Aneeta Sundararaj is the recipient of the Trisha Ashley Award in 2022 and the 2022 H.E. Bates Short Story Prize. She was longlisted for the Bristol Short Story Prize in 2023 and nominated for the Pushcart Prize 2024 by The Hooghly Review. The stories for these prizes / nominations are included in Aneeta's collection of short stories, 'Tapestry of the Mind and Other Stories' (Penguin Random House SEA, June 2024).
Aneeta trained and practised as a lawyer before pursuing her dream of writing and started by creating a resource website for storytellers called ‘How to Tell a Great Story’. Aneeta has also been published in many magazines, ezines and journals, which includes more than 250 feature articles in the Malaysian newspaper, the 'New Straits Times'. Her book projects include her bestselling novel, 'The Age of Smiling Secrets' which was shortlisted for the Anugerah Buku 2020 organised by the National Library of Malaysia. Incidentally, edited versions of various chapters of this novel have been included in several anthologies, notabtly, 'We Mark Your Memory: Writings from the Descendants of Indenture' (University of London in partnership with Commonwealth Writers, 2018). It is currently being translated into Bahasa Indonesia.
She has spoken at various festivals such as Ubud Readers and Writers Festival 2024, Bangalore International Literature Festival 2024, Mathrubhumi International Festival of Letters, India 2025 and Hong Kong International Literary Festival 2025.
Throughout, Aneeta continued to pursue her academic interests. In 2021, she successfully completed a doctoral thesis entitled ‘Management of Prosperity Among Artistes in Malaysia’ and was awarded a 'Doctor of Philosophy (Management)' by SEGi University, Malaysia.
