Curriculum Vitae

DR. SOMRITA GANGULY

Academic Qualifications ~ Teaching Experience ~ Fellowships ~ Academic Awards ~ Literary Translation ~ Academic Publications and Presentations ~ Invited Lectures ~ Workshops Conducted ~ Memberships ~ Curatorial Work ~ Creative Writing: Poetry ~ Creative Writing: Prose ~ Public Speaking ~ Theatre

Academic Qualifications:

• PhD
  Institute: Centre for English Studies (CES), Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi
  Title of Thesis: “Uneven Playing Fields: Female Athletic Bodies in Sports Literature”
  Advisor: Prof GJV Prasad; Co-Advisor: Prof Dhananjay Singh
  Fellowship: Fulbright Doctoral Research Fellow at Brown University, USA, under the mentorship of Prof Lina Fruzzetti
  
  
• Master of Arts
  Institute: Centre for English Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi
  Subject: English
  FGPA: 8.31 out of 9
  Award: Received the Jawaharlal Nehru Memorial Fund Award for topping the University
  
  
• National Eligibility Test (NET): March 2013
  Board: University Grants Commission of India
  UGC-NET qualified for Lecturership in English
  
  
• Bachelor of Arts
  Institute: Loreto College (LC), University of Calcutta (CU), Kolkata
  Subject: English (Honours)
  Final Marks: 65%
  Award: Received the Sarojini Dutta Memorial Prize for scoring the highest marks in the department in the University examination
  
  
• ISC (10+2)
  Board: Council for Indian School Certificate Examinations (CISCE), New Delhi
  Institute: Calcutta Girls’ High School (CGHS)
  Final Marks: 93.75%
  
  
• ICSE
  Board: CISCE
  Institute: CGHS
  Final Marks: 90%

Teaching Experience:

• Currently: Head of the Department & Assistant Professor in English, Maharaja Manindra Chandra College (MMCC), CU
  [under the recommendation of the West Bengal Government’s College Service Commission; ranked third in the selection process]
• Previously: Visiting Lecturer, Graduate Department of English, Women’s College, Kolkata (Master of Arts programme affiliated to CU)
• Previously: Assistant Professor, St. Stephen’s College, Delhi University
• Previously: Assistant Professor, Maitreyi College, Delhi University
• Previously: Teaching Assistant, JNU
• Previously: Guest faculty, Delhi College of Arts and Commerce, Delhi University

Fellowships:

• Fulbright Doctoral Research Fellow, Brown University, USA
• Fellowship from the British Centre for Literary Translation to attend the International Literary Translation and Creative Writing Summer School at the University of East Anglia, UK
• Senior Project Fellow, 2017 UNESCO-Sahapedia Mapping Heritage Project
• Project Fellow, University Grants Commission of India’s Special Assistance Programme (SAP) at CES, JNU (2015 – 2016)

Academic Awards:

• Jawaharlal Nehru Memorial Fund Award for topping the department at the M.A. level in JNU
• Sarojini Dutta Memorial Prize for topping the department at the B.A. level in LC, CU
• K. N. Jain Memorial Gold Medal for Academic Excellence, Good Conduct and Outstanding Contribution to College Life
• Class Prize and Medal for Proficiency in English Literature, LC
• Certificate of Merit for Excellence in Film Studies, LC
• Certificate of Merit for Excellence in Journalism and Mass Communication, LC
• Certificate of Merit for Excellence in French – Level A, LC
• The Surendra Paul Memorial Award for Courage at The Telegraph School Awards for Excellence

Literary Translation:

• Awards & Recognition:

• The International Women’s Short Film Festival team in association with the Green Initiative and the Inner Wheel circle of Greater Tollygunge recognised Somrita Ganguly as an eminent litterateur, and awarded her for her contribution to literature through translation; 28 Sep 2019
• Finalist, The Best Asian Short Story Awards 2018 (for the English translation of Banaphool’s Bangla story ‘Boba)
  

• Professional Training:
  
  
• Received a scholarship from the British Centre for Literary Translation (BCLT) to attend the International Literary Translation and Creative Writing Summer School at the University of East Anglia (with a special focus on Multilingual Prose Translation, tutored by Daniel Hahn OBE) – July 2020
• Emerging Translator Mentorship Programme, instituted by the National Centre for Writing, UK – Selected as Emerging Translator from Bengali to English (2016 – 2017); under the mentorship of Arunava Sinha, translated Purnendu Pattrea’s Kawthopokawthon (Conversations), a five-volume novel-in-verse, excerpts from which were showcased at the 2017 London Book Fair
  

• Books Translated:
  
  
• Prose (Fiction/ Non Fiction)

• Three Stories by Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay (Bengali to English) – BEE Books; Sep 2021
• Forthcoming: The Death and Rebirth of a Butterfly by Shirshendu Mukhopadhyay (Bengali to English) – BEE Books
• Forthcoming: (with Arunava Sinha, et al) Adarsha Hindu Hotel by Bibhutibhushan Bandopadhyay (Bengali to English)
• The Matua Religion and Philosophy (with Sipra Mukherjee, et al), by Manohar Mouli Biswas (Bengali to English)
• Dinesh Chandra Chattopadhyay’s five volume award-winning novel Firesongs (Bengali to English) – published by BEE Books; Jul 2019
• Shakuni: Master of the Game, a contemporary re-telling of the Indian epic, The Mahabharata (Hindi to English) – published by Juggernaut; Apr 2019
• Chief Minister of Delhi Arvind Kejriwal’s political biography (Hindi to English) – commissioned by Juggernaut; 2018
  
  
• Poetry:
  

• Shankarlal Sengupta’s anthology of verses The Midnight Sun: Love Lyrics and Farewell Songs (Bengali to English) – published by Power Press; Nov 2018
• Forthcoming: (with Arunava Sinha) Purnendu Pattrea’s five-volume novel-in-verse Conversations (Bengali to English) – to be published by BEE Books
• Forthcoming: Kamal Chowdhury’s anthology of verses From Tungipara: Poems on Sheikh Mujibur Rahman (Bengali to English) – to be published by BEE Books
  
