Neela Padmanabhan was born in Kanyakumari district. He has written 20 novels, 10 short story collections, 4 volumes of poetry and 7 essay collections in Tamil. In Malayalam, he has published a novel, 4 short story collections and a single essay collection. Besides Tamil and Malayalam, he also has a few English works to his credit. During 198589 he was the Tamil editor at Sahitya Akademi.In 2007, he was awarded with the Sahitya Akademi Award for Tamil for his novel Ilai uthir kaalam (Autumn). He had earlier won the Sahitya
Akademi Translation award in 2003 for his translation of Ayyappa Panikers works into Tamil. In 2010, his debut work, Talaimuraikal, was made into a Tamil film, titled Magizhchi (Happiness).
