Pramila Venkateswaran was born in Gorakhpur on July 27, 1959, to Tamil parents R. Venkateswaran and Kausalya. Living in different cities like Bombay, Cochin, Calcutta, and Chennai, she grew up speaking Tamil, Hindi, and English, with some understanding of Sanskrit, Malayalam, and Bengali. She studied English literature at Sophia College, Bombay, and acquired a master’s degree from Bombay University while freelancing for the Free Press. She learned German at Max Muller Bhavan and continued to study it at George Washington University in Washington, D.C., from where she earned her PhD on the work of British and German writers Thomas Beddoes and Ludwig Tieck. In Long Island, New York, she also freelanced for the local newspaper, The Three Village Herald. She is a Professor of English and Women’s Studies at Nassau Community College, Garden City, New York. She enthusiastically conducts workshops and gives readings in and beyond Long Island.