Prasad Suri

About

Prasad Suri, whose birth name is Surada Prasad, is a young Telugu writer and artist from a fishing community in coastal Andhra Pradesh. Born into a family of fishermen with no tradition of reading or formal education, he became the first person in his family to attend school and later pursued his passion for art, history and literature. He earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts from JNAFAU, Hyderabad, and is pursuing higher studies in Archaeology at Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda. Along the way, he worked various jobs to support his education and continued developing his interests in painting, history, mythology and storytelling. His literary journey began at a young age. At 19, he wrote My Name is Chiranjeevi, a semi-autobiographical novel drawing from the culture and experiences of life around Visakhapatnam. His major work, Mairaavana, grew out of around three years of research into the history and lives of the Vada Balija fishing community along the Andhra coast. The novel combines folklore, history and contemporary social issues, exploring migration, resistance, oppression, gender discrimination and the struggles of a community whose stories have rarely been represented in mainstream Telugu fiction. In 2025, Mairaavana was selected for the Sahitya Akademi Yuva Puraskar for Telugu, bringing national recognition to Prasad Suri's work. He was recognised as the first and youngest recipient from the fishermen community to receive the award. His literary work reflects his belief that the experiences of marginalised communities should be documented by people who understand those lives from within. Alongside writing, he continues to pursue art, archaeology and storytelling, with later works including Bachelor of Fine Arts, which draws from his university experiences.