Neerja Mattoo is an eminent writer, teacher, and translator who has taught in Kashmir for over three decades. She has published five books, the most recent being the critically acclaimed The Mystic and the Lyric: Four Women Poets from Kashmir. Her works have been published by the Sahitya Akademi, and she has been awarded a Fellowship and a Visitorship to Oxford, by the Ministry of Education and the British Council, respectively. She lives in Srinagar, Kashmir.