The Girl with the Golden Parasol

ABOUT THE AUTHOR AND THE TRANSLATOR

UDAY PRAKASH is one of contemporary Hindi’s most important voices. Considered one of India’s most original and audacious writers, he is among the most popular authors in India nowadays. Prakash’s texts describe the ongoing transformations of the contemporary Indian society.

Prakash is not an uncontroversial figure in the world of Hindi literature. He has been attacked from all parts of the political spectrum for his very individual approaches to the contradictory manifestations of modernity in contemporary Indian society as well as the challenges posed by the Hindi literary establishment to younger writers who wish to do new things with language and form.

Prakash is the author of poems, short stories, non-fiction, films, and documentaries. In 2010 he received the prestigious Sahitya Akademi literary award, one of India’s highest literary honors. He is professor-in-charge, Department of Mass Communication, Media, and Journalism, Indira Gandhi Tribal University, Amarkantak. He lives in Ghaziabad, India.

JASON GRUNEBAUM grew up in Buffalo, New York. He earned an MFA in fiction from Columbia University, and is currently Senior Lecturer in Hindi at the University of Chicago, where he also teaches creative writing. His stories and translations have appeared in many literary journals.

Grunebaum has been awarded an NEA Literature Fellowship and a PEN Translation Fund grant. His “Maria Ximenes da Costa de Carvalho Perreira” was selected by Salman Rushdie for a Best American Short Stories honorable mention. Grunebaum has also translated Prakash’s “The Walls of Delhi,” which was shortlisted for the 2013 DSC Prize in South Asian Literature.