September 20, 2010 /
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August 24, 2010 / Labels: Masthead, Team Yaatra
MASTHEAD
Arindam Barkataki: A young writer who has made his mark in criticism and non-fiction in Assamese. Arimdom Borkataki is a teacher of English and editor of literary magazine Nivedan.
Aruni Kashyap is the winner of Charles Wallace India Trust scholarship for Creative Writing 2009 and the Assistant Editor of Yaatra: The Journal of Assamese Literature and Culture. His poems, short stories and essays are published by Pratilipi, Tehelka, Guardian (UK), openDemocracy.net, The Houston Literary Review and Assamese journals such as Satsori and Sadin.
Dr Mitali Goswami is a translator and critic and her works have appeared in The Sentinel,Indian Literature (Sahitya Akademi), Srijan, etc. She participated in The World Shakespeare Conference and the Katha Asia International Utsav. She teaches English Literature at the Department of English, Handique Girl’s College, Guwahati.
Dhruba Jyoti Borah -DJB to his friends is one of the most powerful voices in contemporary Assamese literature. Equally at ease with fiction and non-fiction, DJB has published more than ten major novels. His Kalantarar Gadya (Prose of Tempest), Tejor Andhar(Darkness of Blood) and Arth (Meaning), a trilogy based on enquiries into the current insurgency laden turmoil and tragedy of Assam have been acknowledged as major literary creations. Dr. Borah's major non-fiction work includes a monograph on the medieval peasant struggle (Moamoria Uprising) of Assam—a seminal work in Medieval Assamese history; a study of the development of the Assamese language into a modern national language and a book on the national question and self-determination. Besides these, he has written extensively on history and social issues and literature (three volumes). His greatly appreciated books on the history of the Second World War, the French Revolution and a two volume on the Russian Revolution are the first books on the subjects in Assamese. His fiction is translated into Hindi, English, Bengali, Malayalam and Bodo. Katha Ratnakar (2007) is his novel on the dalit situation in Assam based on the lives of kaivartyas and Aranyak (Forest Lore) is his novel on the painful process of human habitattion in the forests.
Harekrishna Deka is the winner of Katha Award for his short story in 1996 and Sahitya Akademi Award in 1987 for his contribution to Assamese poetry.
Indira Goswami, popularly known as Mamoni Raisom Goswami is one of the most celebrated writers in India. Born in 1942 she has published several creative and sholarly works in Assamese and English. The Moth Eaten Howdah of a Tusker, regarded as a classic in Assamese literature and excerpted in Mastepieces of Indian Literature (Sahitya Akademi) is a novel about the plight of Brahmin widows in Sattras of Assam; The Blue Necked Braja is perhaps the first novel written on the plight of Hindu widows popularly known as Radheswamis in Vrindavan; Pages Stained with Blood is a first person account of the Sikh-riots of 1984 in Delhi; The Man from Chinnamasta, is her most controversial and subversive novel which is a protest against the practice of animal sacrifice in the ancient Kamakhya Temple, in Guwahati, Assam; Pain and Flesh is her only published poetry collection in English. The Bronze Sword of Thengphakgri Tehsildar (Zubaan) is her forthcoming novel.
She has been honored with the Sahitya Akademi Award in 1983 for the novel The Rusted Sword, Assam Sahitya Sabha Award 1988, Bharat Nirman Award 1989, Sauhardya Award from Uttar Pradesh Hindi Sansthan of Government of India 1992, Katha National Award for Literature 1993, Kamal Kumari Foundation National Award 1996 and in the year 2000 she won the country’s highest literay prize the Jnanpith Award. She has honorary D Litt degress from several universities like Indira Gandhi National Open University, Rabindra Bharati University and Rajiv Gandhi University Arunachal Pradesh. For her unparalled scholarly work in the field of Ramayani Studies she was awarded the International Tulsi Award from Florida University. Her ongoing pioneering efforts to bring peace in Assam through her crucial role in the peace talks between banned militant outfit ULFA and the Indian Government has brought a ray of hope to the twenty-eight years violence ridden atmosphere of the state. Words from the Mist directed by Jahnu Barua is one of the many biographical films made on her eventful life.