  
• Portfolio of Shorter Translated Works:
  
  
• Prose (Fiction/ Non Fiction):

• Forthcoming – Mrs K Ahmed’s ‘Spartan Hearts’ (Bengali to English) – to be published by OUP in an anthology on Muslim women’s writings from pre-independence India
• Forthcoming – Sufia Hossain’s ‘Dear Nasim’ (Bengali to English) – to be published by OUP in an anthology on Muslim women’s writings from pre-independence India
• Forthcoming – Rabindranath Tagore’s short story ‘Subha’ (Bengali to English) – to be published by Norwich Papers: New Perspectives on Translation (University of East Anglia, UK)
• Subodh Ghosh’s short story ‘The House of Wax’ (Bengali to English) – published in Words Without Borders, Dec 2017 (republished Jan 2020)
• Excerpts from Bimal Mitra’s novel Shaheb Bibi Golam (Bengali to English) – published in Words Without Borders, Dec 2017
• Tanmay Mukherjee’s short story ‘Murdering/ Murderous Plots’ (Bengali to English) – published in the Digital Writers’ Lab, a project by Bee Books and Bloody Scotland, supported by British Council India and Scotland, the Scottish Government and Creative Scotland, Dec 2017
• Bapi Mandal’s short story ‘Looking Back in Anger’ (Bengali to English) – for the international workshop on ‘Writing the Margins’ organized by the West Bengal State University, 22 to 24 Sep 2017
• Rabindranath Tagore’s short story ‘Atonement’ (Bengali to English) – for the workshop on ‘Translating Disability Across Cultures: The Translation and Representation of Disability in the Modern Indian Short Story’ organized in JNU by the Jawaharlal Nehru Institute of Advanced Study (JNIAS), with the academic support of the International Association of Translation and Intercultural Studies (IATIS), in association with Routledge, 14 to 16 Sep 2016
  
  
• Poetry:
  

• Sachchidananda Vatsyayan ‘Agyeya’s’ short poems ‘Snake’, ‘The Story of a Bird’, and ‘Gold-Fish’ (Hindi to English) – published in The Bengaluru Review, Oct 2019
• Nabarun Bhattacharya’s poem ‘This Valley of Death is Not My Country’ (Bengali to English) – published by National Translation Month, Sep 2019
• Satyajit Ray’s song ‘The King’s Men’ (Bengali to English) – published on Scroll.in, Mar 2019 – later invited to read at the Global Standout for Peace – Providence, Rhode Island Chapter at Faunce House, Brown University, Rhode Island, Mar 2019
• Vidrohi’s long poem ‘Women’ (Hindi to English) – published in the Journal of Literary Translation Vol 7 Issue 2, Trinity College, Dublin, Mar 2019
• Pratyush Pushkar’s poem ‘Two Cups of Tea’ (Hindi to English) – published in Vision 2017 (annual magazine of the Dept. of Chemistry, MMCC), Dec 2017
• Hafeez Jalandhari’s poem ‘I am still young’ (Urdu to English) – published in Preti Taneja’s We That Are Young, July 2017 (Pub. Galley Beggars Press, UK)
• Vidrohi’s long poem ‘Mohenjodaro’ (Hindi to English) – published in Asymptote, Jan 2016
  

• Service to the Profession:

• Judge, PEN America Translation Prize 2021
• Expert Reader, 2021 National Translation Award instituted by the American Literary Translators Association
• Expert Reader, NEA Translation Fellowships awarded by the National Endowment for the Arts (United States federal government agency), 2021, 2023
• Assessor, 2019 PEN Translates! Grant awarded by the English PEN
  

• Interviews:

• Interviewed by Deborah Smith, the 2016 Man-Booker International Prize winner; interview published on the website of Tilted Axis Press; 19 Dec 2016
• Interviewed by the National Centre for Writing, UK; published on their website; 5 Nov 2018
• Interviewed by Esha Chatterjee, CEO, BEE Books; first published on 21 Jun 2019
• Interviewed by Alex Valente, Italian translator, for PRISM International magazine published by the University of British Columbia, Canada; 1 Oct 2020
  

• Invitations:
  
  
• Invited to read at the New England Translators Association (NETA) bilingual readings session at their 23^rd annual conference in the University of Massachusetts, Boston; 3 May 2019
• Invited to read at the Alexis Levitin Bilingual Readings Session at the 41^st American Literary Translators Association (ALTA) Conference at Indiana University, Bloomington; 2 Nov 2018; & the 43rd ALTA Conference (held virtually); 5 Oct 2020
• Invited to moderate a panel on ‘Translation is Literature’ at the 2018 Kolkata Literature Festival organized by the International Kolkata Book Fair committee; (panelists: Arunava Sinha, Gerard Meudal, Graeme Macrae Burnet, Poonam Sinha, Shumona Sinha); 10 Feb 2018
• Invited to speak at a panel organized by the National Centre for Writing, UK, at the English PEN Salon in the 2017 London Book Fair on ‘India at 70: Language Barriers, Language Dreams’, moderated by Jonathan Morley, with panelists Arunava Sinha, Bidisha, and Mohan Rana; Mar 2017
• Invited to read by the Europe-based group Translators Aloud for their online reading sessions; Jun 2020 & Sep 2020
• Invited to read by the New York-based group Jill! Women+ in Translation for their online reading sessions; Aug 2020
• Invited to speak on Bibhutibhushan Bandopadhyay’s 126^th birth anniversary on “Bibhutibhushan in Translation,” moderated by Tathagata Banerjee, with panelists Arunava Sinha, Rimi N, and Debali Mukherjee-Leonard; 13 Sep 2020
• Invited to present on “Translating Disability: Social Activism and Translation” at the annual conference organized by the Oregon Society of Translators and Interpreters (OSTI), Portland, USA; 19 Sep 2020
• Invited to speak at a panel organized by the National Centre for Writing, UK, in collaboration with the British Centre for Literary Translation, on “Who is this Mythical English Reader?”, moderated by Daniel Hahn, with panelists Anton Hur, Jen Wei Ting, and Gitanjali Patel; 30 Sep 2020
• Panelist: “The Translator as Advocate and Agent” at the Supplying Translation symposium organised by the University of Nottingham, UK, 26-27 Apr, 2021; co-panelists: Anton Hur and Sawad Hussain
• Panelist: “Can the Subaltern be Translated?” at the Global Publishing conference organised by Princeton University, USA, 4-6 Jun 2021
  
