As seasoned travel journalists and authors, Sona Charaipotra and Navdeep Singh Dhillon have been writing about their adventures for IshqInABackpack.com since 2006. But we’ve also written for major media across the globe, with our travel writing featured in publications including American Way (where Sona created the On Location celebrity travel column), Modern Bride, RAVE, East West, Matador.com, Destination Weddings and Honeymoons, and Parents.com.
Sona Charaipotra
Sona Charaipotra is a journalist with more than 15 years experience on staff at major media. She’s held editorial roles at People, TeenPeople (RIP), ABCNews.com, MSN TV, Barnes & Noble, TheBump.com, WhatToExpect.com, and many other publications. She currently serves as senior editor of News and Brand Building at Parents.com. As a freelance contributor focused on family, lifestyle, and entertainment, she’s written for the New York Times, Vulture.com, Cosmopolitan, TeenVogue.com, TheDailyBeast.com, American Way, where she created the On Location column, featuring celebrity travel moments with actors like Dana Delaney and Nina Dobrev.
Sona is also a YA author with six books (and counting) out in the world, including Tiny Pretty Things (now a Netflix original series), Symptoms of a Heartbreak, and most recently How Maya Got Fierce and the YA fantasy anthologies Magic Has No Borders and Home Has No Borders.
Navdeep Singh Dhillon
Navdeep Singh Dhillon is a travel journalist and the author of Sunny G’s Series of Rash Decisions, an adjunct professor of creative writing and English literature at Borough of Manhattan Community College (CUNY) in New York City, and co-founder of IshqInABackpack.com, a narrative travel blog. He holds an MFA in creative writing from California State University, Fresno, a post-grad degree from the Writers’ Institute at CUNY, and is a proud two-time Voices of Our Nation fiction workshop alum. Born in England, raised in Tanzania, Nigeria, Dubai, and Fresno, California, Navdeep is a Punjabi boy at heart. He was a former linguist in the U.S. Navy, ESL teacher in China, and door-to-door knife salesman. He lives the bi-coastal life, with most of the year spent in New York City with his wife, Sona, and their two children, and summers in central California.
When he isn’t writing or reading, he is obsessed with Bhangra, Bollywood, baking, Brazilian jiujitsu, and cosplaying across the fandoms with his two nerdy kiddos. He has contributed to publications including Matador, The Quiet Revolution, Parents.com, RAVE, Mom.com, and other major media.
