Manjushree Thapa (born 1968 in

Kathmandu Kathmandu () is the capital and largest city of Nepal, situated in the central part of the country within the Kathmandu Valley. As per the 2021 Nepal census, it has a population of 845,767 residing in 105,649 households, with approximately 4 mi ...

) is a Nepalese–born

Canadian Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...

essayist An essay ( ) is, generally, a piece of writing that gives the author's own argument, but the definition is vague, overlapping with those of a Letter (message), letter, a term paper, paper, an article (publishing), article, a pamphlet, and a s ...

, fiction

writer A writer is a person who uses written words in different writing styles, genres and techniques to communicate ideas, to inspire feelings and emotions, or to entertain. Writers may develop different forms of writing such as novels, short sto ...

translator Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. The English language draws a terminological distinction (which does not exist in every language) between ''trans ...

and

editor Editing is the process of selecting and preparing written, visual, audible, or cinematic material used by a person or an entity to convey a message or information. The editing process can involve correction, condensation, organization, a ...

. She is one of the first English writers of Nepali descent to be published internationally. '' Forget Kathmandu'' and '' The Tutor of History'' are some of her most well-known works.

Biography

Manjushree Thapa was born in 1968 in Kathmandu to former Foreign Minister and Nepal Rastra Bank governor Bhekh Bahadur Thapa and public health expert Dr. Rita Thapa. She grew up in

Nepal Nepal, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is mainly situated in the Himalayas, but also includes parts of the Indo-Gangetic Plain. It borders the Tibet Autonomous Region of China Ch ...

, Canada and in United States. She began to write upon completing her BFA in photography at the Rhode Island School of Design. Her first

book A book is a structured presentation of recorded information, primarily verbal and graphical, through a medium. Originally physical, electronic books and audiobooks are now existent. Physical books are objects that contain printed material, ...

was ''Mustang Bhot in Fragments'' (1992). In 2001 she published the novel '' The Tutor of History'', which she had begun as her MFA thesis in the creative writing program at the University of Washington in Seattle, which she attended as a Fulbright scholar. Her best known book is ''Forget Kathmandu: An Elegy for Democracy'' (2005), published just weeks before the royal coup in Nepal on 1 February 2005. The book was shortlisted for the

Lettre Ulysses Award The Lettre Ulysses Award for the Art of Reportage has been given annually since 2003 for the best texts in the genre of literary reportage, which must have been first published during the previous two years. The award was initiated by Lettre Intern ...

in 2006. After the publication of the book, Thapa left the country to live in Canada. In 2007, she published a short story collection, ''Tilled Earth.'' In 2009 she published a biography of a Nepali environmentalist, ''A Boy from Siklis: The Life and Times of Chandra Gurung''. The following year, she published a novel, ''Seasons of Flight''. In 2011, she published a nonfiction collection, ''The Lives We Have Lost: Essays and Opinions on Nepal''. Her latest book, published in South Asia in 2016, is a novel, ''All Of Us in Our Own Lives''. She has also contributed op-eds to the

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

. Her translation of

Indra Bahadur Rai Indra Bahadur Rai (3 February 1927 – 6 March 2018) was an Indian Nepali language writer and literary critic from Darjeeling, India. He wrote multiple essays, short stories, novels and criticism in his lifetime. ''Kheer'' and ''Raat Bhari Huri ...

's ''There's a Carnival Today'' was conducted under the 2017

PEN America PEN America (formerly PEN American Center), founded in 1922, and headquartered in New York City, is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization whose goal is to raise awareness for the protection of free expression in the United States and worldwide th ...

Heim Translation Grant.

Bibliography

Fiction * '' The Tutor of History'' (2001) * '' Tilled Earth'' (2007) * ''Seasons of Flight'' (2010) * ''All Of Us in Our Own Lives'' (2016) Non-Fiction * ''Mustang Bhot in Fragments'' (1992) * '' Forget Kathmandu: An Elegy for Democracy'' (2005) * ''A Boy from Siklis'' (2009) * ''The Lives We Have Lost'' (2012) Translation * ''A Leaf in a Begging Bowl'' by Ramesh Vikal (2000) * ''The Country is Yours'' (2009) * ''There's a Carnival Today'' by Indra Bahadur Rai (2017)

References

External links

Manjushree Thapa's website
* http://www.bookslut.com/features/2014_10_020904.php {{DEFAULTSORT:Thapa, Manjushree 1968 births Living people Canadian people of Nepalese descent Writers from Kathmandu University of Washington alumni Canadian women essayists Canadian women novelists Canadian women short story writers 21st-century Canadian novelists 21st-century Canadian short story writers Nepalese emigrants to Canada Nepalese women novelists Nepalese novelists Nepalese translators 21st-century Canadian translators Translators to Nepali Translators to English Translators from English Translators from Nepali 20th-century Nepalese writers 20th-century Nepalese women writers 21st-century Nepalese writers 21st-century Nepalese women writers 20th-century Canadian women writers 21st-century Canadian women writers 20th-century Canadian short story writers Canadian women non-fiction writers 20th-century Canadian essayists 21st-century Canadian essayists English-language writers from Nepal Himalayan studies

Biography

Bibliography

See also

References

External links