Mamang Dai (born 23 February 1957) is an Indian poet, novelist and journalist based in

Itanagar Itanagar () is the capital and largest town of the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh. The seat of Arunachal Pradesh Legislative Assembly, the seat of government of Arunachal Pradesh, and the seat of Gauhati High Court permanent bench at Nahar ...

Arunachal Pradesh Arunachal Pradesh (; ) is a States and union territories of India, state in northeast India. It was formed from the North-East Frontier Agency (NEFA) region, and India declared it as a state on 20 February 1987. Itanagar is its capital and la ...

. She received

Sahitya Akademi Award The Sahitya Akademi Award is a literary honour in India, which the Sahitya Akademi, India's National Academy of Letters, annually confers on writers of the most outstanding books of literary merit published in any of the 22 languages of the ...

in 2017 for her novel ''The Black Hill''.

Life

Mamang Dai was born on 29 February 1957 at Pasighat, East Siang district, to Matin Dai and Odi Dai. Her family belongs to the Adi tribe. She completed her schooling from Pine Mount School,

Shillong Shillong (, ) is a hill station and the capital of Meghalaya, a Indian state, state in northeastern India. It is the headquarters of the East Khasi Hills district. Shillong is the list of most populous cities in India, 330th most populous city ...

Meghalaya Meghalaya (; "the abode of clouds") is a states and union territories of India, state in northeast India. Its capital is Shillong. Meghalaya was formed on 21 January 1972 by carving out two districts from the Assam: the United Khasi Hills an ...

. She completed her Bachelor in English literature from

Gauhati University Gauhati University also known as GU, is a collegiate public state university located in Guwahati, Assam, India. It was established on 26 January 1948 under the provisions of an Act enacted by the Assam Legislative Assembly and is the oldest un ...

Assam Assam (, , ) is a state in Northeast India, northeastern India, south of the eastern Himalayas along the Brahmaputra Valley, Brahmaputra and Barak River valleys. Assam covers an area of . It is the second largest state in Northeast India, nor ...

. She was selected for the IAS in 1979, but later she left the post to pursue her career in journalism. She is the first woman from her state to be selected for IAS. While working as a journalist, she contributed to

The Telegraph ''The Telegraph'', ''Daily Telegraph'', ''Sunday Telegraph'' and other variant names are often names for newspapers. Newspapers with these titles include: Australia * The Telegraph (Adelaide), ''The Telegraph'' (Adelaide), a newspaper in Adelaid ...

Hindustan Times ''Hindustan Times'' is an Indian English language, English-language daily newspaper based in Delhi. It is the flagship publication of HT Media Limited, an entity controlled by the Birla family, and is owned by Shobhana Bhartia, the daughter o ...

and ''The Sentinel''. She has also worked in radio, as well as TV-AIR and DDK, Itanagar where she worked as an anchor and conducted interviews. She was appointed programme officer at Worldwide Fund for Nature, known as WWF, where she worked in the Eastern Himalayas Biodiversity Hotspots programme. She was the former secretary of Itanagar Press Club. She was the president of Arunachal Pradesh Union of Working Journalists (APUW). In 2011, she was appointed a member of Arunachal Pradesh state public service commission.

Works

Her non-fictional works include ''Arunachal Pradesh: The Hidden Land'' (2003) and ''Mountain Harvest : The Food of Arunachal'' (2004). ''The Sky Queen and Once Upon a Moontime'' (2003) are illustrated

folklore Folklore is the body of expressive culture shared by a particular group of people, culture or subculture. This includes oral traditions such as Narrative, tales, myths, legends, proverbs, Poetry, poems, jokes, and other oral traditions. This also ...

texts by her. She published her first novel, ''The Legends of Pensam'' in 2006, which was followed by ''Stupid Cupid'' (2008) and ''The Black Hill'' (2014) ''Escaping the Land'' (2021). ''River Poems'' (2004), ''The Balm of Time'' (2008) ''Hambreelmai's Loom'' (2014), ''Midsummer Survival Lyrics'' (2014) are her poetry collections. ''The Balm of Time'' was also published in Assamese as ''El Balsamo Del YTiempo''. When she began writing, she wrote romantic verse and stories. She then moved from the theme of the self to focus on a larger reality. She reflects upon the sense of a close knit community living in remoter towns and villages. Some of the positions that she has occupied include General Secretary of the Arunachal Pradesh Literary Society, member of the North East Writers’ Forum and General Council member of the Sahitya and Sangeet Natak Akademi.

Awards

She received

Padma Shri The Padma Shri (IAST: ''padma śrī'', lit. 'Lotus Honour'), also spelled Padma Shree, is the fourth-highest Indian honours system, civilian award of the Republic of India, after the Bharat Ratna, the Padma Vibhushan and the Padma Bhushan. In ...

in 2011 from the Government of India. The government of Arunachal Pradesh conferred on her annual Verrier Elwin Prize in 2013 for her book ''Arunachal Pradesh: The Hidden Land''. She received

in 2017 for her novel ''The Black Hill''.

References

External links

Interview in Thanal Online

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Dai, Mamang 1957 births Writers from Northeast India English-language poets from India Writers from Arunachal Pradesh 20th-century Indian poets Indian civil servants Living people People from Itanagar People from Adi Community Recipients of the Sahitya Akademi Award in English 21st-century Indian novelists Adivasi women writers Recipients of the Padma Shri in literature and education

Life

Works

Awards

See also

References

External links