Janani has 12 years of work experience in journalism, editing, and publishing. She has joined the Office of the Dean-Research to work with faculty and research teams and will provide editorial feedback on book-length projects, increase research outputs, and standardise publishing processes in the University.
She has worked as an editor of critical and narrative non-fiction as well as literary fiction at Context (Westland Books) and Juggernaut Books; has consulted as an editor with Writer’s Side Literary Agency; and been an Assistant Managing Editor at Asymptote, an international translation journal. She began her career as a journalist with Tehelka magazine, and after a stint at Verso Books in New York, she found her home in editing.
Her editorial vision has shaped successful pitch proposals for acclaimed titles such as the Heart Lamp by Banu Mushtaq, shortlisted for the 2025 International Booker Prize. Books she has edited include India’s Undeclared Emergency: Constitutionalism and the Politics of Resistance by legal scholar Arvind Narrain, Who Owns That Song? by historian A.R. Venkatachalapathy, and Despite the State: Why India Lets Its People Down and How They Cope by journalist M. Rajshekhar. She has also provided editorial support on forthcoming books from prominent scholars and authors including historian Sarah Waheed, anthropologist Michiel Baas, musicologist Srijan Deshpande, and Khabar Lahariya co-founder Disha Mullick. In fiction, she has edited distinguished works like Jasmine Days by Benyamin, winner of the 2018 JCB Prize for Literature, and Estuary by Perumal Murugan.
She holds a B.A. in Economics from Madras University, a postgraduate diploma from the Asian College of Journalism (ACJ), and a postgraduate degree from The New School for Social Research focused on writing and publishing.