Shoba Narayan is an author, poet, podcaster and co-founder of Zapigo, an e-commerce platform in the celebration space. She is the author of eight books and a journalist who has won a James Beard MFK Fisher Award for Distinguished Food Writing, and a Pulitzer Fellowship. She loves Indian textiles, jewellery, perfumes and crafts. She is a bird-watcher and hosts the Bird Podcast. She is co-founder of Zapigo, a Bangalore-based e-commerce startup in the celebration space. A published poet, she has won the Erbacce Prize for Poetry 2025. Her lifelong goal is to get fit without exercising and lose weight without dieting.

Shoba Narayan is an author, poet, podcaster and co-founder of Zapigo, an e-commerce platform in the celebration space.

She is the author of eight books. Her first book, Monsoon Diary: a memoir with recipes, was a finalist for a James Beard Award. As a  journalist  and columnist, she has written for the Hindustan Times, Mint Lounge, Condé Nast Traveler, Sommelier India, the New York Times and other publications, covering travel, nature, culture, food and wine, winning a James Beard MFK Fisher Award for Distinguished Food Writing, and a Pulitzer Fellowship along the way.

She is obsessed with Indian textiles, jewellery and crafts, something that her family can confirm based on time and money spent on these pursuits. She founded and co-created two websites: Project LooM, about Indian textiles, and Jewels of India: about Indian jewellery.

She is most at peace within the lap of nature.  She is a bird-watcher, tree-hugger, and loves flowers, butterflies, moths, spiders, snakes and all types of flora and fauna.  To foster her interests, she hosts the Bird Podcast speaking about – and occasionally to – birds.

She is co-founder of Zapigo, a Bangalore-based e-commerce startup in the celebration space, because she figured, “Hey, if you’re going to work in tech, you might as well make it about Joy Together.”

She writes poetry when stuck in Bangalore traffic, and has won the Erbacce Prize for Poetry 2025. A Pushcart-prize nominee, her work appears or will appear in Prairie Schooner, Frontier Poetry, Southword, Tiger Moth Review, Marrow Magazine, Verseville, DMQ Review, Stillwater Review, Mantelpiece, Indian Literature, and others.

Her lifelong goal is to get fit without exercising and lose weight without dieting.