Khyrunnisa A.

Khyrunnisa A. is an Indian author of children's fiction, speaker, academic and columnist who also writes for adults. She created the comic book character 'Butterfingers'. The character first appeared in the Indian children's magazine ''Tinkle''. Thirteen-year-old Amar Kishen, aka Butterfingers, now features in the eponymous Butterfingers series of novels and short story collections published by Puffin, the children's imprint of Penguin Random House India.

She has written two books for adults ''Tongue in Cheek: The Funny Side of Life'' (2019), published by Westland, and ''Chuckle Merry Spin: Us in the U.S'', also published by Westland, in September 2022. It is a humorous travelogue based on her trip to the U.S. in 2018.

Her book of animal stories for young readers titled ''The Lizard of Oz and Other Stories'', published by Scholastic, appeared in 2019. Another book of animal stories, ''The Crocodile Who Ate Butter Chicken For Breakfast and Other Stories'', was published by Red Panda, the children's imprint of Westland, on 17 August 2020. Shashi Tharoor had this to say about the book, 'Khyrunnisa's oeuvre now has some unique and lovely animal stories giving it the resonance of a Panchatantra for the contemporary world.'  

In February 2021, ''Baby and Dubdub'', a warm and funny novella about the relationship between a boy, a dog and a baby, was published by Talking Cub, the children's imprint of Speaking Tiger. ''The Couch Potato Who Said Ouch and Other Funny Stories'', a fun collection of twenty stories, was published by Red Panda, (Westland Books) in January 2024. Around the same time, ''Ka Kha Ga'', a picture book, was published by DC Books, illustrated by Monami Roy. Her latest book, ''Agassi and the Great Cycle Race,'' was published by Puffin (Penguin Random House) in February 2025.

Khyrunnisa's first three children's novels ''Howzzat Butterfingers!'' (2010), ''Goal, Butterfingers! (2012)'' and ''Clean Bowled, Butterfingers!'' ''(2015)'', were followed by three collections of short stories, ''The Misadventures of Butterfingers (2016''), ''Run, It's Butterfingers Again!'' (2017) and ''Of Course It’s Butterfingers!'' (2018). ''Smash It, Butterfingers!'' a rollicking badminton-based novel and the seventh in the Butterfingers series, came out in July 2021. All the Butterfingers books were launched by Shashi Tharoor, Member of Parliament.

In 2022, the Malayalam translation of her first novel, ''Howzzat Butterfingers!'', was published by Mathrubhumi Books under the title, ''Itha Butterfingers!'' The book was translated by Kaikasi V.S. In 2024, the Malayalam translation of ''Tongue in Cheek: the Funny Side of Life'' was published by Mathrubhumi Books under the title ''Kulchayum Phulkayum... Pinne Nyanum'' . It was translated by K.T. Rajagopalan.

In May 2023, ''The World of Butterfingers: Adventure in Texas and Other Stories'', a hilarious hundred page comic featuring Butterfingers and  illustrated by Abhijeet Kini, was published by Puffin ( Penguin Random House).

A book of her prize-winning stories, ''Lost in Ooty and Other Adventure Stories'', was brought out by Unisun Publications in 2010. Some of her stories for children and for adults have appeared in anthologies published by Puffin, Children's Book Trust, Talking Cub, Red Panda and Unisun Publications. She writes stories regularly for the children's magazine, ''Dimdima'', a Bhavan's publication.

''Butterfingers'', Khyrunnisa's entry for the Annual All India Tinkle Short story competition for adult writers of children's fiction in 1996, won her the second prize. She went on to win the first prize at the competition for the next seven consecutive years – from 1997 to 2003. In 2007, she won the prestigious Unisun Children's Fiction Award. She also has five Children's Book Trust prizes to her credit.

''Smash it, Butterfingers!'' was short-listed for Sahitya Akademi's Bal Sahitya Puraskar 2024 (English). It was long-listed for the JK Paper and Times of India Auther Awards 2022 in the Children's Literature category and also featured in Times of India's top ten books for children 2021.''The Couch Potato Who Said Ouch and Other Funny Stories'' was longlisted for the Kalinga Literary Festival 2024 Book Awards (Children; English) Provided by Wikipedia