  
• Articles on Literary Translation:

• ‘Notes from Scotland’ – National Centre for Writing, 7 Nov 2017, web post
• (with Arunava Sinha) ‘Poetry is not Lost in Translation, it is Translation’ – In Other Words (published by the National Centre for Writing with the support of the Translators Association, UK), Issue 49 (ISSN 1361-911X) – summer 2017 – p. 52-60
• ‘Why I read Tagore in translation (and why I translate)’ – Scroll.in, 30 Sep 2016, web/ news journal article
  

• Academic Paper Presentations on Literary Translations:

• ‘Desire, Disability and Political Correctness: Translating and Reading Shailesh Matiyani’s “Do Dukhon Ka Ek Sukh”’; Department of English, Jadavpur University, 18-20 Jan 2017
• ‘Reading Tagore in Translation: India, English and Translation as Counter to Cultural Chauvinism’; Jamia Millia Islamia, 24-25 Nov 2016
• ‘Translating Desires of the Undesired: Re-reading Tagore’s Different Women in “Subha” and “Drishtidaan’”; in the workshop on ‘Translating Disability Across Cultures: The Translation and Representation of Disability in the Modern Indian Short Story’ organized in JNU by the Jawaharlal Nehru Institute of Advanced Study (JNIAS), with the academic support of International Association of Translation and Intercultural Studies (IATIS), in association with Routledge, 14-16 Sep 2016
• ‘Translating Mysticism and the Post-Colonial Baggage: A Study of Rabindranath Tagore’s One Hundred Songs of Kabir and Arvind Krishna Mehrotra’s Songs of Kabir’; Aligarh Muslim University, 4-5 Mar 2016
• ‘Kabir’s Mysticism: Problems of Translation’; invited speaker; Maitreyi College, New Delhi, 4 Mar 2015
• ‘Kabir Captured: A Study of translations of Kabir by Tagore and Mehrotra’; presented at the IACLALS Conference, held in Punjab University, Chandigarh, 21 Feb 2014 (shortlisted for the C. D. Narasimiah Prize)
  

• Residencies:

• Invited as Translator-in-Residence at the Writers’ Centre Norwich/ Cove Park Translation Residencies in Scotland, 23-30 Oct 2017
  
  
• Workshops:
  
  
• Participated in a workshop led by the 2018 International Man Booker Prize winner, Jennifer Croft, at the 43rd ALTA conference; 1 Oct 2020
• Participated in the international workshop on ‘Writing the Margins’ organized by the West Bengal State University, from 22-24 Sep 2017
• Participated in the workshop on ‘Translating Disability Across Cultures: The Translation and Representation of Disability in the Modern Indian Short Story’ organized in JNU by the Jawaharlal Nehru Institute of Advanced Study (JNIAS), with the academic support of International Association of Translation and Intercultural Studies (IATIS), in association with Routledge, from 14-16 Sep 2016

Academic Work:

• Academic Publications:
  

• Edited Academic Journal:

• Somrita Ganguly (ed), On the Table: Pathways between Food Studies and Food Writing – Issue 52 (online) for Café Dissensus, Jan 2020
  

• Chapters in Books:

• ‘“Waiting for My Mum to Come Back”: Trauma(tic) Narratives of Australia’s Stolen Generation’ Chapter 4 in Childhood Traumas: Narrative and Representations 1^st ed. (eds. Kamayani Kumar and Angelie Multani), Routledge Oxon/ UK – Taylor and Francis (ISBN: 1138611921) – Spring 2020 – p. 50-61
• ‘Translating desires of the undesired: re-reading Tagore’s different women in “Subha” and “Drishtidaan’”, Chapter 7 in Disability in Translation: The Indian Experience 1^st ed. (eds. Someshwar Sati and GJV Prasad), Routledge London/ UK – Taylor and Francis (ISBN: 100018644X) – Spring 2020 – p. 107-118
  

• Research Papers in Peer-Reviewed Journals:

• ‘“We Cultivate with Care the Wilderness of your Nature:” James Smith’s ‘The Politics of Sexual Knowledge’ and the Magdalene Laundries’ – journal of humanities and social sciences (International refereed journal of Scottish Church College, Kolkata) No 16 (ISSN:0973-8737) – Dec 2019 – p. 165-177
• ‘The Method in His Madness: An (Un)academic Reading of Joe Orton’s Funeral Games’ – Uttaran (Academic Journal of Maharaja Manindra Chandra College, Kolkata) Vol 5 (ISSN: 2395-2416) – Dec 2017 – p. 60-64
• ‘Uneven Playing Field: An Exploration of Women in Sports through a Study of Moti Nandi’s Fiction’ – Lapis Lazuli: An International Literary Journal Vol 7, No 2 (ISSN: 2249-4529) – spring 2017 – p. 228-255
• ‘Hunger Games: Reading Food Cultures and the Politics of Representation’ – Impressions of Eternity (Journal of Language and Literature Studies, Department of English, Bidhan Chandra College, Asansol) Vol 11 (ISSN: 2229-4813) – Nov 2016 – p. 132-138
• ‘Gendering the Greens: An Ecocritical/ Ecofeminist Reading of Seamus Heaney’s Works’ – Colloquium (Journal of the Arts Section, The Bhawanipore Education Society College on “Through the Ecological Lens: Ecocriticism and Ecological Perspectives”) Vol 2 (ISSN 2350-1251) – Feb 2016 – p. 49-64
• ‘“Who Killed the World?”: Revisiting the Future of Urbanization and Capitalism in George Miller’s Mad Max: Fury Road’ – Netaji Nagar Journal of English Literature and Language (on “Urbanscape: Literary, Visual and Musical Representations”) Vol 4 (ISSN 2320-4109) – Jan 2016 – p. 247-258
• ‘Painting Resistance: A Study of the Political Graffiti in Jawaharlal Nehru University’ – Chitrolekha International Magazine on Art and Design Vol 5 Issue 1 (ISSN 2231-4822) – 2015 – p. 157-173
• ‘Green Macbeth: An Ecocritical Reading of Shakespeare’s Macbeth’ – Critical Imprints Vol 2 (ISSN 2319-4774) – 2014 – p. 152-167
• ‘White Screens on Black Skin: A Study of the Afro-American Woman Shedding her Borrowed White Mask to Discover and Declare that Black is Beautiful’- Literophile Vol 3 Issue 6 (ISSN 2347 3681) – 2013
  

