Press Kit: Lakshmi G. Iyer

At a glance

• Name: Lakshmi G. Iyer
• Pronounced: Luck-shme Eye-er
• Byline: Lakshmi G. Iyer for essays and interviews; books published as Lakshmi Iyer
• Roles: Novelist, essayist, children’s book author
• Based in: Exton, Pennsylvania

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Biography

Short bio · 47 words

Lakshmi G. Iyer is a novelist, essayist, and children’s book author writing at the intersection of inheritance, motherhood, and the South Asian diaspora. She is the author of The Smudged Hyphen, Hindsight, A Star Keeps Its Distance, and Why Is My Hair Curly?. She lives in Pennsylvania.

Standard bio · 134 words

Lakshmi G. Iyer is a novelist, essayist, and children’s book author writing at the intersection of inheritance, motherhood, and the South Asian diaspora. Her books include the essay collection The Smudged Hyphen (2026), the novels Hindsight (2024) and A Star Keeps Its Distance (2026), and the middle-grade Why Is My Hair Curly? (Westland/Red Panda, 2020). Her essays and reporting have appeared in The Hindu, Huffington Post, Motherwell Magazine, Adoptive Families, The Week India, Verve India, and Mutha Magazine, among others. She has spoken on transracial adoption and South Asian American life on NPR’s The Takeaway, BBC Asia Big Debate, and BBC Radio UK, and at CAAMFest, the Prabha Khaitan Foundation, and Oxford Book Stores. She lives in Exton, Pennsylvania, with her husband and three children. Find her at lgiyer.com and on Substack at lgiyer.substack.com.

Long bio · 237 words

Lakshmi G. Iyer is a novelist, essayist, and children’s book author writing at the intersection of inheritance, motherhood, and the South Asian diaspora. Her work spans literary fiction, personal essay, and middle grade.

She is the author of the essay collection The Smudged Hyphen (2026), which holds the hyphenated self as a smudge rather than a bridge; the novels Hindsight (2024), about what is taken from a woman when no one will name it, and A Star Keeps Its Distance (2026), following K-pop journalist Amaya Stein; and the middle-grade Why Is My Hair Curly? (Westland/Red Panda, 2020), set between Chennai and Coimbatore.

Essays and reporting by Iyer have appeared in The Hindu, Huffington Post, Motherwell Magazine, Adoptive Families, The Week India, Verve India, Mutha Magazine, and the anthology Desi Modern Love (Story Artisan Press). She has spoken on transracial adoption, identity, and family on NPR’s The Takeaway, BBC Asia Big Debate, and BBC Radio UK, and at CAAMFest, the Prabha Khaitan Foundation, and Oxford Book Stores.

The Iyer family is the subject of Love Chaos Kin (2025), a feature documentary by Chithra Jeyaram that premiered at CAAMFest 2025 in San Francisco.

Born in Tamil Nadu and raised in Coimbatore and Chennai, Iyer moved to the United States in 2001. She lives in Exton, Pennsylvania, with her husband and three children, and writes regularly at lgiyer.com and on Substack at lgiyer.substack.com.

She publishes her books as Lakshmi Iyer.

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Books

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Speaking topics

• Transracial Adoption: Race, Identity, and What Families Look Like · On building a family the world cannot easily read, and the questions that come from outside and from inside.
• The Hyphenated Self: South Asian American Life and What We Inherit · On immigration, second-generation experience, and the unfinished work of identity.
• Writing Memoir and Personal Essay: Form, Ethics, What to Put on the Page · On the craft and the cost of writing about real people, including yourself.
• The Stories We Inherit, the Ones We Have to Find Ourselves · On origin myths, family records, and what gets passed down without permission.
• Documentary Storytelling and Collaborative Authorship · In conversation with Love Chaos Kin director Chithra Jeyaram. On the difference between being subject and being author, and what happens when the camera turns toward your own family.

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Sample interview questions

A starting point for hosts and interviewers. Lakshmi is happy to range beyond these.

• You describe the hyphenated self as a smudge rather than a bridge. What does that distinction let you say that bridge does not?
• What do most conversations about transracial adoption leave out?
• Love Chaos Kin turned the camera on your own family. How did being the subject change the way you think about authorship?
• What does Tamil American belonging look like when your family does not match what strangers expect?
• Your work moves between memoir, fiction, and children’s books. What does each form let you tell that the others cannot?
• A Star Keeps Its Distance follows a K-pop journalist. What drew you to writing about fandom, and the distance between a watcher and the watched?

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Selected press

• NPR’s The Takeaway · Overcoming Race in Non-Traditional Adoption
• The Week India · Indian writers exploring bold themes for young readers (2025)
• The Hindu · Open Page: The Rainbow Family (2020)
• Motherwell Magazine · My Relationship With Food as a First-Generation Mom (2020)
• Mutha Magazine · How To Make A Family (2018)
• Indian Express · On adopting and raising her family (2018)
• Huffington Post · Viral essay on identity
• BBC Radio UK · In conversation with Ruchi Tandon on adoption

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Photos for press

Photographs by Courtney Criddle Photography. The portrait below is available for press use under CC BY-SA 4.0 with attribution.

Download this portrait (high-resolution) · View on Wikimedia Commons

Additional curated photos are in the password-protected gallery (request access at authoriyer@gmail.com).

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Contact

Press, speaking, and podcast inquiries: authoriyer@gmail.com

Website: lgiyer.com · Substack: lgiyer.substack.com · LinkedIn: lakshmigiyer · Instagram: @lakshgiri · YouTube: @glaksh · TikTok: @lakshgiri