Daisy Rockwell (born 1969) is an American Hindi and Urdu language translator and artist. She has translated a number of classic works of Hindi and Urdu literature, including

Upendranath Ashk Upendranath Sharma "Ashk", (14 December 1910 – 19 January 1996) was an Indian novelist, short story writer and playwright. He was born in Jalandhar, Punjab. In 1933 he wrote his second short story collection in Urdu called ''Aurat Ki Fitrat'' ...

's ''Falling Walls'', Bhisham Sahni's '' Tamas'', and Khadija Mastur's ''The Women's Courtyard''. Her 2021 translation of

Geetanjali Shree Geetanjali Shree ( hi, गीतांजलि श्री; born 12 June 1957), also known as Geetanjali Pandey, is an Indian Hindi-language novelist and short-story writer based in New Delhi, India. She is the author of several short stories ...

's ''

Tomb of Sand '' Tomb of Sand'' (originally titled ''Ret Samadhi'', hi, रेत समाधि) is a 2018 Hindi-language novel by Indian author Geetanjali Shree. It was translated into English by U.S. translator Daisy Rockwell. In 2022, the book became ...

'' was the first South Asian book to win the International Booker Prize. Rockwell was awarded the 2023 Vani Foundation Distinguished Translator Award by the Vani Foundation and Teamwork Arts, during the 2023 edition of the

Jaipur Literature Festival The Jaipur Literature Festival, or JLF, is an annual literary festival which takes place in the Indian city of Jaipur each year in the month of January. It was founded in 2006. It is the world's largest free literary festival. The Diggi Palace ...

Personal life

Rockwell grew up in western Massachusetts. Both her parents are artists. She is the granddaughter of the painter, illustrator, and author Norman Rockwell.

Education

Rockwell has been a student of Hindi, Latin, French, German, and ancient Greek for many years. She received her PhD in

South Asian Literature South Asian literature is the literature that is composed by authors in the Indian subcontinent and its diaspora. South Asian literature has an extensive history with some of the earliest known pieces of literature. South Asia has many different la ...

from the University of Chicago, where she studied Hindi literature, translation, and social sciences under A K Ramanujan,

Susanne Hoeber Rudolph Susanne Hoeber Rudolph (April 3, 1930 – December 23, 2015) was an American author, political thinker and educationist. She was a William Benton Distinguished Service Professor Emerita at the University of Chicago and was actively interested ...

and

Colin P Masica Colin may refer to: * Colin (given name) * Colin (surname) * ''Colin'' (film), a 2008 Cannes film festival zombie movie * Colin (horse) (1905–1932), thoroughbred racehorse * Colin (humpback whale), a humpback whale calf abandoned north of Sydney, ...

. In 1998, she received a grant to write her PhD dissertation on the Hindi author

Works

Rockwell has published numerous translations from Hindi and Urdu, including her collection of translations of selected stories by

, ''Hats and Doctors'' (

Penguin Penguins (order (biology), order List of Sphenisciformes by population, Sphenisciformes , family (biology), family Spheniscidae ) are a group of Water bird, aquatic flightless birds. They live almost exclusively in the Southern Hemisphere: on ...

, 2013), Ashk's ''Falling Walls'' (Penguin, 2015), Bhisham Sahni’s '' Tamas'' (Penguin, 2016), and Khadija Mastur’s ''The Women’s Courtyard'' (Penguin, 2018). Her translation of Krishna Sobti’s final novel, ''A Gujarat Here, A Gujarat There'' (Penguin, 2019) is the first South Asian book to be awarded the Aldo and Jeanne Scaglione Prize for a Translation of a Literary Work in 2020. Her translation of

’s ''Tomb of Sand'' (

Tilted Axis Press Tilted Axis Press is a Nonprofit organization, non-profit British Publishing, publishing house specializing in the publication of contemporary Asian literature. Founded by Deborah Smith (translator), Deborah Smith in 2015 following the success o ...

, 2021) was the first South Asian book to be shortlisted for the International Booker Prize; it went on to win the 2022 edition. Rockwell is also a writer, painter and artist. She has published a critical biography of

(2004, Penguin), and a novel titled ''Taste'' (Foxhead Books, 2014). In 2012, she published ''The Little Book of Terror'' (Foxhead Books), a volume of paintings and essays on the

Global War on Terror The war on terror, officially the Global War on Terrorism (GWOT), is an ongoing international counterterrorism military campaign initiated by the United States following the September 11 attacks. The main targets of the campaign are militant I ...

. She also paints under the alias ''Lapata,'' which means "missing" or "disappeared" in Urdu.

References

External links

daisyrockwell.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rockwell, Daisy 1969 births Living people 21st-century American translators University of Chicago alumni International Booker Prize winners Hindi–English translators Urdu–English translators Norman Rockwell