Arunava Sinha—professor, journalist, translator of over 100 works, including The Laboratory by Rabindranath Tagore—discusses his new venture, Chowringhee Press, his career in translation, the literary scene in India writ large, and provides a list of books to check out if you’re looking for entryways into South Asia’s diverse literary scene (see below).
Books published by Chowringhee Press:
I Murdered Mine, Subhadra Kumari Chauhan, translated from the Hindi by Sakshi Agarwal
Premchand X Ray + Sen, Munshi Premchand aka Dhanpat Rai Shrivastava, translated from the Hindi by Sayari Debnath
Writing Death—Ego: A Novel, Rajalekshmi, translated from the Malayalam by Dhiya Sony
The Laboratory, Rabindranath Tagore, translated from the Bengali by Arunava Sinha
Finalists for the JCB Prize for Literature:
Jasmine Days, Benyamin, translated from the Malayalam by Shahnaz Habib
The One Legged, Sakyajit Bhattacharya, translated from the Bengali by Rituparna Mukherjee
Imaan, Manoranjan Byapari, translated from the Bengali by Arunava Sinha
The Nemesis, Manoranjan Byapari, translated from the Bengali by V. Ramaswamy
There’s Gunpowder in the Air, Manoranjan Byapari, translated from the Bengali by Arunava Sinha
Moustache, S. Hareesh, translated from the Malayalam by Jayasree Kalathil
Anti-Clock, V.J. James, translated from the Malayalam by Ministhy S.
The Paradise of Food, Khalid Jawed, translated from the Urdu by Baran Farooqi
Song of the Soil, Chuden Kabimo, translated from the Nepali by Ajit Baral
Sanatan, Sharankumar Limable, translated from the Marathi (via Hindi) by Paromita Sengupta
Maria, Just Maria, Sandhya Mary, translated from the Malayalam by Jayasree Kalathil
Delhi: A Soliloquy, M. Mukundan, translated from the Malayalam by Fathima E.V. & Nandakumar K.
Fire Bird, Perumal Murugan, translated from the Tamil by Janani Kannan
A Lonely Harvest, Perumal Murugan, translated from the Tamil by Aniruddhan Vasudevan
The Story of a Goat, Perumal Murugan, translated from the Tamil by N. Kalyan Raman
Trial by Silence, Perumal Murugan, translated from the Tamil by Aniruddhan Vasudevan
I Named My Sister Silence, Manoj Rupda, translated from the Hindi by Hansda Sowvendra Shekhar
Tomb of Sand, Geetanjali Shree, translated from the Hindi by Daisy Rockwell (also featured on the Two Month Review)
Valli, Sheela Tomy, translated from the Malayalam by Jayasree Kalathil
This episode’s music is “Looking for a Ghazal” by Sarathy Korwar.
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