• Book Reviews:

• Review of Money, Marriage and Madness: The Life of Anna Ott by Kim E Neilsen – Disability Studies Quarterly Vol 41 No 1 (ISSN: 2159-8371 – Online; 1041-5718 – Print) – May 2021
• Stations (Seamus Heaney) – ‘Stopping at Old, Familiar Stations: A Review of Seamus Heaney’s 1975 Anthology’ – Indraprasth (International Journal of the Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University, Delhi) Vol 5 & 6 (ISSN: 2278-7208) – Jan 2018 – p. 79-85
• ‘Capturing the Essence of Kabir in Translation:  A Study of Tagore’s One Hundred Songs of Kabir and Mehrotra’s Songs of Kabir’ – Muse India Issue 62 (ISSN 0975-1815) – 2015
• My Story (Kamala Das): ‘Sinner and Saint, Beloved and Betrayed: The Story of a Woman’ – Youth Ki Awaaz, 22 Dec 2013, web/ news journal article
  

• Articles/ Introductory Notes:

• ‘The Kolkata Biryani: Culture, Identity, and Politics’ – Sahapedia, Apr 2018, web/ news journal article
• ‘These Literary Meals: A Brief Introduction’ in Quesadilla and Other Adventures: Food Poems (ed. Somrita Urni Ganguly) – ISBN 9789387883710 – Aug 2019 – p. 13-16
• ‘Maddening Mondays: A Brief Introduction’ in WE View, special issue on “Sunday” (ed. Somrita Urni Ganguly) – Dec 2019, web
• ‘On the Table: Pathways between Food Studies and Food Writing’ (editorial) – Café Dissensus, Issue 52, Jan 2020, web
• ‘Women Writing Women: Reading Portrait of a Lady on Fire’ in Filmbuff: An International Film Journal Vol 7 (ISBN 2582-2497), Jul 2020, web
  

• Academic Paper Presentations:

• ‘Calcutta: A Phenotype’; Bath Spa University, UK, 29-29 Jan 2021
• ‘Greening Macbeth: An Ecocritical Reading’; Aliah University, Calcutta, 10-11 Jan 2017
• ‘Painting Resistance: A Study of the Poetics and Politics of the Wall-Art in the Jawaharlal Nehru University Campus’; at National University of Singapore (organized jointly by Asian Urbanisms Cluster at the Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore, the International Institute for Asian Studies, and the University College London), 30 Jun -1 Jul 2016
• ‘Propaganda and the First World War’; presented at the international seminar organized by the Department of English, Calcutta University and the Departments of History and English, Bhawanipore Education Society College, Calcutta, 17-18 Dec 2014
• ‘World War I and the Media: Battle of Hearts and Minds’; presented at an international conference organized by Department of English and Cultural Studies, Jadavpur University, Mar 2014
• ‘Who’s afraid of the Canon: A Study of Toni Morrison’s Fiction’; presented at National Young Researchers’ Conference organized by the CES, JNU, Jan 2014
• ‘Man – Animal Conflict’; presented at a seminar organized by Fourth Dimension in collaboration with the ESM Department of Presidency College and National University of Judicial Sciences, held in NUJS, Apr 2011 (paper won first prize)
• ‘Youth, Media and Politics’; presented at a conference organized by Centre for Journalism and Mass Communication, Vishwa Bharati University in collaboration with Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, Germany, held in Shantiniketan, 2010 (paper won first prize)
• ‘Kashmir: A Paradise Lost?’; presented at a seminar organized by Fourth Dimension in collaboration with Documentarywalla and Pranthakatha, held in the Academy of Fine Arts, Kolkata, 28 Sep 2010 (paper won the first prize)
• ‘Milton and Miltonic Studies’; presented a joint paper at a conference organized by Department of English, Basanti Devi College, Kolkata, 2008 (published)
• ‘War and Media: A Study of the Role of Media in Four Great Wars’; presented a joint paper at a conference organized by Loreto College, 2008 (published)
  

• Other Courses:

• Short Term Course: The Sexuality and Mental Health Institute (SAMHI), Kolkata, 15-22 Sep, 2019
• Refresher Course: Department of Comparative Indian Language and Literature, University of Calcutta with the University Grants Commission of India’s Human Resource Development Centre (UGC-HRDC), 2-15 March, 2021
  

• Academic Workshops:

• Participated in a workshop organized in JNU as part of the workshop series on Planned Violence – “Planning Modernity – Colonial Continuities, Postcolonial Disjunctions’ in 2014
• Participated in an author workshop conducted by Wiley in collaboration with JNU in 2012

Invitation Lectures/ Keynote Addresses:

• New York University, USA – on ‘Decolonisation and Literary Productions in English in India’ for the course “Literatures in English IV: Literary and Popular Genres 1900 Onward” (ENGL-UA114); 27 Jul 2020
• Keynote Speaker – on ‘What Do We Do With the Poetry of Derek Walcott’ at the webinar on “Engaging with Derek Walcott: Poetry, Politics and Language” (organised by Padasala, and Ideas and Progress) – 20 Aug 2020
• Rowan College of South Jersey, Gloucester County Campus, New Jersey, USA – on ‘Translating Purnendu Pattrea for English Readers’ for the course “Survey of World Literatures” (ENG103); 1 Sep 2020
• Keynote Address – at Kolkata Translators’ Forum on “Voices on women in Indian poetry in translation;” 7 Feb 2021

