Paro Anand is an Indian author of books for children, young adults and adults including novels, short stories and plays. She won the Sahitya Akademi Bal Sahitya Puruskar in 2017[1] for her anthology Wild Child and Other Stories (now published as "Like Smoke: 20 Teens 20 Stories").[2] She has spoken about and written extensively on children's literature in India.[3][4] She headed the National Centre for Children's Literature at the National Book Trust India, the apex body for children's literature in India. She also runs a podcast on Hubhopper called Literature in Action,[5] and was an invitee to the India Conference at the Harvard Business School in 2018.[6]
Paro Anand | |
|---|---|
 Anand at a Talking Books event in 2019 | |
| Occupation | Novelist |
| Nationality | Indian |
| Genre | Children's literature, young adult |
| Notable awards | Sahitya Akademi Bal Sahitya Puraskar |
| Website | |
| paroanand | |
Writing edit
In an interview with The Hindu, Anand said that she was working as a drama teacher when she realized that there were not many Indian works for Indian students to adapt. "There were only very archaic or Western scripts for performance. I couldn’t find the kind of plays I wanted to do with today's Indian children, so I started writing them and then found there weren’t many storybooks that fitted my brief either. So I started writing those."[4]
Anand's writing covers topics such as communal hatred, failure, sexual abuse and being different, and is often intended for a young audience.[7]
Translations edit
Anand's book No Guns at My Son's Funeral made it to the IBBY Honors List of 2006[8] and has been translated into Spanish and German.
Awards and recognitions edit
Anand won the National Sahitya Akademi Bal Sahitya Puraskar in 2017 for her collection of short stories, Wild Child and Other Stories (now published as "Like Smoke: 20 Teens 20 Stories").[1] In 2019, she was conferred the Kalinga Karubaki Award of the Kalinga Literary Festival.[9]
References... edit
- ^ a b "..:: SAHITYA Akademi - Bal Sahitya Puraskar ::." sahitya-akademi.gov.in. Retrieved 21 July 2019.
- ^ "What the Readers Had to Say About the Award-Winning Book 'Wild Child and Other Stories'". The Penguin Digest. 6 September 2017. Retrieved 5 August 2019.
- ^ "Writer Paro Anand On Young Adults, Children In Kashmir, And Putting Sex In Her Books". HuffPost India. 2 October 2017. Retrieved 21 July 2019.
- ^ a b Krithika, R. (22 July 2017). "I was and remain an excellent liar: Paro Anand". The Hindu. ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 21 July 2019.
- ^ "Literature in action | Listen via hubhopper". hubhopper.com. Retrieved 21 July 2019.
- ^ "Author Paro Anand at India Conference at Harvard Business School and Harvard Kennedy School - Orissa Diary". Dailyhunt. Retrieved 5 August 2019.
- ^ "'You still get Panchatantra when you ask for Indian kids' literature'". Hindustan Times. 28 March 2016. Retrieved 29 July 2019.
- ^ "2006: IBBY official website". www.ibby.org. Retrieved 28 July 2019.
- ^ bureau, Odisha Diary (17 July 2019). "Pavan K. Verma, Rajendra Kishore Panda, Paro Anand to be conferred with Prestigious Kalinga Literary Awards of 2019". OdishaDiary. Retrieved 29 July 2019.