A postgraduate in management, Alka Balain is an educator-turned-poet and artist. She is a member of the Asian Literary Society (ALS), India and the Asia Pacific Writers & Translators Group (APWT), Australia. Alka’s poems have been shortlisted for the Glass House Poetry Award 2024, the ALS Wordsmith Award 2024/2021, the Poetry Festival Singapore-Catharsis 2021/2023, and the Wordweavers Contest 2022. Her work has appeared in The Tiger Moth Review, Amethyst Review, The Hooghly Review, Kitaab, Usawa Literary Review, Shot Glass Journal and elsewhere. She is the author of Parijat Petals: of longing and seeking.