Shashi Deshpande (born 1938) is an Indian

novelist A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Some novelists are professional novelists, thus make a living wage, living writing novels and other fiction, while other ...

. She is a recipient of the Sahitya Akademi Award and the

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 ...

Award in 1990 and 2009 respectively.

Biography

She was born on 19 august 1938 in

Dharwad Dharwad (), also known as Dharwar, is a city located in the northwestern part of the Indian state of Karnataka. It is the headquarters of the Dharwad district of Karnataka and forms a contiguous urban area with the city of Hubballi. It was merged ...

Karnataka Karnataka ( ) is a States and union territories of India, state in the southwestern region of India. It was Unification of Karnataka, formed as Mysore State on 1 November 1956, with the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, 1956, States Re ...

, the second daughter of the Kannada dramatist and writer Adya Rangacharya and Sharada Adya. She was educated in

Bombay Mumbai ( ; ), also known as Bombay ( ; its official name until 1995), is the capital city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of Maharashtra. Mumbai is the financial centre, financial capital and the list of cities i ...

(now Mumbai) and

Bangalore Bengaluru, also known as Bangalore (List of renamed places in India#Karnataka, its official name until 1 November 2014), is the Capital city, capital and largest city of the southern States and union territories of India, Indian state of Kar ...

. Deshpande has degrees in

Economics Economics () is a behavioral science that studies the Production (economics), production, distribution (economics), distribution, and Consumption (economics), consumption of goods and services. Economics focuses on the behaviour and interac ...

and

Law Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior, with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been variously described as a science and as the ar ...

. In Mumbai, she studied

journalism Journalism is the production and distribution of reports on the interaction of events, facts, ideas, and people that are the "news of the day" and that informs society to at least some degree of accuracy. The word, a noun, applies to the journ ...

at the Vidya Bhavan and worked for a few months as a journalist for the magazine 'Onlooker'. She published her first collection of short stories in 1978, and her first novel, 'The Dark Holds No Terror', in 1980. She won the Sahitya Akademi Award for the novel ''That Long Silence'' in 1990 and the

award in 2009. Her novel ''Shadow Play'' was shortlisted for The Hindu Literary Prize in 2014. Deshpande has written four children’s books, a number of short stories, thirteen novels, and an essay collection entitled ''Writing from the Margin and Other Essays''. On 9 December, 2015, she resigned from her position in the

Sahitya Akademi The Sahitya Akademi, India's National Academy of Letters, is an organisation dedicated to the promotion of literature in the languages of India. Founded on 12 March 1954, it is supported by, though independent of the Indian government. Its off ...

's general council and returned her Sahitya Akademi award. In doing so, she joined a broader protest by other writers against the Akademi's perceived inaction and silence on the murder of M. M. Kalburgi. On 6 December, 2018, during her inaugural address of the ninth edition of the Goa Arts and Literature Festival (GALF), Deshpande urged Indians to think about the consequences of wanting a Hindu nation, and reminded those present of the violence and carnage that had been caused by the India-Pakistan partition.

Selected bibliography

* ''The Dark Holds No Terrors'', Penguin Books India (1980), * ''If I Die Today'' (1982) * ''Come Up and Be Dead'' (1983) * '' Roots and Shadows'' (1983) * ''That Long Silence'', Penguin (paperback 1989), * ''The Intrusion and Other Stories'' (1993) * ''A Matter of Time'', The Feminist Press at CUNY (1996), * ''The Binding Vine'', The Feminist Press at CUNY (2002), * '' Small Remedies'', Penguin India (2000), * ''Moving On'', Penguin Books India (2004), * ''In the Country of Deceit'', Penguin/Viking (2008), * ''Shadow Play'', Aleph (2013), * ''Strangers to Ourselves'', HarperCollins (2015), ; Children's books * ''A Summer Adventure'' * ''The Hidden Treasure'' * ''The Only Witness'' * ''The Narayanpur Incident''

Memoir

* ''Listen to Me''

Collected Essays

* ''Writing from the Margin & Other Essays'', Penguin (2003),

References

External links

Feature on Women Writers, BBC World Service

{{DEFAULTSORT:Deshpande, Shashi 1938 births Indian women novelists Novelists from Karnataka Indian women children's writers Indian children's writers Living people Recipients of the Sahitya Akademi Award in English People from Dharwad English-language writers from India 20th-century Indian novelists Women writers from Karnataka 20th-century Indian women writers