Bio
Navtej Sarna is the author of the novel Crimson Spring which was selected for the Sahitya Akademi award for 2025 and the Kalinga Literary Festival prize for the Best Fiction book of 2022.
His other literary works includes the novels The Exile and We Weren’t Lovers Like That, the short story collection Winter Evenings, non-fiction works A Flag to Live and Die For, The Book of Nanak, Second Thoughts and Indians at Herod’s Gate, as well as two translations, Zafarnama and Savage Harvest.
A professional diplomat for nearly four decades, Sarna was India’s Ambassador to the United States till December 2018. He also served as India’s High Commissioner to the UK, Ambassador to the State of Israel and Secretary at the Ministry of External Affairs. He has the distinction of being India’s longest serving foreign office spokesperson. In the earlier years of his service, he served in various diplomatic posts in Moscow, Poland, Bhutan, Iran, Washington and Geneva.
He is a prolific columnist and commentator on foreign policy and literary matters, contributing regularly to journals in India and abroad. In 2022, he was a Visiting Scholar at All Souls College, Oxford University.
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