Geetanjali Shree

Geetanjali Shree गीतांजलि श्री (she was known as Geentanjali Pandey, and she took her mother's first name Shree as her last name [1]) (born 1957) is a Hindi novelist and short-story writer based in New Delhi, India. She is the author of several short stories and five novels. Her 2000 novel Mai was shortlisted for the Crossword Book Award in 2001.[2] Her novel Ret Samadhi (2018), translated into English as Tomb of Sand by Daisy Rockwell, was shortlisted for the International Booker Prize 2022.[3] She has also written a critical work on Premchand.

Geetanjali Shree
Geetanjali Shree (February 2010)
Born1957 (age 64–65)
GenreNovels, short stories

Personal life

Geetanjali was brought up in various towns of Uttar Pradesh, as her father was a civil servant. She claims that it is this upbringing in Uttar Pradesh, along with the lack of children's books in English, that gave her a rich connection to Hindi.[1]

Works

Her first story, "Bel Patra" (1987), was published in the literary magazine Hans and was followed by a collection of short stories Anugoonj (1991).[1][4][5]

The English translation of her novel Mai catapulted her to fame. The novel is about three generations of women and the men around them, in a North Indian middle-class family. Mai has been translated into several languages, including Serbian and Korean. It has also been translated into English by Nita Kumar, who was awarded the Sahitya Akademi Translation Prize, and into Urdu by Bashir Unwan with preface by Intizar Hussain.[1] Other translations of the novel include French by Annie Montaut, and German by Reinhold Schein.

Shree's second novel Hamara Shahar Us Baras is set loosely after the incidents of Babri Masjid demolition.[1]

Her fourth novel, Khālī jagah (2006), has been translated into English (by Nivedita Menon as The Empty Space), French (by Nicola Pozza as Une place vide), and German (by Georg Lechner and Nivedita Menon as Im leeren Raum).

Her fifth and latest novel, Ret Samadhi (2018), leaves readers wonderstruck with its sweeping imagination and the sheer power of language, unprecedented and uninhibited.[6] It has been translated into English by Daisy Rockwell as Tomb of Sand, and into French by Annie Montaut as Ret Samadhi. Au-delà de la frontière. In April 2022, Tomb of Sand was shortlisted for the International Booker Prize.[7]

Academic publications
  • Between Two Worlds: An Intellectual Biography of Premchand[8]
  • "Premchand and Industrialism: A Study in Attitudinal Ambivalence", The Indian Economic and Social History Review, XIX(2), 1982 [9]
  • "Premchand and the Peasantry: Constrained Radicalism", Economic and Political Weekly, XVIII(26), 25 June 1983.[10]
  • "The North Indian Intelligentsia and the Hindu-Muslim Question"[11]

Awards and honours

Geetanjali Shree is the recipient of the Indu Sharma Katha Samman award[5] and has been a fellow of the Ministry of Culture, India, and Japan Foundation. She also participates in theatre and works with Vivadi, a theatre group comprising writers, artists, dancers, and painters.[1] In 2022, Tomb of Sand became the first Hindi-language novel shortlisted for the International Booker Prize.[12][13]

References
  1. 'I'm Waiting To Write The Book Which Will Slip Out Of My Grasp' Interview with Geetanjali Shree in Outlook India
  2. Bent Over Backwards excerpts from Mai - Outlook India.
  3. "Tomb of Sand | The Booker Prizes". thebookerprizes.com. Retrieved 7 April 2022.
  4. Mai: A Novel, Kali for Women, 2000. Via Google Books.
  5. The past is ever present, realized by us in bits: An interview with Geetanjali Shree Deep Blue Ink
  6. Geetanjali, Shree. "Painting The Ordinary In Myriad Extraordinary Hues". The Book Review India.
  7. Knight, Lucy (7 April 2022). "International Booker prize shortlist delivers 'awe and exhilaration'". The Guardian.
  8. Between Two Worlds Google Books
  9. The Indian Economic and Social History Review, XIX(2), 1982, Sage Publications.
  10. ICSSR journal of abstracts and reviews Google Books
  11. "The North Indian Intelligentsia and the Hindu-Muslim Question", Bibliography of Asian studies.
  12. Marshall, Alex (7 April 2022). "Women Dominate Shortlist for International Booker Prize". The New York Times. Retrieved 8 April 2022.
  13. "Geetanjali Shree's 'Tomb of Sand' first Hindi novel on International Booker shortlist". The Indian Express. 7 April 2022. Retrieved 8 April 2022.
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