My Father’s Garden by Hansda Sowvendra Shekha

Bio

Hansda Sowvendra Shekhar lives in Jharkhand and has written three books each for adults and children. His last novel for adult readers, My Father’s Garden, was shortlisted for the JCB Prize for Literature 2019 and won the Best Book prize at the Likho Awards for Excellence 2019 presented by the Humsafar Trust. His first novel for adult readers, The Mysterious Ailment of Rupi Baskey, won a Sahitya Akademi Yuva Puraskar in 2015 and jointly won the Muse India Young Writer Award in 2016, was shortlisted for The Hindu Prize 2014 and a Crossword Book Award in 2015, and longlisted for the International Dublin Literary Award 2016. His collection of short stories for adult readers, The Adivasi Will Not Dance, was shortlisted for The Hindu Prize 2016, was a #1 bestseller on Amazon India in 2017, and its translations have been published so far in 5 Indian languages. His first novel for young readers, Jwala Kumar and the Gift of Fire: Adventures in Champakbagh (featuring illustrations by Krishna Bala Shenoi), was shortlisted for a Crossword Book Award and a Neev Book Award in the year 2019. His last two books are for younger readers: Who’s There? (featuring illustrations by Anupama Ajinkya Apte) and Sumi Budhi and Sugi (featuring illustrations by Joanna Mendes). Sowvendra’s writings have also been published in The New York Times, The Hindu, The Hindu Business Line, The Times of India, The Indian Express, The Asian Age, The Statesman, National Herald, Scroll, Reader’s Digest India, Good Housekeeping India, The Indian Quarterly, Mint Lounge, HuffPost India, Outlook, Open, Biblio, The Book Review, Agents of Ishq, and other places, and he also occasionally translates from Santhali (his mother tongue) and Hindi into English.