Literary Festivals Attended on Invitation:

• London Book Fair, Mar 2017
• Kolkata Literature Festival, Feb 2018 & Feb 2020
• Arunachal Literature and Art Festival, Nov 2019
• Ethos Literary Festival, Nov 2019
• Glass House Festival, Jul 2020
• Festival of Hope, Aug 2020
• Kavi Salaam: The Poetry Festival, Oct 2020
• Pedia Online Poetry Festival, Dec 2020
• La Nuit des Idees/ the Night of Ideas 2021 organised by the French Institute in collaboration with Old Dominion University, Virginia

Workshops Conducted:

• Co-creator of and faculty at The Writing Programme (six week long creative writing and editing workshops):
  • The Writing Programme, Season 1, in partnership with Rupa Publications, May-Jun 2021
  • The Writing Programme, Season 2, in partnership with Pan Macmillan, Jul-Aug 2021
  • The Writing Programme, Season 3, in partnership with Simon & Schuster, Sep-Oct 2021
  • The Writing Programme, Season 4, in partnership with Readomania, Dec 2021
  • The Writing Programme, Season 5, in partnership with Rupa Publications, Feb-Apr 2022
  • The Writing Programme, Season 6, in partnership with Rupa Publications, Jun-Jul 2022
  • The Editing Programme, Season 1, Aug 2021
• Led a 2-day creative writing workshop organized by the Department of English, Heramba Chandra College, Calcutta, 28-29 Jul 2020
• Led a 1-day creative writing workshop for the students of Douglas Memorial Higher Secondary School, 8 Jun 2020
• Led a 1-day poetry workshop at Mata Jijabai Government Post Graduate College, Indore, 28 Jan 2021
• Led a week-long creative writing workshop organized by the Post-Graduate Department of English, Bishop Herber College, Chennai, Feb 2022
• Led a 2-day Translation workshop organized by the Young India Fellowship Programme, Ashoka University, Delhi, Mar 2022

Memberships:

• American Literary Translators Association, USA (ALTA): 2018 – 2020
• Association for the Study of Literature and Environment, USA (ASLE): 2018 – 2019
• Fulbright Association (Rhode Island Chapter), USA: 2019 – 2020 
• The US Department of State International Exchange Alumni Network: life member
• Alumni Association of Jawaharlal Nehru University (AAJ) – life member

Curatorial Work:

• Curated and hosted two themed poetry-reading sessions for the cultural group Samanvay Space
  Week 1: Food Poetry (featuring poets Rochelle Potkar, Srividya Sivakumar, Chandramohan S, and Namrata Kartik) – 18 Oct 2020
  Week 2: Cityscapes (featuring poets Alick Bailey, Madhu Raghavendra, Santasree Chaudhuri, Smeetha Bhoumik, and Soumya Venkatesan) – 25 Oct 2020
• Curatorial Team, Glass House Festival: Poetry from around the World, organized by ArtMantram Trust, with around 100 participating poets, scholars, musicians and artists (including International Man Booker Prize winners, Poet Laureates, Padma awardees and Sahitya Akademi awardees) from over 15 countries; 23 – 26 Jul 2020
• Curated the “Poetry on Film” segment at the Glass House Festival; 19 – 31 Jul 2020
• Curated the #PoetsReadingPoets YouTube playlist with over an hour of poetry in the series, contributed by 30 poets from around the world (such as Antananarivo, Bombay, Calcutta, Chicago, Coimbatore, Hyderabad, Istanbul, New York, Seekonk, and Sao Paolo); Mar-May 2020
• Curated the second edition of the Poets Reading Poets series in collaboration with the Department of English, Maharaja Manindra Chandra College, Calcutta, for the Festival of Hope organized by Versopolis Review; Jul-Aug 2020
• Curated various literary meets, readings, and conferences as the UGC-SAP Project Fellow at the Centre for English Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, such as:
  • The National Young Researchers’ Conference on ‘The Return of the Body: Revisiting Cultures of the Body’, 4-5 Feb 2016
  • International Seminar on ‘Basic Urban Services in Delhi: Citizens, State and Politics’ in association with the Jawaharlal Nehru Institute of Advanced Study (JNIAS), Ambedkar University Delhi (AUD), and the International Institute for Asian Studies (IIAS) Netherlands, 19 Dec 2016
  • National Seminar on ‘Archiving Marginalities: Documenting Narratives of the Oppressed’, 16-17 Mar 2016
  • Workshop on ‘Translating Disability Across Cultures: The Translation and Representation of Disability in the Modern Indian Short Story’ in association with the Jawaharlal Nehru Institute of Advanced Study (JNIAS), with the academic support of International Association of Translation and Intercultural Studies (IATIS and Routledge, 14-16 Sep 2016
  • Lecture: Anita Agnihotri on ‘Unheard Indias: Narratives and Politics of Development’, 2 Nov 2016
  • Lecture: Christoph Wulf on ‘Anthropology in a Globalised World’, in association with the Jawaharlal Nehru Institute of Advanced Study (JNIAS), 2 Dec 2015
  • Lecture: Bandana Purkayastha on ‘Water, Inequalities, Rights’, in association with the Jawaharlal Nehru Institute of Advanced Study (JNIAS), 8 Nov 2016
  • Lecture: Ari Sitas on ‘Rough Music: Living Art, Poetry and Politics in Post-Apartheid South-Africa’, 11 Mar 2016
  • Lecture: Michal Pawel Markowski on ‘Foreignness and Translation: World Literature Today’, in association with the Jawaharlal Nehru Institute of Advanced Study, 19 Jan 2016
  • Lecture: Dominic Rainsford on ‘Adding Up: Literature, Ethics and Quantification’, 19 Nov 2015
  • Lecture: Arunava Sinha on ‘Can the Subaltern Speak – in English?’, 21 Sep 2016
  • Lecture: Witi Ihimaera on ‘Writing and Filming the Pacific Universe: Myth, History and Identity’, in association with the New Zealand High Commission in India, 24 Aug 2016
  • Lecture: Mahesh Dattani on ‘Art, Suppression and Society’, 26 Mar 2016
  • Lecture: Stephanos Stephanides on ‘The Intimate Estrangement of Homecoming’, 29 Jan 2016
  • Lecture: Isabel Karremann on ‘Writing London: Decadent Visions, Modernist Revisions’, 22 Nov 2016
  • Lecture: Frank Moorhouse on ‘The Authority of Imagination: Can the Writer Write about Anything?’, in association with the Jawaharlal Nehru Institute of Advanced Study (JNIAS) and the Australian High Commission in India, 23 Nov 2016
  • Roundtable on ‘The Meaning of India: Commemorating the 108th birth anniversary of Raja Rao’, 8 Nov 2016
  • Film Screening: Singing Pictures (and a conversation with the directors Lina Fruzzetti and Akos Ostor), 10 Mar 2016
  • Reading: Saikat Majumdar from The Firebird, in association with the Jawaharlal Nehru Institute of Advanced Study (JNIAS), 2 Dec 2015
  • Reading: Shauna Singh Baldwin from Reluctant Rebellions, 9 Nov 2016

