Co-founder and Publishing Director of Karadi Tales Company, Shobha Viswanath has been responsible for steering the direction of the publishing house from brilliantly produced audio-books for children to new imprints such as Dreaming Fingers (illustrated books for the visually disabled), Charkha (inspiring audio biographies for young adults), and Chitra (beautifully illustrated picture books from all over the world). She has been invited to the Frankfurt Book Fair as a guest several times and has carved a niche for Karadi Tales by selling foreign rights and licenses to many of the titles in countries across the world, including several parts of Europe. Today, through Shobha’s efforts, Karadi Tales is a world-class publishing house with several global awards and much international recognition. Shobha is now active in converting the books to other platforms such as digital applications, video books, and e-books.
A volunteer at the Isha Home School in Coimbatore, where she teaches English Literature to senior students, her interaction with young minds also provides her with a fertile ground for inspiration to several ideas for the books. An author herself, she has published books with Puffin and Scholastic.
Shobha is an avid collector of picture books from around the world and is obsessively hooked on to the creative process of ideating and producing picture books. Through her work, she hopes that children will recognise, appreciate, and enjoy art and make it an integral part of their story process. Shobha’s efforts are focused towards reclaiming a place for Indian literature for children in the picture book format.