Journalism, translation, fiction, children's stories, poetry - Vasantha Surya likes to do different kinds of writing in English and in her mother tongue Tamil, which she says knows her better than she knows it. She reads some of her English poems, some Tamil poems, some English translations from Bundeli Hindi, and some translations into Tamil from German.

She's been writing investigative articles and reviews on topics of social change, development and culture. A graduate in history, she says journalism offers an opportunity to develop a kind of dispassion, allow you to observe the tangible, authentic and objective reality. Her translations from Bertolt Brecht have appeared in the Tamil magazine Shubamangala. A collection of poems in English, The Stalk of Time, came out in 1985 and was short-listed for the Commonwealth Prize. The Ballad of Budhni, her rendering of a modern folk poem from Bundeli Hindi, came out in 1992. Her translations include R Chudamani's novel Iravu Chudar under the title Yamini (Macmillan India, 1996). Contemporary Tamil Short Fiction, edited by Dilip Kumar and translated by her, was brought out by East West Press (2000).