Guest Editor for ISSUE-XIV : Dr. Sukrita Paul Kumar
Born and brought up in Kenya, Sukrita Paul Kumar is a poet and a critic, teaching literature at Delhi University. Formerly a Fellow at the Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla, she is at present an Honorary Fellow of International Writing Programme, University of Iowa, USA, Fellow of Cambridge Seminars and Hong Kong Baptist University, Centre for Developing Countries, Delhi University as well as Faculty, Durrell Centre at Corfu, Greece. She has published six collections of poems, Rowing Together, Oscillations, Apurna, Folds of Silence, Without Margins and the latest, Poems Come Home published by HarperCollins is a bilingual book, the original English poems alongside their Hindustani translations by the eminent lyricist Gulzar. Her poems have been published In Their Own Voice, the Penguin collection of Indian women poets, and many journals in India and abroad.
Her major critical publications include her books, Narrating Partition, Conversations on Modernism, The New Story and Man, Woman and Androgyny. Involved in the study of literary translation, she was Director of Katha’s Project on “Translating Short Fiction”, for two years. Her volume, Ismat, Her Life, Her Times was published by Katha, while as Director of a UNESCO project on “The Culture of Peace”, she edited a volume of Urdu short stories from India and Pakistan, Mapping Memories. She has co-edited Speaking for Herself: An Anthology of Asian Women’s Writing (Penguin India), Women’s Studies in India: Contours of Change (IIAS, Shimla). The National Book Trust of India published her translations, Stories of Joginder Paul and Katha published her translation of his Partition novel, Sleepwalkers. She is the chief editor of the anthology prescribed by University of Delhi on “Cultural Diversity and Literary Traditions in India” (Macmillan India). Also, Pearson Longman published Interpreting Homes in South Asian Literature, co-edited by her. “Crossing Over”, a special issue on Partition, of Manoa, the journal from University of Hawaii (Summer 2007), was guest-edited by her. She is at present engaged with a major project on “Cultural Diversity in South Asia” as part of which she also convened an International Seminar on the subject. Her papers on “Cultural Diversity in South Asia” have been published in international journals. She has been the academic coordinator of three IGNOU films on “Partition through the eyes of the Writer”.
Sukrita was invited to the three-month-long International Writing Programme (2002), at Iowa, USA. In 2004, she was invited by the Hong Kong Baptist University for a residency. She has been a recipient of several grants and fellowships including a translation grant from International Center for Writing and Translation, University of California at Irvine (2004), Rockefeller grant for an academic visit to New York State University, the British Council Visitorship and Charles Wallace sponsorship for a seminar in Cambridge University. She is also an awardee of the Shastri Indo-Canadian Research Fellowship. She has lectured at Cambridge University, SOAS (London University) and several Canadian and American Universities on Indian literature. At the South Asia Institute at Heidelberg, Germany, she lectured on Partition Narratives. She has given readings of her poems on invitation from ICCR, Sahitya Akademi, Jyanpeeth, The Poetry Society of India and various universities and institutions abroad. She has been on the jury of several literary awards including Sahitya Akademi, Indian Council of Cultural Relations, Crossword, Katha and others. A nominated member of the Executive at India International Centre, she has been involved in the conceptualization of many cultural and intellectual activities over many years.
Committed to serving social causes, she set up a shelter for the homeless a few years ago. The poems that came out of her experiences with the homeless were presented at the Nehru Centre at London.
Sukrita has held a solo exhibition of her paintings at AIFACS in New Delhi.
Her major critical publications include her books, Narrating Partition, Conversations on Modernism, The New Story and Man, Woman and Androgyny. Involved in the study of literary translation, she was Director of Katha’s Project on “Translating Short Fiction”, for two years. Her volume, Ismat, Her Life, Her Times was published by Katha, while as Director of a UNESCO project on “The Culture of Peace”, she edited a volume of Urdu short stories from India and Pakistan, Mapping Memories. She has co-edited Speaking for Herself: An Anthology of Asian Women’s Writing (Penguin India), Women’s Studies in India: Contours of Change (IIAS, Shimla). The National Book Trust of India published her translations, Stories of Joginder Paul and Katha published her translation of his Partition novel, Sleepwalkers. She is the chief editor of the anthology prescribed by University of Delhi on “Cultural Diversity and Literary Traditions in India” (Macmillan India). Also, Pearson Longman published Interpreting Homes in South Asian Literature, co-edited by her. “Crossing Over”, a special issue on Partition, of Manoa, the journal from University of Hawaii (Summer 2007), was guest-edited by her. She is at present engaged with a major project on “Cultural Diversity in South Asia” as part of which she also convened an International Seminar on the subject. Her papers on “Cultural Diversity in South Asia” have been published in international journals. She has been the academic coordinator of three IGNOU films on “Partition through the eyes of the Writer”.
Sukrita was invited to the three-month-long International Writing Programme (2002), at Iowa, USA. In 2004, she was invited by the Hong Kong Baptist University for a residency. She has been a recipient of several grants and fellowships including a translation grant from International Center for Writing and Translation, University of California at Irvine (2004), Rockefeller grant for an academic visit to New York State University, the British Council Visitorship and Charles Wallace sponsorship for a seminar in Cambridge University. She is also an awardee of the Shastri Indo-Canadian Research Fellowship. She has lectured at Cambridge University, SOAS (London University) and several Canadian and American Universities on Indian literature. At the South Asia Institute at Heidelberg, Germany, she lectured on Partition Narratives. She has given readings of her poems on invitation from ICCR, Sahitya Akademi, Jyanpeeth, The Poetry Society of India and various universities and institutions abroad. She has been on the jury of several literary awards including Sahitya Akademi, Indian Council of Cultural Relations, Crossword, Katha and others. A nominated member of the Executive at India International Centre, she has been involved in the conceptualization of many cultural and intellectual activities over many years.
Committed to serving social causes, she set up a shelter for the homeless a few years ago. The poems that came out of her experiences with the homeless were presented at the Nehru Centre at London.
Sukrita has held a solo exhibition of her paintings at AIFACS in New Delhi.
