Hope is Anushree “Anu” Nande’s superpower. Arsenal Football Club, perhaps irrationally, dominates many of her waking (and sleeping) hours; the rest she spends reading, writing, editing, hoarding books, working through creative demons with sport and art, and asking herself what Coach Taylor would do.

She is a Mumbai-born writer who has studied and worked in the United Kingdom, Spain and the United States. Currently, Anushree is a senior team member at Football Paradise, an award-winning website for longform articles about football, where she has worked for a decade; the Executive Editor, Blogs at Ladderworks Publishing; a team member with Unusual Efforts, where all content is by marginalised creators (women, trans or cis, and non-binary people) in an effort to redefine the commonly held image of the “football expert”; and a freelance writer, editor, and publishing professional in various areas of publishing and football.

Her microfiction collection, 55 Words, was published by Underground Voices in 2015 and her other work (fiction, essays, football pieces, poetry) can be found in a range of online and print platforms. Summer Melody (published November 2021, Alien Buddha Press) is her debut novelette. Pomegranate Summer, a travel micro-collection was published in November 2022. Anushree’s writing, in whatever form, tends to explore how we navigate the emotional landscape of our lives, and is always hopeful.