NINE INDIAN WOMEN AUTHORS TO LOOK OUT FOR
1. Mridula Behari
Mridula Behari is an award-winning author, playwright and activist. She has primarily written in Hindi and regional languages. However, recently Penguin Random House published her first English novel, Padmini. Her works are mostly women-centric with strong female protagonists at the helm of the story.
2. Harnidh Kaur
Harnidh Kaur is one of the brightest young poets of today’s age. She mixes social and political commentary with a tinge of her personal experiences. She has published two collections of her poetry, The Inability of Words and The Ease of Forgetting. The Inability of Words emerged as the Amazon Poetry Bestseller on the very first day of its launch. Her second book The Ease of Forgetting came out last year and was received with a great amount of appreciation.
3. Sujata Massey
Sujata Massey is a critically acclaimed Indo-American author. She has published thirteen novels, two novellas and numerous short stories. On January 9, 2018, she is releasing another novel The Widows of Malabar Hill. The novel is set in 1920s Bombay and is partly inspired by the woman who made history as India’s first female attorney. The Widows of Malabar Hill is a richly wrought story and introduces a sharp and promising new sleuth. Her novels have won the Agatha and Macavity awards and been finalists for the Edgar, Anthony and Mary Higgins Clark prizes.
4. Devapriya Roy
Devapriya Roy is a Delhi based author. She is the author of two popular novels – The Vague Woman’s Handbook (2011) and The Weight Loss Club (2013). She has also written a quirky travelogue, The Heat and Dust Project (along with husband Saurav Jha) that chronicles the story of travelling through India on local buses
5. Temsula Ao
Temsula Ao is an Indian English poet, scholar, and novelist. She is widely recognized as one of the major literary figures to emerge from North East India. She has five books of poetry to her credit and her works represent the agonies and aspirations of her community, the Nagas. Recently, she published a new novel, Aosenla’s Story which is set in Nagaland and follows the life of Aosenla, a woman who is coming to terms with herself. Her collection of short stories Laburnum for My Head has earned her Sahitya Akademi Award in 2013. She is also the recipient of the prestigious Padma Shri.
6. Anuja Chauhan
Anuja Chauhan is a renowned Indian author and advertiser. She has worked in advertising for over seventeen years and is credited with many popular campaigns including PepsiCo’s Yeh Dil Maange More, Mera Number Kab Aayega, Oye Bubbly and Darr Ke Aage Jeet Hai. She is the author of four bestselling novels (The Zoya Factor, Battle for Bittora, Those Pricey Thakur Girls, The House That BJ Built).
7. Barkha Dutt
Barkha Dutt is a renowned Indian television journalist and political writer. She was part of NDTV’s team for 21 years. In 2015, she published This Unquiet Land: Stories from India’s Fault Lines. Based on the author’s real-life experiences, from a time when she was a reporter on the field, to behind the scene deals in the highest power circle, the book delves deeper into the complexities of the Indian State. She has won many national and international awards, including the Padma Shri.
8. Sujatha Gidla
Sujatha Gidla is an Andhra-based Physics graduate and works as a subway conductor in New York. Her book Ants Among the Elephants is the story of her experience as a non-dominant caste person in Andhra Pradesh and her journey to becoming a subway conductor in New York. Her writing has been covered by International media giants like BBC and New York Times. The memoir has been added to The Oxford India anthology of telugu Dalit writing.
9. Meena Kandasamy
Meena Kandasamy is an Indian poet, fiction writer, translator and activist who is based in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. Her works majorly focus on feminism and caste. She has published two anthologies of poems, Touch and Ms Militancy and two novels. Her novel The Gypsy Goddess deals with the 1968 Kilvenmani massacre of Dalit farm labourers in Tanjore, Tamil Nadu and has been longlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize.
LITERARY CALENDAR
Non-fiction
Barracoon by Zora Neale Hurston (HarperCollins). A previously unpublished work, in which the author of Their Eyes Were Watching God recounts the true story of the last known survivor of the Atlantic slave trade.
How to Change Your Mind: Exploring the New Science of Psychedelics by Michael Pollan (Allen Lane). The author celebrated for “eat food, not too much, mostly plants” takes a voyage to the frontiers of human consciousness
Arnhem: The Last German Victory by Antony Beevor (Viking). The bestselling historian on the great airborne battle for the bridges in 1944.
Shapeshifters: On Medicine & Human Change by Gavin Francis (Profile). The GP and author of the bestselling Adventures in Human Being combines case studies with cultural observation as he examines how our minds and bodies undergo constant change.
Behold, America by Sarah Churchwell (Bloomsbury). A “partial history” of US rightwing isolationism and the America First movement.
Fiction
Last Stories by William Trevor (Viking). One of the publishing events of the year: a posthumous collection of 10 final stories from the Irish master of the short form.
Whistle in the Dark by Emma Healey (Viking). The followup to Elizabeth Is Missing is the story of a 15-year-old-girl who goes missing, and comes back unharmed – but changed.
Kudos by Rachel Cusk (Faber). A female writer travels round a turbulent Europe in the final volume of Cusk’s innovative trilogy about how we construct our own identities.
The Neighbourhood by Mario Vargas Llosa (Faber). The latest from the Peruvian Nobel laureate features two wealthy couples in 1990s Lima embroiled in political corruption and erotic intrigues.
A Shout in the Ruins by Kevin Powers (Sceptre). Six years after winning the Guardian first book award with his Iraq novel The Yellow Birds, the former soldier explores the violence of the American civil war.