Creative Writing:

• Poetry
  

• Select Poetry Readings & Performances:

• 44^th International Kolkata Book Fair, 1 Feb 2020
• Kunzum Travel Café, Delhi, 27 Dec 2019
• Title Waves, Bombay, 7 Dec 2019
• Ethos Literary Festival, Calcutta, 23-24 Nov 2019
• Arunachal Literature and Arts Festival, Itanagar, 8-10 Nov 2019
• Alliance Francaise du Bengale, Calcutta, 11 Oct 2019
• The Culinary Lounge, Hyderabad, 27 Oct 2019
• Srijan Poetry Adda, Calcutta, 14 Sep 2019
• Eastern Metropolitan Club, Calcutta, 18 Aug 2019
• AS220 (funded by the Rhode Island State Council for Arts), Providence, 30 May 2019
• PW Upspace (Production Workshop) at Brown University, Rhode Island, 14 Mar 2019
• Faunce House/ Stephen Robert ’62 Campus Centre at Brown University, Rhode Island, 5 Mar 2019
• The Underground Café at Brown University, Rhode Island, 21 Feb 2019
• Center for Contemporary South Asia/ Watson Institute of International and Public Affairs at Brown University, Rhode Island, 5 Feb 2019
• Live Arts Theatre, Miami Dade College, Florida, 22 Aug 2018
• Sasha Fair Trade Gallery, Calcutta, 21 Jul 2018
• G5A Foundation for Contemporary Culture, Bombay, 17 Dec 2017
• Essar House, Bombay, 15 Dec 2017
• Canvas Laugh Club, Bombay, 14 Dec 2017
• Kitab Khana, Bombay, 12 Dec 2017
• Words Tell Stories at Independence Brewing Company, Bombay, 9 Dec 2017
• Dosti House, US Consulate in Bombay, 7 Dec 2017
• Convention Centre, JNU, New Delhi, 19 Jan 2016
• Queer Open Mic organized by Dhanak and Delhi Queer Pride at JNU, New Delhi, 15 Nov 2015
  

• Select Online Readings:

• La Nuit des Idees/ the Night of Ideas organised by the French Institute in collaboration with Old Dominion University, Virginia; 28 Jan 2021
• TED circle speaker; Mumbai; 23 Dec 2020 (hosted by Smeetha Bhowmik)
• “Nights at the Calcutta Café,” Poetry Readings from Norfolk, Montreal, and Calcutta, hosted by Peter Schulman, Old Dominican University; 28 Dec 2020
• Women Empowered India’s Christmas PoeTree soiree; 25 Dec 2020
• Pedia Online Poetry Festival – in conversation with British poet Rishi Dastidar, 8 Dec 2020
• “Talk the Talk” – Douglas Memorial Higher Secondary School podcast series; podcast episode on “Poetry: It’s Magic, Music and Madness”; 1 Nov 2020
• Synaesthesia (organised by Poetry Paradigm), Nov 2020
• Stranger Stories Providence book launch event (Oct 2020)
• “Literally Mantram” Writers Roundtable (organised by Art Mantram), Oct 2020
• Samanvay Space Hyderabad (Oct 2020)
• Explore: New Places New Minds Facebook group (Oct 2020)
• Ghana Writes literary group’s book launch event (Bodies and Scars), Oct 2020
• Kavi Salaam: The Poetry Festival organised by Poetry Paradigm (Oct 2020)
• Brown University MFA Programme’s Autumn Equinox Readings (Sept 2020)
• “Culture for a Cause” fundraiser concert for Children’s Rights and Sustainability Trust, India (Aug 2020)
• Rhythm Divine Poets x Newsbeat TV Bangla online reading series (Aug 2020)
• Poets Reading Poets series x Festival of Hope for Versopolis Review (Aug 2020)
• International Literary Translation and Creative Writing Summer School at the University of East Anglia (Jul 2020)
• 100 Thousand Poets for Change – 10^th anniversary global event (Jun 2020)
• Harper Collins, India (Jun 2020)
• Talk Radio NYC – Talking Alternative Broadcasting based in New York City (Jun 2020)
• 90.3 FM WRIU – University of Rhode Island’s broadcast station, based in Kingston, Rhode Island (Jun 2020)
• Glass House Festival: Poetry from around the World (Jul 2020) – curated and moderated the panel “Disobedient Women: Feminist Poetry Today,” with Eleni Sikelianos, Natalie Ann Holoborow, Nurduran Duman, and Tiffany Atkinson on the panel
• Inkpot India Conclave – Inkpot in the Neighbourhood series (Jun 2020)
• I-read/ I-recite online reading series (Jun 2020)
• The Weaver’s Craft (Jun 2020)
• Setu, Pittsburgh (May 2020)
• Poets Reading Poets series (Apr 2020)

• Awards Received:

