Dr. Punita Rice is a former teacher with a doctorate in education from Johns Hopkins University. Her book Brown Voices: South Asian American Experiences in Schools (October 2026) draws on years of doctoral research into what South Asian American kids actually experience in the classroom, and what adults keep getting wrong; 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 is an Amazon #1 Bestseller in Folklore (and #1 Bestseller in Asian Myth & Legend, Top 10 in Myth & Legend/Fantasy)—a feminist reimagining of the Punjabi legend of Mirza Sahiba, and a mythic tale of forbidden love, resistance, and ancestral memory. 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.