Dr. Punita Rice is an education researcher and author of Brown Voices: South Asian American Experiences in Schools (October 2026), which draws on years of doctoral research into what South Asian Americans actually experienced in the classroom, and what we need to do to make those experiences better; her research and related work have appeared in the Berkeley Review of Education, Education Week, and Radio New Zealand. She is also the creator of the Brown Voices Project and the Brown Voices Conversations series.

Dr. Rice is also a storyteller. Her novel The River's Daughter—an Amazon #1 Bestseller in Folklore (and #1 Bestseller in Asian Myth & Legend, and Top 10 in Myth & Legend/Fantasy)—is a feminist reimagining of the Punjabi legend of Mirza Sahiba, centering themes of resistance, ancestral memory, inherited power, and love. Its prequel The River Goddess (Top 100 in Fantasy Short Stories) tells the tragic and transformative origin story of the river's power, generations before The River's Daughter.

Punita lives in Maryland with her husband, their boys, and their dog, and spends her free time daydreaming. You can keep up with her work through her newsletter.