Manu Joseph

Manu Joseph (born 22 July 1974) is an Indian journalist and writer. He is the former editor of Open magazine. His first debut novel Serious Men won The Hindu Literary Prize and the PEN Open Book Award and was later adapted as a film of the same name. His second novel, The Illicit Happiness of Other People (2012) was shortlisted for The Hindu Literary Prize in 2013.

Life and career Manu was born in Kottayam, Kerala, and grew up in Chennai. His father, Joseph Madappally, is a film-maker who directed the Malayalam film Thoranam (1987). He is a graduate of Loyola College, Chennai, and dropped out of Madras Christian College to become a staff writer at Society magazine. He currently lives in Delhi.

His second novel, The Illicit Happiness of Other People, was published in September 2012. He also wrote the screenplay for the film Love Khichdi (2009).

In January 2014, Manu resigned as editor of Open magazine.

Manu is the creator and writer of Decoupled, an Indian English-language comedy web series, which was released on Netflix on 17 December 2021.

Awards and honours 2010: The Hindu Literary Prize won for Serious Men 2010: Man Asian Literary Prize shortlisted for Serious Men 2010: Huffington Post′s 10 best books of the year for Serious Men 2011: Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize shortlisted for Serious Men 2011: PEN Open Book Award won for Serious Men 2013: The Hindu Literary Prize shortlisted for The Illicit Happiness of Other People

Works