Nitin Kushalappa is the author of A Hoysala Adventure, a children’s historical fiction published as part of the ‘Girls of India’ series in 2025 by Puffin Books. He also authored Dakshin: South Indian Myths and Fables Retold, a children’s book collection of 15 South Indian folktales, published in 2023, again by Puffin Books. Dakshin won the 2025 Bal Sahitya Puraskar (awarded by the Sahitya Akademi), and was shortlisted for the 2023 Atta Galatta-Bangalore Literature Festival Award.
His various articles have been published by the Deccan Herald and Star of Mysore, under the names Mookonda Kushalappa and Mookonda Nitin Kushalappa. Kushalappa wrote books on local history, a translation from Kannada on a Gandhian freedom fighter, a biography of a decorated army hero, and a novella. He has worked for the online Sandooka Kodava Virtual Museum and on an old temple script, called thirke.