Her novel-in-stories, "Bodies in Motion", received an honorable mention from the 2007 Asian American Literary Awards and was named a "USA Today" notable book. In 2006, Mohanraj received an Illinois Arts Council Fellowship in Prose. She was the co-founder and editor-in-chief for "Clean Sheets", an online magazine of erotica, from 1998 to 2000. In 2000 she helped found "Strange Horizons", where she was the editor-in-chief through 2003. In 2004 she founded the Speculative Literature Foundation, which she still directs, and is a founding member and Executive Director of Desilit, an organization designed to support South Asian and diaspora writers. Mohanraj founded and is Executive Director of the biennial Kriti Festival, a celebration of South Asian and diaspora literature and arts, founded in 2005. As of 2013, she is Editor-in-Chief of "Jaggery", "A DesiLit Arts and Literature Journal". Mohanraj was a host for season 12 of the Writing Excuses podcast.