Swapna Gupta was born in Shillong, in the hills of Assam, India. After studies in Shillong and Calcutta, she travelled and taught school in Napier, New Zealand, and Sydney, Australia. In 1972 she moved to Boston where she obtained her Doctorate from Boston University. In New England, she has taught in the Lesley College Schools and Assumption College in Worcester, Mass. In 1981 she joined the Alberta Children's Hospital in Calgary, Canada, where she worked for nearly three decades as a Clinical Psychologist. She is the author of a children's book, translated from Danish, "Osvald, the Monkey who Disappeared", and co-author of an acclaimed collection of short stories, "The Irrelevance of Space and Other Stories." "Meena's Story" is her debut novel.