21st Century Bihari authors of English Literature-1
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.
Siddhartha Chaudhury (1974) was born at Patna, Bihar. He studied at St. Xavier’s High School, Patna and subsequently read English at Zakir Husain and Hindu Colleges in Delhi University between 1993-1998. In 2005 Chowdhury translated Eliot Weinberger’s brilliant prose-poem The Stars(with etchings by Vija Celmins) into Hindi for the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA), New York.
Also read: The Eminent Bihari English Writers of the 21st Century – Part 4
In 2007, he held the Charles Wallace Writer in Residence fellowship at the University of Stirling in Scotland. In 2012, Chowdhury was included in the Elle Magazine list of 20 Best South Asian Writers under 40. In 2013, Day Scholar was one of the 50 novels featured in 50 writers, 50 Books: The Best of Indian Fiction(Harper-Collins).
He lives in Delhi and works as an editorial consultant.
His books include a collection of short stories—Diksha at St. Martin’s (2002), and novels Patna Roughcut (2005), Day Scholar (2010) and A Patna Manual of Style (2015). Day Scholar was shortlisted for the Man Asian Literary Award in 2009.
– globalbihari bureau
