Suchitra Bhattacharya

Suchitra Bhattacharya (born 10 January 1950 in Bhagalpur, Bihar) is an Indian novelist.

Suchitra Bhattacharya was interested in writing from her childhood. After graduating from Calcutta University she married and took a break from writing. She returned to writing with short stories written in the late seventies (1978- 1979). She started writing novels in the mid eighties. Within a decade, especially after publication of the novel "Kacher Dewal" (Glass Wall), she became one of the major writers of Bengal.

Her writing focuses on contemporary social issues. She is a perceptive observer of the changing urban milieu and her writing closely examines the contemporary Bengali middle class. Crisis in human relationships and the changing values of the present era along with degeneration of the moral fibre of the society in the backdrop of globalisation and consumerism are depicted in her prose. Exploitations and sufferings of women regardless of their social or economic identities find a distinct voice in her writing. While she is famous for her writing on women's issues, she does not consider herself as a feminist. She took up many odd jobs in her early youth and finally joined the public service which she left in 2004 to become a fulltime writer. Her long career is reflected in many of her stories and novels.

Over the past two decades, Suchitra has written about 24 novels and a large number of short stories in different leading Bangla literary magazines. Some of her acclaimed novels are "Kachher Manush" (Close to Me), "Dahan" (The Burning), "Kacher Dewal", "Hemonter Pakhi", "Neel Ghurni", "Aleek Shukh", "Gabhir Ashukh" (A Grave Illness), "Uro Megh", "Chhera Taar", "Alochhaya", "Anyo Basanto", "Parabas", "Palabar Path Nei", "Aami Raikishori", "Rangin Pritibi" and "Jalchhobi" among others. Her novels and short stories have been translated into many Indian languages such as Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Oriya, Marathi, Gujarati, Punjabi and English. She also writes novels and short stories for children. Her novel "Dahana" was made into a movie by famous Bengali director, Rituparno Ghosh.

Suchitra has received several awards which include the Bhuban Mohini Medal from Calcutta University in 2004, the Nanjanagudu Thirumalamba National Award from Bangalore in 1996, the Katha Award 1997 from Delhi, the Tarashankar Award in 2000 from Kolkata, the Dwijendralal Award in 2001 from Kalyani, the Sharat Puroshkar in 2002 from Bhagalpur, as well as the Bharat Nirman Award, Sahitya Setu Award and Shailajananda Smriti Puroshkar in 2004.

External links

* [http://www.loc.gov/acq/ovop/delhi/salrp/suchitrabhattacharya.html Biography on US Library of Congress site]