Anitha Devi Pillai

Anitha Devi Pillai (PhD) has authored and edited creative and non-creative fiction books as well as translated a historical fiction novel, Sembawang: A Novel (2020) from Tamil into English, which was shortlisted for the Singapore History Prize, awarded by National University of Singapore and the Best Literary Book Award by the Singapore Book Publishers Association. She also loves writing poetry. Some of her poems have made their way into the classrooms in Singapore, India, Australia and the Philippines. Many of her work explore themes such as identity, heritage and culture.
She is best known for her research into the Singapore Malayalee community that was supported by a National Heritage Board (Singapore) grant and resulted in the publication of From Kerala to Singapore: Voices from the Singapore Malayalee Community (2017). For this study, Anitha was awarded the Pravasi Express Research Excellence Award in 2017.