Mani Rao
Mani Rao is the author of thirteen poetry books including So That You Know (HarperCollins 2025), and four books in translation including Bhagavad Gita and Saundarya Lahari. Researching mantra experience in tantric communities, she discovered continuing revelations and new mantras in circulation on-ground for Living Mantra: Mantra, Deities and Visionary Experience Today.
Mani’s poems and essays have been published in journals and anthologies including Indian Literature, Almost Island, Wasafiri, Penguin Book of the Prose Poem, Iowa Review, and numerous other journals and anthologies. She held writing residencies at Iowa International Writing Program, Omi Ledig House NY, and International Poetry Studies Institute (IPSI) Canberra.
After studying literature in the early 80’s Madras, she worked as an advertising and television professional for two decades in Mumbai, New Zealand and Hong Kong. A resetting of life-goals led her back to the world of learning– she then did an MFA from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, USA, and a PhD in Religious Studies from Duke University, USA. Returning to India by 2017, she began to live in Puttaparthi and Bangalore. Her website is www.manirao.com
