Occupation Writer Notable works Street on the Hill | Name Anjum Hasan Role Poet | |
Books Difficult Pleasures, Lunatic in My Head, Big Girl Now, Street on the Hill | ||
QUICKWORD WITH ANJUM HASAN
Anjum Hasan is an Indian novelist, short story writer, poet, and editor. She was born in Shillong, Meghalaya and currently lives in Bangalore, Karnataka, India.
Contents
Caravan conversations anjum hasan s the cosmopolitans
Career
Anjum Hasan’s first book was the collection of poems Street on the Hill, published by Sahitya Akademi in 2006. The book appeared in Norwegian translation as Gata på toppen av en ås as in 2011 from Margbok (translated by Lene E. Westerås).
Her debut novel Lunatic in my Head (Zubaan-Penguin, 2007) was shortlisted for the Crossword Book Award 2007. Set in Shillong, a picturesque hill-station in north-east India, in the early 1990s, the novel weaves together the stories of its three main characters, ranging from an IAS aspirant who is obsessed with Pink Floyd to a college teacher struggling to complete her PhD and longing to find love. The novel has been described by Siddhartha Deb as 'haunting and lyrical' and as acquiring a 'lyrical intensity'.
Her second novel titled Neti, Neti (Roli Books, 2009) was longlisted for the 2008 Man Asian Literary Prize and shortlisted for The Hindu Best Fiction Award in 2010. It told the story of a twenty-five-year old Sophie Das, a dreamy character from Shillong, looking for fulfilment in boom town Bangalore. According to the reviews “Neti, Neti paints an empathetic portrait of the unusually liberated—and unexpectedly lost—middle-class youth of the brave new India." and ““Hasan’s writing is full of warm humour... Blurbs will struggle to capture her subversivesness.”
Her short-story collection, Difficult Pleasures (Penguin/Viking 2012), was shortlisted for The Hindu Literary Prize and the Crossword Book Award. Lunatic in my Head, Neti, Neti (as Big Girl Now) and Difficult Pleasures have all appeared in Australia from Brass Monkey Books.
Her third novel The Cosmopolitans appeared from Penguin Books India in 2015 and from Brio Books Australia in 2016. Reviews said “Fiercely intelligent”, “an author at the peak of her powers” and “That rare thing: a novel of ideas”
She has also contributed poems, articles and short stories to various national and international publications.
She is currently Books Editor for The Caravan.