• Won Women Empowered India’s “Glowing Diamond” award, Dec 2020
• The Woman Inc. & Beyond Black Sakhi Annual Poetry Awards 2019
• Won the ‘Quills and You’ poetry competition organized by Sahapedia on World Poetry Day 2017
• First prize, poetry writing competition organized by the School of Languages, Literature and Culture Studies (SL), JNU, as a part of Kalrav, the annual cultural festival of JNU

• Service to the Profession:
  
• Judge, Kamala Das Poetry Awards Women Empowered Group, India, 2020, 2022
  
  

• Select Poetry Publications:

• Somrita Urni Ganguly (ed), Quesadilla and Other Adventures: Food Poems (Pub. Hawakal Publishers), Aug 2019 (first print ed); Jul 2020 (first reprint)
  – launched in Bombay, Calcutta, Delhi, Itanagar, and Hyderabad in a multi-city book-tour
  – reviewed on Anandabazar Patrika (16 Dec 2019), Queen Mob’s Teahouse (14 Nov 2019), the Journal of Commonwealth Literature (Issue 55, No. 4, Dec 2020, SAGE) and World Literature Today published by the University of Oklahoma (11 Feb 2020)
• Somrita Urni Ganguly (ed), special issue on the theme “Sunday” for WE View journal, published by the Women Empowered-India group, Dec 2019
• Poems published in various anthologies such as:
  –Inspired by Tagore (Pub. Sampad South Asian Arts, UK, and the British Council), 2012
  –The Rape of Death (Ed. Opeyemi Ojatula, et al., Pub. Newcraft/ Artbeat Africa), 2015
  – A Map Called Home (Ed. Manik Sharma & Semeen Ali, Pub. Kitaab/ Singapore), 2018
  –Equiverse Space (Ed. Smeetha Bhowmik, et al., Pub. Notion Press/ India), 2018
  – Bodies and Scars (Ed. & Pub. Ghana Writes Literary Group/ Ghana & Nigeria), 2019
  – Freedom Raga (Ed. Inam Hussain Mullick and Joie Bose, Pub. Exceller Books), 2020
  – Peacocks in a Dream (Ed. Inam Hussain Mullick & Subrata Biswas, Pub. Erothanatos), 2020
  – The Kali Project (Ed. Candice Louisa Daquin and Megha Sood, Pub. Indie Blue Press), 2021
• Haiku published in Haiku Poetry (Ed. Carlos Luis, Pub. Author’s Ink, India), 2017
• Several poems published in online journals/ Kindle books such as:
  –Erothanatos (Volume 4/ Issue 2/ e-ISSN 2457-0265/ Jun 2020)
  – Yugen Quest Review (Issue 1/ Jun 2021, Issue 2/ Sep 2021)
  – The Quiver Review (Mar 2021/ Aug 2021)
  -#GoViralToStopTheVirus series curated by Uttaran Chaudhuri (May 2020)
  –We the Isolationists/ City series curated by Mayank Austen Soofi (Apr 2020)
  –FemAsia (Apr 2019)
  –Café Dissensus (Issue 48/ ISSN 2373-177X/ 28 Dec 2018, and Issue 52/ ISSN 2373-177X/ 29 Jan 2020)
  –Narrow Road (Vol 6/ Dec 2018) <>
  –The Pangolin Review (Issue 3/ Nov 2018) <>
  –Setu, a bilingual journal published from Pittsburgh (Vol 3 Issue 3/ ISSN 2475-1359/ Aug 2018)
  –Muse India (Issue 79/ ISSN 0975-1815/ May 2018)
  –Mirzapan (Apr 2018)
  –Bee Turns 3 (Oct 2017)
  –Visual Verse (Vol 5 Ch 1/ 2017) <>
  –The Parallel Post (16 Aug 2014)
  –The Literary Yard (13 Jun 2013, 18 Jun 2013, 7 Oct 2013)
  –Learning and Creativity (8 Oct 2013)
  

• Residencies:

• Invited as Poet-in-Residence at Arcs-of-a-Circle Artistes’ Residency in Bombay organized by the US Consulate in Mumbai, the Akshara Centre, and Rochelle Potkar, 6 – 18 Dec 2017
  

• Prose (Fiction and Non-fiction):
  

• Awards Received:

• First prize, West Bengal Region, All-India Essay Writing Competition organized by United Nations Information Centre for India and Bhutan in collaboration with Sri Ram Chandra Mission in 2010
• First prize, in the Graphic Novel Writing Competition organized by St. Xavier’s College, Kolkata, as a part of ‘Xavotsav’, their annual inter college festival in 2010
• First prize, Ashok Chatterjee Essay Writing Competition in English organized by Loreto College in 2008; runner-up, 2010
• First prize, Short Story Writing Competition organized by the Library Society of Loreto College in 2010
• Won three consecutive short story contests organized by The Telegraph in Schools (III, IV and V)
• Second runner-up, story writing contest at the fiction festival organized by the American Centre, Kolkata in Jan 2008
  
• Select Publications:

• ‘Excerpts from a quarantine journal’ in Curare: Journal of Medical Anthropology, 6 Nov 2020
• ‘The Girl on the Phone’ in Stranger Stories, Issue 2, US, Sep 2020
• ‘Calcutta: A Phenotype’ in Writing Places (Ed. Arunava Sinha, funded by the National Centre for Writing, UK, Pub. Seagull Books), 2019
• Prize winning short-story ‘Jocasta’ published in the anthology D.U. Love (Ed. Sami Ahmad Khan, Pub. Vigilante Publisher, New Delhi), 2015
• Short story ‘Thumbelina’ published in the anthology Twisted Forevers, a publication of the Department of English, LC, 2009

• Workshops:

• Participated in My Tale Too 2020: creative writing workshop organized by Rising Flame, led by Aditi Rao, May – Aug 2020
  
• Editorial Work:

