G.S. Sharat Chandra (1935-2000) was an internationally acclaimed American poet and fiction writer . Much of his work touches on the deep emotions of the Indian-American immigrant.[1]
G.S. Sharat Chandra (1935-2000). Courtesy Indian English Poet blog.
Life[]
Youth and education[]
Chandra was born and earned a law degree in India, but came to the United States in the 1960s to become a writer.
He earned a Master of Fine Arts from the Iowa Writers Workshop.
Career[]
For 17 years (1983-2000), Chandra taught at the University of Missouri-Kansas City as a professor of Creative Writing and English. Author of 10 books, including translations from Sanskrit and English into the Indian language Kannada, he has given readings at the Library of Congress, the University of Oxford, and McDaid's Pub in Dublin.
Chandra traveled the world extensively throughout his life and received international recognition for both his poetry and fiction. His works have appeared in many journals including American Poetry Review, London Magazine, The Nation, and Partisan Review.
Chandra had been married to his wife, Jane, for 38 years when he died of a brain aneurysm in 2000. He left his wife and three children.
Writing[]
Sharat was a gifted teacher of creative writing. He encouraged persistence, craft, and imagination. He did so with humor and compassion. As a teacher at the Mark Twain Writer's Workshop, he once read from a stack of rejection letters, which he claimed papered the walls of his writing study. With regard to the writerly imagination, and the importance of craft, he once said: "You can tell me anything, anything at all. Just make me believe!"
Recognition[]
Sharat was a Fulbright fellow and recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in Creative Writing.
His most famous work, Family of Mirrors, was a 1993 Pulitzer Prize in Poetry nominee.
Publications[]
Poetry[]
- Bharat Natyam Dancer, and other poems. Calcutta: Writers Workshop, 1968.
- Will This Be Forest: Poems. Milwaukee, WI: Morgan Press, 1969.
- April in Nanjangud. London: London Magazine Editions, 1971.
- Reasons for Staying. Toronto: Coach House, 1971.
- Heirloom. Delhi, Oxford, UK, & New York: Oxford University Press, 1982.
- Once or Twice: Poems. Sutton, UK: Hippopotamus Press, 1974.
- Offsprings of Servagna. Calcutta: Writers Workshop, 1975.
- The Ghost of Meaning. Lewiston, ID: Confluence Press, 1978.
- Aliens. Safford, AZ: Gila Press, 1986.
- Family of Mirrors: Poems. Kansas City, MO: BkMk Press, 1993.
- Immigrants of Loss. Frome, Somerset, UK: Hippopotamus Press, 1993.
Short fiction[]
- Sari of the Gods: Stories. Minneapolis, MN: Coffee House Press, 1998.
Edited[]
- The Black Bough: An anthology of poems. West Lafayette, IN: English Department, Purdue University, 1985.
- Writings from the new South Africa (edited with James McKinley). Kansas City, MO: University of Missouri–Kansas City, 1998.
Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.[2]
Audio / video[]
- G.S. Sharat Chandra (tape). Kansas City, MO: New Letters, 1983.[2]
See also[]
References[]
Notes[]
- ↑ Keith Lawrence 'G.S. Sharat Chandra' in Guiyou Huang Asian-American poets: a bio-bibliographical critical sourcebook Westport CT: Greenwood Press, 2002.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Search results = au:G.S. Sharat Chandra, WorldCat, OCLC Online Computer Library Center Inc. Web, Feb. 15, 2015.
External links[]
- Poems
- The deep emotions of the Indian/American immigrant: G.S. Sharat Chandra at Indian English Poet blog.
- G.S. Sharat Chandra at PoemHunter (14 poems).
- About
- G.S. Sharat Chandra at Coffee House Press
- Journal of South Asian Literature interviews G.S. Sharat Chandra, 1981 (excerpt)
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