Gautam Bhatia is an Indian SF writer, reviewer, and editor, based in New Delhi, India. He has previously written an SF duology, The Wall (2020) and The Horizon (2021), published by HarperCollins India. Both books were on Locus Magazine’s annual recommended reading list, and were reviewed favourably in Locus (by Gary Wolfe), Interzone, Vector, and in mainstream Indian newspapers. Gautam was also long-listed for the Astounding Award for Best New Writer at both the 2021 and the 2022 WorldCon. Gautam’s short stories have appeared in The Gollancz Book of South Asian Science Fiction, and Indian magazines such as The Mint.
Guatam's latest novel THE SENTENCE, was first published by Westland India in October 2024, limited to South Asian territories. He retains all rights outside of South Asia. Since its publication, it has been positively reviewed in all major Indian newspapers (and was listed by The Hindu, one of India’s largest English-language newspapers, as one of its top-10 novels for 2024). It also received a positive review in the January 2025 issue of Locus Magazine, which noted that the novel “so successfully marries old school SFnal approaches with present political issues.”
Gautam is actively involved with genre non-fiction and serves as the coordinating editor of Strange Horizons, a weekly SF magazine that won the British Fantasy Award in 2021, and the Hugo Award in 2024. For his work with the magazine, Gautam was a finalist for the World Fantasy Award in 2022. In 2022, Gautam was on the non-fiction jury for the British Fantasy Award. His reviews and analytical pieces on contemporary SF appear frequently in Indian newspapers and in Strange Horizons and Interzone. Gautam is the founder of New Delhi’s first (and so far, only) SF Reading Club, and he has been running a fortnightly newsletter focusing on developments in Indian genre fiction for the last three years.
In his other life, Gautam is a constitutional lawyer and public commentator on civil and constitutional rights in India. Gautam’s SF draws upon his life and experiences, both as an Indian, and as someone who engages daily with Constitutions, law, and justice.
