Hansda Sowvendra Shekhar
Hansda Sowvendra Shekhar writes in English, translates from Santali, Hindi and Bengali to English,and occasionally translates from English to Hindi. He is the author of the novels, The Mysterious Ailment of Rupi Baskey (winner of a Sahitya Akademi Yuva Puraskar in English) and My Father’s Garden (shortlisted for the JCB Prize for Literature), and the collection of stories, The Adivasi Will Not Dance (shortlisted for The Hindu Prize).
Hansda translated Manoj Rupda’s Hindi novel, Kaale Adhyaay, into English as I Named My Sister Silence (shortlisted for the JCB Prize for Literature); while his translation of Nalini Bera’s Bengali novel, Subarnarenu Subarnarekha, is forthcoming. His writings have been published in The Indian Express, The Hindu, Frontline, OPEN, Mint Lounge, FiftyTwo and other places. He lives in Jharkhand, India.
Hansda is appearing at the Blue Mountains Writers’ Festival as part of the Maitri Fellowship program, funded by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.