Hi there, I’m Sonia Faleiro—a writer in London who also develops initiatives to amplify underrepresented voices and foster real-world change. My chief commitment is to programs that make a genuine impact.

My latest book, The Good Girls: An Ordinary Killing (Bloomsbury/Grove Atlantic, 2021), was nominated for the Royal Society of Literature Ondaatje Prize, the ALCS Gold Dagger for Non-fiction, and the Premio Inge Feltrinelli. It was a New York Times Editor’s Choice, a Sunday Times Book of the Year, and a Human Rights Watch Book Club pick. It has been translated into French, Italian, and Polish. My forthcoming book,  The Robe and the Sword: How Buddhist Extremism is Shaping Modern Asia, will be published in November 2025. I’m co-editing, with Fatima Bhutto, a collection of testimonies on the Gaza genocide (Verso, October 2025).

Before this, I authored Beautiful Thing: Inside the Secret World of Bombay's Dance Bars (Canongate, Grove Atlantic, 2011), a non-fiction book shortlisted for the Lettre Ulysses Award for the Art of Reportage and named a Sunday Times Travel Book of the Year. It was recognized by The Guardian, The Observer, The Sunday Times, The Economist, NPR, and Time Out as one of the best books of the year and has been translated into languages including Swedish, Dutch, and French. I’m also the editor of How I Write (HarperCollins, 2024), a collection of interviews with major South Asian writers, including Pankaj Mishra, Mira Nair, Kamila Shamsie, V.V. Ganeshananthan, Jamil Jan Kochai, and Manjushree Thapa. My first published work was the novella The Girl (Penguin, 2006).

I’ve written reportage and essays for outlets such as The New York Times, The Guardian, The Financial Times, Harper’s, and Granta. Some of my memorable pieces include reporting on the war in Kashmir for Harper's, profiling India's wrestling superstar for 1843, and writing about a father who saved his children from traffickers for Harper's. I've also explored the role of fact-checkers in Modi's India for Rest of World and written about a sensational murder in India for The California Sunday Magazine.

My work isn’t limited to the page. I’m deeply invested in building ventures that foster equity and access. In 2020, I founded South Asia Speaks, a pioneering literary mentorship program spanning eight South Asian countries to nurture writing talent, dismantle systemic publishing biases, and champion new literary voices. Since 2021, our fellows have published seven books, secured representation from leading agencies such as Creative Artists Agency and The Wylie Agency, signed deals with major publishers including Penguin Random House and Bloomsbury, and won fully funded places at prestigious programs like the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, The New India Foundation, and the Logan Nonfiction Program. During the COVID-19 crisis, I launched Artists for India, raising $30,000 for Mission Oxygen, a non-profit providing life-saving equipment to hospitals. As co-founder of Deca, a global cooperative of award-winning journalists, I helped produce long-form digital journalism set in Indonesia, India, Syria, China, Bolivia, Trinidad and Tobago, and the Arctic. 

Continuing to address urgent needs, in February 2024, I joined forces with writer Fatima Bhutto and literary agent Julia Churchill to launch #BooksforGaza, raising $85,000 for The Ghassan Abu Sittah Children’s Fund. This initiative supports children injured in the ongoing crisis in Gaza—yet another reflection of my broader mission to build and sustain projects that respond to critical global challenges.

My educational and teaching background includes stints at Royal Holloway and Goldsmiths (University of London), designing writing workshops for Ashoka University in India and the National Centre for Writing in England.

Janklow & Nesbit UK and United Talent Agency represent me.

At my core, I’m committed to storytelling that illuminates urgent issues—and to building transformative, lasting structures that empower the next generation of writers and thinkers. If you’d like to work with me, please reach out below. Thank you.