Industry Publishing Website Katha Books Founder Geeta Dharmarajan | Products Books Headquarters Delhi Founded 1988 | |
Katha Books is a publishing house owned by Katha, that has done pioneering works in the field of translating Indian literature written in the regional languages, community and child welfare. It was founded in 1988 by Geeta Dharmarajan.
Moontime and Mayil Ravana: Young readers and their parents are hungry for homespun stories] Archana Venkat, The Hindu, Business Line, Aug 11, 2006.
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Known for negotiating new spaces in children's literature in translation especially, Katha has been named thrice for the Astrid Lindgren Award, sometimes dubbed as the "Nobel Prize in Literature." Today it is a leading name in translation genre in Indian publishing, and produces stories from contemporary India, unusual Indian folklore and unsung mythology, translated into English and Hindi from 21 regional Indian languages Katha is "exclusively devoted to translating regional Indian writers into English."
Books for Adults Nearly 200 Katha books for adults, almost all in translation from 21 Indian languages Katha Prize Stories. Prize Catch . India Today Books for Children Nearly 122 books recommended by NCERT and CBSE.
Her Story.
Criticism & Reviews
While Katha is doing excellent works some people mistakenly see it as prone to literary politics – at least, they say, in respect of Urdu. Paigham Afaqui, author of famous novel Novel MAKAAN is also an outstanding short story writer. Some of his stories included in collection of his short stories 'MAFIA' are considered masterpieces of Urdu stories. His novel Makaan is better known for denial of Sahitya Academy Award. But as sometimes it unfortunately happens, in the collection of short stories translated by Katha the name of Paigham Afaqui has been noted in the Introduction of the book but none of his stories are included in the collection. It indicates that Katha is controlled by similar people who control Sahitya Academy. But others have appreciated its many volumes on Urdu literature in translation, from the excellent Life and Times of Ismat Chugtai, to the volume of emerging Urdu writers, published in association with Jamia Millia islamia. Page 291.
And of Naiyer Masud, one critic says, after reading Katha's translation, "[Naiyer Masud's stories, fragments of a dream really, work as Kafka would say quite like an axe for the frozen sea inside us." One of the stories was made into a play in Mumbai as "TAOOS CHAMAN KI MYNA" by Gillo Theatre repertory, in 2013. (Adaptation and Direction – Atul Tiwari. Music – Amod Bhatt. Production Design – M S Sathyu. Creative Director: Shaili Satyu.)
Some other reviews: https://onboardthemommyship.wordpress.com/tag/katha-books-for-kids/
We don’t need to quantify the good work ... Katha [has] done.
Katha Awards
Initiated in 1990, these awards have gone a long way in promoting the best of fiction in Indian Literature. and has "firmly put translation onto the Indian publishing agenda with the 'Katha Prize' Stories series". Also known as Katha Award for Creative Fiction, stories written in the regional languages, including Bangla, English, Konkani, Malayalam, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu and Urdu, and English are considered, given in 30 categories in all, and the highest award, the 'Katha Chudamani Award' given for lifetime literary achievement to writers of exceptional merit, honours the writer with a citation, a cash award and with publication in English of their significant works.
The other prize associated with this are the A K Ramanujan Award (for translators), Kathakari Award (to a writer who retells oral folk tales) and the Kathavachak Award (to a writer who uses oral traditions to write a modern day story). Thirteen volumes of Katha Prize Stories have been published so far. The award are also marked by the week-long 'Katha Utsav' (Katha Festival), where story-tellers from many parts of the world take part