Nishant Batsha


Photograph of Nishant Batsha

Nishant Batsha is the author of the novel Mother Ocean Father Nation (Ecco/HarperCollins). The book was longlisted for a 2023 Mark Twain American Voice in Literature Award, a finalist for a 2023 Lambda Literary Award, and named as one of the best books of 2022 by NPR. He is currently at work on A Bomb Placed Close to the Heart (Ecco/HarperCollins, 2025), a novel set between California and New York at the dawn of World War I. The in-progress manuscript was named a finalist for a grant from the de Groot Foundation

Nishant holds a PhD in history from Columbia University and is a former Paul & Daisy Soros Fellow. He lives in Buffalo, NY with his wife and two children.


Author photo courtesy of Libby March.