Swapna Haddow loves to write about boisterous animals that cause mayhem and is working hard to make sure mean cats, big-hearted little rabbits and worried dinosaurs find their place on the bookshelves. Friendship and humour are always at the heart of what she loves to write.

Swapna is now the multi award-winning children’s author of the Dave Pigeon series, published by Faber & Faber. The Dave Pigeon series has received rave reviews since first publishing in 2016 and went on to win the North Somerset Teachers’ Book Award Read Aloud category 2016, the Surrey Libraries’ Children’s Book Award 2017, the Fantastic Book Awards 2018 and was selected as part of the WHSmith Tom Fletcher Book Club 2.

Dave Pigeon was also shortlisted for the Sainsbury’s Children’s Book Awards 2016, the Leicester Libraries Our Best Book Award 2017 and the Sheffield Children’s Book Award 2017.

Bad Panda, the first book in the Swapna Haddow's Bad Panda series, was longlisted for the Blue Peter Book Awards 2022 and shortlisted for the Alligator’s Mouth Award 2022. And the second book in the series, Bad Panda: The Cake Escape was shortlisted for the Laugh Out Loud Book Awards 2024.

Swapna's her first picture book My Dad is a Grizzly Bear, illustrated by Dapo Adeola, won the Woke Babies Picturebook of the Year Award 2022.

Swapna also writes children's books for Oxford University Press, under the pseudonym ‘Swapna Reddy’.

To date, she has sold over half a million books around the world and has been translated into over thirty languages.

In 2022, Swapna was the University of Otago College of Education Creative New Zealand Children’s Writer in Residence. 

Swapna lives in Dunedin with her husband and son, and their dog, Archie. When she’s not writing she is usually reading, dreaming about living on a boat or eating Jaffa Cakes.