Khyrunnisa A.

Khyrunnisa A. is an Indian author of children's fiction, speaker, academic and columnist who also writes for adults. Humour is her forte. She created the comic book character 'Butterfingers'. The character first appeared in the Indian children's magazine Tinkle. Thirteen-year-old Amar Kishen, aka Butterfingers, now features in the eponymous Butterfingers series of novels and short story collections published by Puffin, the children's imprint of Penguin Random House India.

She has written three books for adults: Tongue in Cheek: The Funny Side of Life (2019), Happy Go Funny: The Lighter Moments of Life (2026) – both dealing with the hilarious misadventures of an urban woman – and Chuckle Merry Spin: Us in the U.S (2022), a humorous travelogue based on her trip to the U.S. in 2018. All three books have been published by Westland .

Her book of animal stories for young readers titled The Lizard of Oz and Other Stories, published by Scholastic, appeared in 2019. The Couch Potato Who Said Ouch and Other Funny Stories, a fun collection of twenty stories, was published by Red Panda, (Westland Books) in January 2024. Around the same time, Ka Kha Ga, a picture book, was published by DC Books, illustrated by Monami Roy. Her latest book, Agassi and the Great Cycle Race, was published by Puffin (Penguin Random House) in February 2025.

Khyrunnisa's first three children's novels Howzzat Butterfingers! (2010), Goal, Butterfingers! (2012) and Clean Bowled, Butterfingers! (2015), were followed by three collections of short stories, The Misadventures of Butterfingers (2016), Run, It's Butterfingers Again! (2017) and Of Course It’s Butterfingers! (2018). Smash It, Butterfingers! a rollicking badminton-based novel and the seventh in the Butterfingers series, came out in July 2021. All the Butterfingers books were launched by Shashi Tharoor, Member of Parliament.

In 2022, the Malayalam translation of her first novel, Howzzat Butterfingers!, was published by Mathrubhumi Books under the title, Itha Butterfingers! The book was translated by Kaikasi V.S. In 2024, the Malayalam translation of Tongue in Cheek: the Funny Side of Life was published by Mathrubhumi Books under the title Kulchayum Phulkayum... Pinne Nyanum . It was translated by K.T. Rajagopalan.

In May 2023, The World of Butterfingers: Adventure in Texas and Other Stories, a hilarious hundred page comic featuring Butterfingers and illustrated by Abhijeet Kini, was published by Puffin ( Penguin Random House). Another rib-tickling three-in-one hundred page comic titled The World of Butterfingers: The Halloween Adventure and Other Stories also illustrated by Abhijeet Kini and published by Puffin (PRH) came out in June 2025.

A book of her prize-winning stories, Lost in Ooty and Other Adventure Stories, was brought out by Unisun Publications in 2010. Some of her stories for children and for adults have appeared in anthologies published by Puffin, Children's Book Trust, Talking Cub, Red Panda and Unisun Publications. She writes stories regularly for the children's magazine, Dimdima, a Bhavan's publication.

Butterfingers, Khyrunnisa's entry for the Annual All India Tinkle Short story competition for adult writers of children's fiction in 1996, won her the second prize. She went on to win the first prize at the competition for the next seven consecutive years – from 1997 to 2003. In 2007, she won the prestigious Unisun Children's Fiction Award. She also has five Children's Book Trust prizes to her credit.

Smash it, Butterfingers! was short-listed for Sahitya Akademi's Bal Sahitya Puraskar 2024 (English). It was long-listed for the JK Paper and Times of India Auther Awards 2022 in the Children's Literature category and also featured in Times of India's top ten books for children 2021. The Couch Potato Who Said Ouch and Other Funny Stories was longlisted for the Kalinga Literary Festival 2024 Book Awards (Children; English) and shortlisted for the Jury round of the 2025 Delhi Literature Festival 2025 award in the Children's category.

Personal life Khyrunnisa's parents, A.R. Bijli and Ayesha Bijli, settled down in Trivandrum as her father, a post master, believed that Trivandrum was the best place to provide his eight children, seven of whom were girls, with good education.

She continues to reside in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, with her husband P. Vijaya Kumar, a former professor of English and the grandson of Mahakavi Kumaran Asan, who was one of the triumvirate poets of Kerala, a philosopher, a social reformer and a disciple of Sree Narayana Guru. They have one son, Amar Vijaykumar, an engineer, who is married to Arpitha Sridhara. The two are currently working in the USA. Their son Neil was born in Dallas on 20 June 2021.

Education Khyrunnisa did her schooling in Holy Angel's Convent Trivandrum, and her undergraduate studies in All Saints College and postgraduate as well as M Phil. in University College, Trivandrum. She was awarded the 3rd rank for BA English Literature in Kerala University.

Career Khyrunnisa worked as associate professor of English at All Saints' College, Thiruvananthapuram. She was appointed Management Trainee in Punjab National Bank and worked there for two years before resigning to take up a teaching job at All Saints' College.

She was a columnist for The New Indian Express, writing on classics and well known works of fiction and for The Hindu where she had a popular fortnightly humour column, Inside View in The Hindu MetroPlus. She has freelanced for publications like Outlook Traveller, Manorama Year Book and Kerala Calling, among others.

Butterfingers, named after Khyrunnisa's son, Amar, first appeared in 2006 in Tinkle, a fortnightly Indian children's magazine, as a regular comic-strip character. The illustrations were by Abhijeet Kini, the Mumbai-based illustrator and graphic artist.

The Butterfingers series, published by Puffin, began with the novel, Howzzat Butterfingers! in 2010. in 2017 and Of Course It's Butterfingers! in 2018.

Howzzat Butterfingers! (2010) was longlisted for the Vodafone Crossword Book Award 2011 in the Children's Books category .

Of Course It’s Butterfingers! (2018) featured as India's most popular children's book in Bookstr.com’s11 Most Popular Children's Books from Around the World on International Children's Book Day 2019 .

In 2022, Itha Butterfingers!, the Malayalam translation of Howzzat Butterfingers!, was published by Mathrubhumi Books. The book was translated by Kaikasi V.S.

In 2023, Puffin (Penguin Random House) came out with a hundred-page comic book, titled The World of Butterfingers: Adventure in Texas and Other Stories and illustrated by Abhijeet Kini. It includes three stories featuring Butterfingers. It was followed by another 3-in-1 one hundred page comic book in 2025 titled The World of Butterfingers: The Halloween Adventure and Other Stories, also illustrated by Abhijeet Kini.

The books have received praise from different quarters. Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi, former Indian cricket captain, wrote of Howzzat Butterfingers!: 'What great fun! It brings back memories of my prep school days.' The cricketer V. V. S. Laxman described Clean Bowled Butterfingers as an 'exuberant mix of school, cricket and fun.' Shashi Tharoor, writer, MP and diplomat, complimented Khyrunnisa 'not just for creating Butterfingers, but for enriching Indian writing with world-class children's literature.' He also said that 'Khyrunnisa's Butterfingers is a gift to the children of our nation!'