Janice Pariat
BornJorhat, Assam
OccupationWriter, poet
LanguageEnglish
Notable worksBoats on Land, Seahorse, The Nine Chambered Heart

Janice Pariat is an Indian poet and writer. She was born in Assam and grew up in Shillong, Meghalaya.[1][2]

Boats on Land (Random House India, 2012),[3] her debut collection of short stories, won the 2013 Sahitya Akademi Young Writer Award for the English language[4] and the 2013 Crossword Book Award for fiction.[5] Pariat is the first writer from Meghalaya to receive an award from the Sahitya Akademi for a work in English.[2]

Early life and career

Pariat was born in Jorhat, Assam, and grew up between Shillong and several tea estates in Assam.[1][2] She was educated at Loreto Convent, Shillong and The Assam Valley School.[1][6] Thereafter she obtained a BA in English Literature from St. Stephen's College, Delhi and an MA in History of Art and/or Archaeology from SOAS, University of London.[1]

She is the editor of online literary journal Pyrta, which she founded in 2010.[7] Her writing has featured in a number of Indian and international magazines,[8] such as Time Out Delhi,[1] The Caravan[9] and Internazionale.[10] Pariat teaches Creative Writing and History of Art at Ashoka University.

Awards and honours

In 2013, Pariat's debut collection of short stories Boats on Land won the Sahitya Akademi Young Writer Award for the English language,[4] and a Crossword Book Award (fiction).[11] The same work was also shortlisted for the 2013 Shakti Bhatt First Book Prize,[12] and longlisted for the 2013 uday lakhanpal International Short Story Award[13][14] and the 2013 Tata Literature Live! First Book Award.[15] Seahorse was shortlisted for The Hindu Literary Prize (2015).[16]

Style

In Boats on Land, Pariat's stories – set between Shillong, Cherrapunji and Assam – undertake fictional re-imaginings of the transformations that swept through Northeast India during a period of three centuries, starting in the 1850s.[17] Weaving together local folklore and tradition with unfolding social and political events, Pariat's style has been likened to magical realism[18] as well as to Haruki Murakami's writing.[19] Jeet Thayil commented on her stories to be 'revelatory and original'.[18]

Bibliography

Fiction

  • Everything the Light Touches, HarperCollins, 2022. ISBN 0063210045
  • The Nine-Chambered Heart, HarperCollins India, New Delhi, 2017. ISBN 978-93-5277-379-4
  • Seahorse: A novel, Random House India, New Delhi, 2014. ISBN 978-8-184-00668-1
  • Boats on Land: A collection of short stories, Random House India, New Delhi, 2012. ISBN 978-8-184-00074-0

Poetry

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Rao Chaini, Sanjitha (15 October 2012). "A Tale Can Be Told In Many Ways" Archived 7 April 2014 at the Wayback Machine, Business World. Retrieved 30 August 2013.
  2. 1 2 3 Staff writer (31 August 2013). "Honoured, says State's 1st Sahitya awardee in English". Eastern Chronicle. Retrieved 31 August 2013.
  3. ↑ Narajan, Manjula (6 October 2012). "Review: Boats on Land" Archived 4 August 2013 at the Wayback Machine. Hindustan Times. Retrieved 30 August 2013.
  4. 1 2 Sahitya Akademi Press Release Archived 3 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine (23 August 2013). Retrieved 30 August 2013.
  5. ↑ "Crossword Book Award Winners 2013" Archived 19 December 2013 at the Wayback Machine (6 December 2013). Retrieved 29 December 2013.
  6. ↑ Singh Vasudev, Ruchi (19 March 2013). "Of Vignettes and Voices" Archived 21 August 2014 at the Wayback Machine. AVE Weekly Newsletter of The Assam Valley School. Retrieved 30 August 2013.
  7. ↑ Kaur, Karanjeet (26 October 2012). "Around Town" Archived 31 May 2013 at the Wayback Machine. TimeOut Delhi. Retrieved 30 August 2013.
  8. ↑ Shutapa, Paul (2 December 2012). "Fantastical stories from a faraway land". The New Indian Express. Retrieved 30 August 2013.
  9. ↑ Pariat, Janice (1 September 2012). "Boats on Land". The Caravan. Retrieved 30 August 2013.
  10. ↑ Confortin, Emanuele (30 December 2012). "In edicola: Internazionale dedica un numero alla narrativa indiana". indika. Retrieved 30 August 2013.
  11. ↑ "'Popular choice' ruled at book awards". Times of India. 7 December 2013. Retrieved 7 December 2013.
  12. ↑ Shakti Bhatt First Book Prize 2013: short list (1 September 2013). Retrieved 1 September 2013.
  13. ↑ Staff writer (17 April 2013). "State storyteller in Frank O’Connor Award longlist" Archived 12 December 2013 at the Wayback Machine. The Shillong Times. Retrieved 30 August 2013
  14. ↑ 2013 Longlist, The Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award Archived 18 June 2016 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 31 August 2013
  15. ↑ Staff writer (9 November 2013). "Longlist for the Tata Literature Live! First Book Award announced". IBN Live. Retrieved 19 November 2013
  16. ↑ "The Hindu Prize 2015 Shortlist". The Hindu. 31 October 2015. Retrieved 2 December 2015.
  17. ↑ Staff writer (25 October 2012). "Janice talks about how the tales of Khasi and Jaitia tribes impacted her storytelling" "Boats on Land: Weaving Northeast's Real and Surreal" Archived 30 August 2013 at archive.today. Outlook India. Retrieved on 30 August 2013.
  18. 1 2 Staff writer (2012). Book Review: Boats on Land Archived 9 August 2013 at the Wayback Machine. The Book Outline. Retrieved 30 August 2013.
  19. ↑ Staff writer (November 2012). "Boats on Land". First City. Retrieved 30 August 2013.
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