Uma Parameswaran's earlier works have earned her praise and awards. What was Always Hers won the Jubilee Award for the best collection of short stories published in 1999. Of the title story, that appeared earlier as The Sweet Smell of Mother's Milk-Wet Bodice, reviewers had this to say: "A deftly wrought novella possessing the quiet elegance born of outrage."(The Globe and Mail) "Uma Parameswaran has written with the insight and lyricism of the fine poet she is." June Callwood
"It is activist literature, woman-empowering fiction, and it has a political edge." (Herizons)
Of her novel, Mangoes on the Maple Tree, Andreas Schroeder has said, "A hymn to the joys and sorrows of family, in the best, most inclusive sense of the word."
