21st Century Bihari authors of English Literature-4
Bihar has been the home of some of the great writers and poets since ancient times including Chanakya who wrote Arthashatra, Vatsayayana who wrote Kamasutra and Aryabhatta, the author of Aryabhatiya were all from Bihar. (Chanakya, though, was born in Taxila, in modern day Pakistan but was instrumental in the creation of the great Mauryan empire).
Over the centuries, Vidyapati (Maithili poet), Ramdhari Singh Dinkar and Baba Nagarjun (both eminent Hindi writers) from Bihar have richly contributed to the Indian literature.
In the 21st century as well, Bihari writers continue to carve a niche for themselves and are known globally for their literary works. In this series we profile these Bihari authors of English literature who truly keep the Bihar flag flying high in literary field across the globe.
Raj Kamal Jha
Raj Kamal Jha, 54, was born in Bhagalpur, Bihar. He studied at St. Joesph College, Calcutta and IIT Kharagpur, and journalism at the University of Southern California. Since 1990, he has worked at The Statesman in Kolkata and India Today, and since 1996 he has been with The Indian Express, where at present he is holding the position of the Chief Editor.
Also read: The Eminent Bihari English Writers of the 21st Century – Part 3
He is the author of five novels The City And The Sea (2019), She Will Build Him A City (2015), Fireproof (2006), If You Are Afraid of Heights (2003) and The Blue Bedspread (2001). The City and The Sea was the winner of Tata Literature Live Book of The Year (Fiction) 2019 and was long listed for JCB Prize in Literature. Jha’s novels have been translated into more than a dozen European languages, including French, German, Italian, Dutch, Greek, Hebrew, Turkish, Spanish and Finnish. His short stories have also appeared in German and French anthologies. His work has been featured in many global literary festivals.
Jha was a visiting professor at the Graduate School of Journalism at the University of California, Berkeley where he taught a course on reporting on India. In 2005, he was made a fellow at the Yaddo Residency in Saratoga Springs, New York.and in 2012-2013, he was selected as Artist-in-Residence (Literature) under the Berliner Künstlerprogramm, offering grants to artists in the fields of visual arts, literature, music and film by the German Academic Exchange Service in Berlin.
– globalbihari bureau
