTQIA+ Inclusion in Workplaces.
• Featured in an article titled How to be a Better Ally by Mid-Day.
• Invited to speak at Oracle Pride Event 2023.
• Invited to speak at Microsoft Gleam India ERG 2023.
• Invited for a panel discussion on Same-Sex Marriages by Vani Prakashan. (2023)
• Wrote about the challenges of neurodivergent and queer students in India and how it impacts their mental health for Deccan Herald.
• Wrote on finding the courage to write a lesbian memoir for CNBCTV18
Praise for the book
‘Wry, angry and heartbroken, ‘Homeless’ is not only an account of growing up lesbian and dyslexic in a dysfunctional family, but it is also an evocation of youth itself…’-Parvati Sharma
‘…so fluid is the writing, so seemingly effortless the introspection, with its razor-sharp analyses of disability, anomic and sexuality. Magnificent.’ – Jerry Pinto
‘ An honest, absorbing, and occasionally funny memoir about the impact of homophobia and ableism on the author’s life’
– Chintan Girish Modi for the Hindustan Times
‘…raw and intimate akin to a conversation with a close friend.’- Namrata for Kitaab
‘ Anyone who reads ‘Homeless: Growing Up Lesbian And Dyslexic In India’ is not merely a witness to the events in the author’s life—they are participants.’- Rushati Mukherjee for Mint Lounge
‘Despite the wry and self-deprecating humour, the family drama that unfolds in this book is far from amusing.’ – Saurabh Sharma for Business Standard
‘Forms of Oppression Can Intertwine – No One Knows This Better Than India’s Lesbian Population.’- R. Raj Rao for The Wire.
‘The balanced amalgamation of narratives around sexuality, mental health, neurodiversity along with several other broader issues have been expressed eloquently making this book a complete package for me.’
– Chittajit Mitra for Gaylaxy Magazine
BOOK Features
• Featured in 25 most anticipated Indian book titles in 2023 by Money Control
• Featured in Pride Month: 5 Contemporary LGBTQ titles you must read by News18
• Featured in Top 10 Books to Read by Indian Authors in 2023 by AWBI
• Featured in 5 books to read this Lesbian Visibility Week by Money Control
• Featured in What’s New in Pride Month 2023? By Neha Raj for The Daily Guardian
• Featured in an interview talking about the inspiration behind Homeless for the New Indian Express.
• Featured in a list of brilliant reads that explore the LGBTQ+ experience by the Indian Express.
• Featured in a list of Essential South Asian Queer Non-Fiction by Hammock Magazine.
• Featured in FrontList magazine edition Embracing the Power of LGBTQ Literature.
• Featured in one of the questions for mock tests of RBI exams.
• Interviewed by TOI where Homeless was called the First Lesbian Memoir of India.