Indrani Raimedhi is an English-language writer based in Guwahati. She has written The Second Coming and Other Stories (Spectrum Pub . 1996), The Concubine’s Room and Other Stories (Spectrum Pub. 1998), The Night Journey and Other Stories (BR Publishers, 2000),Fragrance of a Faraway Land (Assamese folktales), The Stranger’s Touch (2008), etc. She holds the position of sub-editor of the features section of The Assam Tribune. She is the winner of Kunjabala Award for Inevestigative Journalism on Women’s Issues 2003 and has been featured as one of the two-hundred women journalists interviewed across the country for Ammu Joseph’s book Making News: Women in Indian Journalism. The Press Trust of India has recognised her as the most prolific writer of Indo-Anglian fiction emerging from North Eastern India. Her poems have appeared in the American Poetry Anthology and the annual journal of North East Writers’ Foundation. She writes the column “Third Eye” in The Assam Tribune.
Moushumi Kandali Writer and Art Critic, Moushumi Kandali has been writing since 1993. She was awarded the Yuva Purashkar of Bharatiya Bhasa Parishad in the year 2005 and Munin Borkatoky Memorial Prize- 2000 for her collection of Short Stories Lambada Nachor Seshot. In March 2006, she toured Germany as part of a delegation of Indian writers to the Frankfurt World Book Fair Curtain raiser. Her stories have been translated into English, German and several Indian languages such as Hindi, Bengali, Nepali, Oriya etc. She has also done several translations; Salvador Dali’s Diary of a Genius into Assamese and poetry of the Missing tribe of Assam to English are notable amongst them.
She was also entrusted with writing the entries on modern art for the encyclopedia published by Assam Sahitya Sabha. She collaborated in translation of the oral literature of the Missing tribe under the aegis of Sahitya Academy. At present she is registered as a research fellow in the faculty of Fine Arts, MS University of Baroda. She worked as the curator of artworks from North East on behalh of the Rastriya Lalit Kala Academy in 2008.
Pankaj Thakur is an editor, journalist, translator and short story writer. He served as the coordinating editor of The Sentinel for two years and the editor of Ajir Asom magazine for several years. He is the writer of the Assamese short story collection Apuni Kiba Kobo Neki (1982) which has been translated into Hindi by Dinkar Sharma. He also edited books such asIndia’s North East: A Multifaceted View (1982), Profile of a Development Strategy for India’s North East (1988) and Satabdir Puhorot Asamiya Chuti Golpo (1997), etc. The film version of one of his short stories Ahir Bhairav has been well received internationally. He was the nominating editor of Katha Prize Stories from Assamese for five times and has been felicitated by the President of India in a program organised by Katha in 1992. He currently holds the position of Executive Director of Centre for Translation and Cultural Studies (CTCS), Guwahati.Jibon Yuktir Bahirot, first part of his autobiography in Assamese and translations of August Strindberg, Wole Soyinka and Jean Paul Sartre’s plays into Assamese are some of his forthcoming works.
Srutimala Duara is a billiingual writer with research interests in the area of Victorian literature, especially Charles Dickens. The Sunset and Other Stories (Spectrum, 1998), Waiting for the Last Breath (Spectrum, 1999), The Jhoolan Evening (Spectrum, 2000) are her short story collections in English. Travelling with Dreams (Spectrum, 2001), Maya’s Party (BR Publishing Corp, 2003) and Ashes in the Seas (BR Pub Corp, 2003) are her English novels. Maan Gahanat (1997) is her short story collection in Assamese. Her books for children areSadhukathar Desh (1995), Sadhukathar Bagicha (1996), Sadhukathar Tupula (1996) which was selected by National Book Trust as One of the Best Indian Children’s Literature published between1990-98. “Her writings are marked with a strong sense of regional fervour—of Assam and Assamese,” A V Swaminathan observes in The Hindu.
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