You are all invited to the Champaca Book Club on Sunday, 31 January, 2020 at 6:30 pm IST to discuss Motherwit with the book’s author Urmila Pawar and translator Veena Deo who will be in conversation with Somak Ghoshal.
Get a copy of the book from Champaca, and join us on Youtube.
Veena Deo is professor emerita in the English department at Hamline University in St. Paul, Minnesota, USA, where she taught between 1991-2019. At Hamline, her courses were focused in African American literature and cross-listed with Women’s Studies and Global Studies. Having studied in India and the US, she has taught for several years in Pune, New Delhi, and the US. Her publications include academic articles, poetry, a co-authored play, and translations in Hindi and English. Her interest in Dalit Marathi Literature was sparked by the powerful voices of the members of the Dalit Panther Movement in the sixties. Her work in African American Studies over the years has only furthered her engagement with Dalit literature and especially women’s writing.
Urmila Pawar has done her M.A. From Mumbai university. She was born in a small village of Ratnagiri as the youngest child in a dalit family. Urmila Pawar learned early in life the meaning of her subordination as a woman and as a dalit. The lesson she learned about the need for self-confidence, and the courage to overcome these forms of discrimination has stood her in good stead in her attempts to break barriers and reach for the stars. She is a prolific writer and has written ten books including three short story collections, some of which were selected and translated in English as Motherwit by Prof. Veena Deo. She has won many prestigious prizes for her sensitive exploration of the lives of Dalit women in India. Her autobiography Aydaan: The Weave of my Life in particular continues to touch the heart of all lovers of literature.