Nishant Batsha is the author of the novels A Bomb Placed Close to the Heart (ecco/HarperCollins, 2025)—named a summer read by the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and others—and Mother Ocean Father Nation (ecco/HarperCollins, 2022)—a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award, among other honors. He is currently at work on a new novel with support from The de Groot Foundation and the New York State Council on the Arts. Nishant holds a PhD in history from Columbia University, where he was a Paul & Daisy Soros Fellow. Originally from Northern California, he lives in Buffalo, NY with his family.