Padma Viswanathan (born 1968
Nelson, British Columbia
Nelson is a city located in the Selkirk Mountains on the West Arm of Kootenay Lake in the Southern Interior of British Columbia, Canada. Known as "The Queen City", and acknowledged for its impressive collection of restored heritage buildings f ...
) is a Canadian
playwright
A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes plays.
Etymology
The word "play" is from Middle English pleye, from Old English plæġ, pleġa, plæġa ("play, exercise; sport, game; drama, applause"). The word "wright" is an archaic English ...
and fiction writer.
Life
She graduated from
University of Alberta
The University of Alberta, also known as U of A or UAlberta, is a Public university, public research university located in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. It was founded in 1908 by Alexander Cameron Rutherford,"A Gentleman of Strathcona – Alexande ...
, and received an MA from the Writing Seminars at
Johns Hopkins University
Johns Hopkins University (Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1876, Johns Hopkins is the oldest research university in the United States and in the western hemisphere. It consi ...
in 2004 and an MFA from the
University of Arizona
The University of Arizona (Arizona, U of A, UArizona, or UA) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Tucson, Arizona. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, it was the first ...
in 2006.
Her short stories have appeared in ''
Subtropics
The subtropical zones or subtropics are geographical and climate zones to the north and south of the tropics. Geographically part of the temperate zones of both hemispheres, they cover the middle latitudes from to approximately 35° nort ...
'', ''
New Letters
''New Letters'', the name it has been published under since 1970, is one of the oldest literary magazines in the United States and continues to publish award-winning poems and fiction. The magazine is based in Kansas City, Missouri.
History and ...
'', ''
PRISM international
''Prism International'' (styled ''PRISM international'') is a magazine published quarterly in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Established in 1959, it is Western Canada's senior literary magazine. The magazine was started with name ''Prism'' ...
'', ''
Boston Review
''Boston Review'' is an American quarterly political and literary magazine. It publishes political, social, and historical analysis, literary and cultural criticism, book reviews, fiction, and poetry, both online and in print. Its signature form ...
'', and ''
Malahat Review
''The Malahat Review'' is a Canadian quarterly literary magazine established in 1967. It features contemporary Canadian and international works of poetry, fiction, and creative non-fiction as well as reviews of recently published Canadian litera ...
''.
She lives in
Fayetteville, Arkansas
Fayetteville () is the second-largest city in Arkansas, the county seat of Washington County, and the biggest city in Northwest Arkansas. The city is on the outskirts of the Boston Mountains, deep within the Ozarks. Known as Washington unt ...
, with her husband, the poet/translator
Geoffrey Brock
Geoffrey Brock (born October 19, 1964) is an American poet and translator. Since 2006 he has taught creative writing and literary translation at the University of Arkansas, where he is Distinguished Professor of English.
Biography
Brock is the ...
, and their two children.
Awards
Her story "Transitory Cities" won the 14th annual ''
Boston Review
''Boston Review'' is an American quarterly political and literary magazine. It publishes political, social, and historical analysis, literary and cultural criticism, book reviews, fiction, and poetry, both online and in print. Its signature form ...
'' Short-Story Contest in 2007, judged by
George Saunders.
Her novel ''The Ever After of Ashwin Rao'' was shortlisted for the
Scotiabank Giller Prize.
In 2017 she won Arkansas's
Porter Prize The Porter Prize, established in 1984 by the non-profit organization known as the Porter Fund Literary Prize, is awarded annually to a writer who has created a substantial body of work and has a significant connection with Arkansas. The $5000 prize ...
.
Works
Short stories
*
*
*
Novels
* , takes place in South India in the first half of the twentieth century.
* , explores the aftermath of the 1985 bombing of an Air India flight.
Plays
* "House of Sacred Cows," originally produced by Northern Light Theatre in Edmonton and later published in the volume ''Ethnicities: Plays from the New West'' (1999)
* "By Air, By Water, By Wood", Frog and Nightgown Productions 2000, published ''South Asian Review'', 2008
Radio plays
* "Disco Does Not Suck", CBC Radio, 1999
Anthologies
*
Translations
* ' by
Graciliano Ramos
Graciliano Ramos de Oliveira () (October 27, 1892 – March 20, 1953) was a Brazilian modernist writer, politician and journalist. He is known worldwide for his portrayal of the precarious situation of the poor inhabitants of the Brazilian ''sert� ...
, New York Review of Books Classics, 2020
Review
In the introduction to her stunning first novel, Padma Viswanathan describes her grandmother’s faltering attempts to recount their family history. “This time, she started farther back,” she writes of one occasion, “with a story I’d never heard: of her own grandmother, married as a child and widowed before she was out of her teens; of that grandmother’s son, childless and embittered; and her daughter, my grandmother’s mother, victimized by her marriage.” After trips to India, enormous amounts of research, and not a little invention, the result is The Toss of a Lemon.
References
External links
Official siteAuthor's blog*
ttp://www.doollee.com/PlaywrightsV/viswanathan-padma.html "PADMA VISWANATHAN (1968 - )", ''doollee''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Viswanathan, Padma
1968 births
Living people
Canadian women novelists
Canadian women dramatists and playwrights
University of Alberta alumni
Johns Hopkins University alumni
University of Arizona alumni
Canadian writers of Asian descent
Canadian people of Indian descent
21st-century Canadian dramatists and playwrights
21st-century Canadian women writers
People from Nelson, British Columbia