photo by sarah bodri
Born in Delhi, Mahak has also lived in Dubai, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Montreal, and Toronto. After graduating with an Honours BA in Cultural Studies and Political Science from McGill University, she pursued a career in children’s publishing as a Managing Editor. She left publishing to pursue an MFA in Creative Writing at the University of Guelph, where she worked on adult fiction, most closely with authors Kyo Maclear and Shani Mootoo.
Mahak’s debut short story collection, We Are Only Human, is forthcoming from McClelland & Stewart/Penguin Random House Canada. Her fiction and poetry for adults have appeared in a variety of magazines across the US and Canada: Bellevue Literary Review, Gulf Coast, Shenandoah, Brick, Joyland, Prism international, The New Quarterly, Canadian Notes & Queries, Room Magazine, and Humber Literary Review. Her writing has been recognized by awards such as the Writers’ Trust of Canada/McClelland & Stewart Journey Prize, Glimmer Train’s Family Matters Contest, Event Magazine’s Speculative Writing Contest, Humber Literary Review’s Emerging Writers Contest, and Prism international’s Short Fiction Contest. An alumnus of the Tin House Summer Workshop, she has been awarded scholarships and artists’ grants from the Sewanee Writers’ Conference, Community of Writers at Olympic Valley, Vermont Studio Center, Banff Centre for Arts & Creativity, Toronto Arts Council, Ontario Arts Council, and the Canada Council for the Arts.
Mahak is also the author of three picture books, all in some way about the imagination and the arts. Her first picture book, Maya (illust. by Elly MacKay), was published by Owlkids Books in 2016. It won the South Asia Book Award and was named a best book of the year by Kirkus Reviews (starred selection), Canadian Children’s Book Centre (starred selection), CBC Books, and School Library Journal’s Fuse #8 Production. Her second picture book, Bharatanatyam in Ballet Shoes (illust. by Anu Chouhan), published in spring 2022 with Annick Press and was nominated for the Forest of Reading Blue Spruce Award and selected as a South Asia Book Award Honor Book. Her third picture book, The Only Astronaut (illust. by Andrea Stegmaier), published in spring 2023 with Kids Can Press. It was named a best book of the year by the Canadian Children's Book Centre (starred selection), selected for the TD Summer Reading Club, and is also available internationally in Portuguese and German.
As well as being an author, Mahak is a past host and organizer of the Emerging Writers Reading Series, where she developed programming featuring underrepresented and emerging voices. She has edited books for Penguin Random House Canada for Young Readers, Kids Can Press, Annick Press, and Owlkids Books, and she is on the editorial board of Buckrider Books/Wolsak & Wynn. She has taught and mentored creative writing at colleges and universities as well as for community organizations such as the Toronto Arts Council, the Toronto Public Library, and Inkwell Workshops. She teaches full-time in the Honours Bachelor of Creative Writing and Publishing program at Sheridan College and currently lives in Mississauga.