1 An Interview with Authoress- Meghna Pant, author of "One & A Half Wife" and "Happy Birthday":-
.
I treat success and failure with equanimity, so nothing has
changed for me except that a lot more people now recognise me.
2.
When you saw your
first novel for sale on E-commerce websites and placed at a bookstore for the
first time, what kind of thoughts dominated your mind?
I was exhilarated.
3.
Before we head
towards discussing your book, we would like to know in spite of being an
author, what do you exactly do? And do you wish to continue with the job or
come into full-time writing?
While writing my first two books, One & A Half Wife and Happy
Birthday, I worked full-time as a
business journalist in New York, Mumbai and Dubai. I found the stress of
straddling two parallel careers overwhelming and have now taken a year off to
write my next novel Son Of Gods.
4.
What is your
latest book all about? And from where did this idea occur to you?
Happy Birthday is a collection
of thought-provoking short stories that are written with delicate and rare
human sensibility. The stories have been called ‘provocative and inspirational’
by Ashwin Sanghi, ‘deft and merciless’ by Jeet Thayil, and ‘surprising and
moving’ by Chitra Banerjee. The reviews from both critics and readers have been
overwhelmingly positive and I am so happy that people love the collection.
I seek my ideas from the world around me. So my stories are
steeped in reality, that empty space where the individual and society
intersect, the place where what is said and left unsaid meet each other. The
stories capture the life of many individuals, mostly from middle-class families
in India and America, ranging from a blind stalker, a retired civil servant, a
prostitute seducing a Gujarati businessman, a slum girl who wants to play
national basketball, and an American tourist in an ashram.
5
Happy Birthday was written
between 2008-2010.
6.
Indian publishing
is too hard to deal with, was it easy for you to get a publisher or did u wait
for a long time to get your work published?
My first novel One
& A Half Wife was picked up by Westland in two hours. Meru Gokhale, who
is easily India’s best editor and is renowned for spotting talent, picked up my
collection of short stories Happy
Birthday for Random House a few months after my first book came out.
If you’re talented, hard-working and dedicated, publishers
will find you and treat you well.
7.
What are the
Promotional strategies that you and your publisher have applied to
promote/market your book?
We’re doing what everyone does: social media, book launches
and reviews. As with my last book One
& A Half Wife, the latest book Happy
Birthday is also receiving critical acclaim, and gaining huge traction
word-of-mouth.
8.
What exactly is
your target from your Books- 1. Getting most copies sold out, 2. Getting the
love of readers or 3. You just wrote it because you wanted to write a book once
in your life, hence you have no targets?
My writing is not determined by
peripheral factors. I write because I love it and I will continue writing even
if my work is never seen by anyone else.
9.
By when are you
coming up with your next novel? And if possible, do give us an idea about what
it would be.
I’m in the early stages of writing my second full-length
novel Son Of Gods based in – and
between –India and China. It’s a dark comedy that portrays a family’s
greed, lust and power, in the wake of geopolitical tension. There are also a
few unplanned short stories that are taking root and threatening to become a
collection. A book takes its own time to become what it’s supposed to, but I’m
hoping Son Of Gods will be ready for
publication by 2014.
10. In the end, tell us in 5-7 lines, what speech will you give
if you win a Major Award for the Best Indian Author for your books?
I did win a national literary award this year for Best Young
Author. No speech was required. I think the smile on my face said it all.
Thanks.
ABHILASH RUHELA - VEERU!!!
.JPG)
0 comments:
Post a Comment