• Editor-in-chief, online-zine, Department of English, Maharaja Manindra Chandra College, Jul 2020 – present
• Editorial Board, EKL Review; Aug 2020 – present
• Editorial Board, The Quiver Review; Jan 2021 – present
• Editorial Board Member, Annual Students’ Magazine, Maharaja Manindra Chandra College (2017 – 2018)
• Editor, Edit Desk, the annual journal published by the Department of Journalism and Mass Communication, Loreto College; 2009
• Editor, Cinescoop, the annual journal published by the Department of Film Studies, Loreto College; 2009

Public Speaking:

• Elocution:

• Won the first prize in the Ayesha Trophy Elocution Competition for three consecutive years (2008, 2009, 2010), organized by Loreto College as a part of their annual inter-collegiate festival
• First prize, Hindi Elocution Competition organized by St. Xavier’s College, Kolkata, as a part of their annual inter-collegiate Hindi festival, in 2010; second runner-up in 2009
• First prize, Hindi Elocution Competition organized by Loreto College to commemorate Hindi Divas, 14 Sep 2010
• Runner-up, Elocution Competition organized by South Calcutta Girls’ College, 2010
• First prize, All-India Elocution Competition organized by the Ramakrishna Mission Institute of Culture, 2009
• Firstprize, Elocution Competition in Vision 2006 & Vision 2007 (cultural festival organized by the Children’s Book Fair Committee, Kolkata)
• Runner-up, Elocution Competition in the Bosco Fest 2007 (inter-school festival organized by Don Bosco School, Park Circus, Kolkata)
• Gold medals for English Elocution Competition in Calcutta Girls’ High School, 2000 & 2001
• Bronze medals for Hindi Elocution Competition in Calcutta Girls’ High School, 1999 & 2000
  

• Debating:

• Judge, Annual Debate Competition at Raphsody 2015, organized by Maitreyi College, New Delhi
• Second runner-up, University level debate organized at Jawaharlal Nehru University as a part of their annual cultural festival, 2012
• Moderator, Annual Inter-Year Debate organized by the Debating Society of Loreto College in 2010 & 2011
• Best Speaker, Damayanti Shield Debate organized by Loreto College as a part of its annual inter-collegiate festival, in 2010; also member of the Best Team
• Best Speaker, inter-college debate competition organized by Ramkrishna Mission Residential College, Narendrapur, as a part of their Golden-Jubilee Celebrations in 2010; also member of the Best Team
• Best Speaker, Annual Inter-Departmental Debate organized by the Debating Society of Loreto College, 2008
• Received The Telegraph School Awards for Excellence Certificate of Honour for Outstanding talent in debating and quizzing, 2007
• Represented the East Zone in the National Final of the Frank Anthony All-India Inter-Institutional Debate held in Mumbai, 25 Sep 2007 (at Leelavati Bai Poddar High School, presided over by Chief Guest Aamir Khan)
• Best speaker, inter-house debate at Calcutta Girls’ High School organized as a part of the International School Award, instituted by the British Council, Kolkata; also member of the Best Team; Jul 2007
• First prize at the debate held at Vision 2007 and runner-up in 2006
• First prize at the debate, and second-runner at the conference on “Nature and the Environment,” held in the Bosco Fest 2007
• Runner-up, Somojit-Somak Memorial Inter-School Debate 2007; second runner-up in 2006 (organised annually by Calcutta Boys’ School)

Theatre:

• As Lady Ranu Mukherjee in ‘Teen Kanya’r Tagore’; performed at the School of Arts and Aesthetics Auditorium, Jawaharlal Nehru University, 2015
• As Ratan in Tagore’s ‘The Post Master’; also adapted the short story for the stage; performed at the School of Arts and Aesthetics Auditorium, Jawaharlal Nehru University, 2014
• As Asma Chowdhury Joyeeta in Anjan Dutta’s ‘Priyo Bondhu’; also adapted the piece for the stage; performed at the Convention Centre, Jawaharlal Nehru University, 2016
• As Miss Hemlata Ray in Hemendra Kumar Ray’s ‘Mrs Kumudini Chaudhuri’; also adapted the short story for the stage; performed at the Convention Centre, Jawaharlal Nehru University, 2014
• First prize, mono-acting competition (performed the ‘Sleep Walking Scene’ from Shakespeare’s Macbeth) at the annual cultural festival of Jawaharlal Nehru University, 2012
• Scripted, co-directed (with Gourab Ghosh) and acted in the play ‘The Masterpiece’, based on O’Henry’s ‘The Last Leaf’; the play won the first prize in the drama competition at the annual cultural festival of Jawaharlal Nehru University, 2012
• As Shakuntala in Shakuntala, performed at the Convention Centre, Jawaharlal Nehru University, 2012
• First prize, ‘Ad-Live’ – an Ad-Spoof Competition, organized byLoreto College as a part of its annual inter-collegiate festival, in 2009
• First prize, Street Play Competition at the Health Fair organized by The Telegraph, Kolkata in 2006; wrote the script, directed and acted in the play
• Runner-up, drama competition at the Bible Fest organized bySt. James’ School, Kolkata, in 2006; wrote the script of the playbesides acting in and directing it
• As Lady Macbeth, under the direction of Prof Amitava Roy, President, the Shakespeare Society of Eastern India, 2005
• As Portia (The Merchant of Venice), under the direction of theatre-activist and journalist, Parnab Mukherjee, 2004
• Runner-up, drama competition in Insurrection 2004 (inter-school festival organized by St. Joseph’s College, Kolkata)

Other Work Experience:

• Former freelance columnist with Youth Ki Awaaz, News Laundry, and The Telegraph – Metro (Kolkata)
• Former blogger with Teamwork Arts, India, and India Restaurant, Providence, USA
• Worked as Senior Reporter for The Telegraph in Schools from 2004 to 2008 – featured as “Star Student” in the 3 Mar 2008 issue of TTIS; won title of “Reporter of the Year” of TTIS (for the year 2007 – 2008) and “Reporter of the Month” of TTIS (for Jan 2007); interviewed the likes of former President of India, Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam, the Governor of Arunachal Pradesh, General JJ Singh, and Sir Mark Tully for TTIS

(last updated 2020)

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0639-7163

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