Chandrika Narayanan-Mohan is a writer, performer, and cultural consultant from India living in Dublin. She was born in New Delhi to a political family with a deep grounding in literature and the arts. Her grandfather was K.R. Narayanan, the first Dalit to be elected President of India, while her mother was a diplomat and, later, an ambassador and her father worked at the World Bank. As a child, Narayan-Mohan lived briefly in the United States before returning to New Delhi, then moved with her mother to Sweden and later to Turkey.
Narayanan-Mohan resettled in the UK for her higher education, earning her BA in art history and English literature from the University of York and her MA in art history from University College London. She interned in arts administration roles, including at Christie’s, and planned to continue on that career track; however, her hopes of working toward a second master’s degree in arts management were thwarted by a sudden immigration law change. In 2012, Narayanan-Mohan moved to Dublin, receiving her MA in arts management and cultural policy from University College Dublin and becoming a dedicated member of Dublin’s strong arts community.
Narayanan-Mohan’s writing has been published in numerous journals, including Banshee, Stinging Fly, and Poetry Ireland, and in anthologies such as Dedalus Press’s Writing Home: The ‘New Irish’ Poets, UCD Press’s Hold Open the Door, and Lifeboat Press’s Queering the Green: Post-2000 Queer Irish Poetry. She has been featured on podcasts The Moth and Mortified, and her work has been aired on NPR and RTÉ Radio. A regular performer at Irish literary events, Narayanan-Mohan’s honors include being selected for Poetry Ireland’s Introductions in 2021, Science Gallery Dublin’s Rapid Residency in 2021, and—twice—the Irish Writers Centre’s XBorders program.
The Writer in Residence for the Institute of Physics for 2023, Narayanan-Mohan also serves on the board of the Irish Writers Centre. She edited issue 9 of Poetry Ireland’s Trumpet and is a book reviewer for Children’s Books Ireland’s Inis magazine. Narayanan-Mohan, who served as marketing and development manager for Fishamble: The New Play Company for four years, is currently a freelance cultural consultant working with a number of organizations in the Irish arts sector.
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More Chandrika Narayanan-Mohan
Video: Narayanan-Mohan performs her poem "Stargazing with My Mother" for the UCD Library
Text: Read Narayanan-Mohan's "Sea" at The Honest Ulsterman
Audio: Narayanan-Mohan performs "A Country Worth Queueing For" for The Moth
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Photo by Conor McCabe.