Sushma Joshi ( ne, सुष्मा जोशी) is a Nepali writer, filmmaker based in

Kathmandu , pushpin_map = Nepal Bagmati Province#Nepal#Asia , coordinates = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = , subdivision_type1 = Province , subdivision_name1 = Bagmati Prov ...

, Nepal. Her fiction and non-fiction deal with Nepal's civil conflict, as well as stories of globalization, migration and diaspora. ''End of the World'', her book of short stories, was long-listed for the

Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award __NOTOC__ The Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award—named in honour of Frank O'Connor, who devoted much of his work to the form—was an international literary award presented for the best short story collection. It was presented bet ...

Frank O Connor International Short Story Award for 2009
/ref> in 2009. "The Prediction", another book of short stories that bring together stories of tradition and modernity, was published in 2013. ''Art Matters,'' a book of essays about contemporary art, was supported by the

Alliance Française An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an alliance are called ...

de Katmandou. Her non-fiction reportage has appeared in ''The Kathmandu Post'', ''The Nation Weekly'', ''Indian Express (USA)'', ''Republica'', and other publications.

Career

From 1998 to 2000, Joshi worked with the

Harvard School of Public Health The Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health is the public health school of Harvard University, located in the Longwood Medical Area of Boston, Massachusetts. The school grew out of the Harvard-MIT School for Health Officers, the nation's first ...

Harvard School of Public Health
/ref> to implement the Global Reproductive Health Forum, a health and rights program, in South Asia. She traveled to Mumbai, Delhi and Dacca to bring together a broad coalition of partners in this reproductive health and rights network. She also started re/productions, a journal on health and rights, during this time. Their research was catalogued in a digital library and handed over to

SNDT Women's University SNDT Women's University, also called by its full name Shreemati Nathibai Damodar Thackersey Women's University, is a women's university in the city of Mumbai, India. The university headquarters are at Churchgate in South Mumbai, while the ma ...

,SNDT Women's University
/ref> Mumbai. Bol!, a list-serv with 600 activists and professionals working in health and rights, was handed over to the Center for Women and Development in Delhi. In 2004, Joshi joined as staff writer at the newly formed '' The Nation Weekly'',Nation Weekly Magazine
/ref> a political news weekly in Kathmandu. She also consulted for the

UNDP The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)french: Programme des Nations unies pour le développement, PNUD is a United Nations agency tasked with helping countries eliminate poverty and achieve sustainable economic growth and human dev ...

's Access to Justice research program from October 2004, during the height of the civil conflict. As part of a 6-member team, Joshi went to different areas of Nepal to document stories about human rights violations and the erosion of formal and informal justice systems. In 2005, she received a fellowship in research and writingMacArthur Foundation Report of Activities 2004
/ref> from the

MacArthur Foundation The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation is a private foundation that makes grants and impact investments to support non-profit organizations in approximately 50 countries around the world. It has an endowment of $7.0 billion and p ...

, and travelled to Mumbai to document the situation of Nepali women who were rescued and rehabilitated from the redlight districts in homes. In 2006, she made several short films in the directing program at the

New York Film Academy New York Film Academy – School of Film and Acting (NYFA) is a private for-profit film school and acting school based in New York City, Los Angeles, and Miami. The New York Film Academy was founded in 1992 by Jerry Sherlock, a former film, t ...

in Paris, including "The Escape" which deals with the human rights violations which occurred during the People's War in Nepal. This film was accepted to the

Berlinale The Berlin International Film Festival (german: Internationale Filmfestspiele Berlin), usually called the Berlinale (), is a major international film festival held annually in Berlin, Germany. Founded in 1951 and originally run in June, the festi ...

Film Festival's Talent Campus, which was later renamed the

Berlinale Talents Berlinale Talents, formerly Berlinale Talent Campus, is the talent development programme of the Berlin International Film Festival (also called Berlinale). An annual summit and networking platform for 200 outstanding creatives from the fields of f ...

, in 2007. She also wrote her play "I Killed My Best Friend's Father," about two girls and their friendship post-conflict, in 2007. In 2008, she joined

Chemonics Chemonics International, Inc. is a private international development firm based in Washington, D.C. It was established in 1975 by Thurston F. (Tony) Teele as a subsidiary of Erly Industries. The employee-owned company offers a variety of services ...

to work in the Nepal Transition InitiativeNepal Transition Initiative
/ref> as a media officer, where she became engaged in a broad number of media projects related to the transition from conflict to peace. In 2009, she also headed a project for six months to train 20 journalists from rural newspapers to write on issues of Nepal's new Constitution. In 2010, she joined the

Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, commonly known as the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) or the United Nations Human Rights Office, is a department of the Secretariat of the United Nati ...

in Kathmandu, where she spent the year working on the Nepal conflict reportNepal Conflict Report 2012
/ref> about the violations committed during the conflict with a research team. Between 2008 and 2010, she also consulted for the

World Bank The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans and grants to the governments of low- and middle-income countries for the purpose of pursuing capital projects. The World Bank is the collective name for the Interna ...

on their countrywide assistance strategy, traveling with the heads of

, DFID and ADB to different locations to document the feedback received from local participants during the meetings. In 2011, she received a fellowship from the Asian Scholarship Foundation in Thailand to conduct research on the Gorkhali diaspora in Myanmar and Thailand. Since 2012, she has been working as a freelance journalist, and has also started her own media and publishing house Sansar Media.

Awards

Joshi received a writer fellowship to attend the

Bread Loaf Writers' Conference The Middlebury Bread Loaf Writers' Conference is an author's conference held every summer at the Bread Loaf Inn, near Bread Loaf Mountain, east of Middlebury, Vermont. Founded in 1926, it has been called by ''The New Yorker'' "the oldest and most p ...

in 2000. In 2005, she received a research and writing fellowship from the

. She was awarded a residency at the

Bellagio Center The Rockefeller Foundation is an American private foundation and philanthropic medical research and arts funding organization based at 420 Fifth Avenue, New York City. The second-oldest major philanthropic institution in America, after the Carnegi ...

, sponsored by the

Rockefeller Foundation The Rockefeller Foundation is an American private foundation and philanthropic medical research and arts funding organization based at 420 Fifth Avenue, New York City. The second-oldest major philanthropic institution in America, after the Carneg ...

, in

Bellagio Bellagio may refer to: * Bellagio, Lombardy, an Italian town * Bellagio (resort), a luxury resort and casino in Las Vegas * Bellagio (Hong Kong), a private housing building * Bellagio declaration, an intellectual copyright resolution * 79271 Bellag ...

, Italy, in 2006. Joshi was a featured writer at the

Ubud Writers and Readers Festival Ubud Writers & Readers Festival (UWRF) is an annual 4-day literary festival held every October in Ubud on the island of Bali, Indonesia. Established in 2004, it is considered Southeast Asia’s biggest and most meaningful literary Festival. It ...

in 2009. In 2011, she was an Asia fellow and traveled to Thailand and Burma to do research on a book about Nepali migrants, with support from the Asian Scholarship Foundation. She has also received fellowships from the Toyota Foundation, the Ludwig Vogelstein Foundation, as well as a seed fund from the Hubert Bals Fund in the Netherlands. Joshi was a jury member of the Indigenous Film Festival in Nepal in 2009. She was also a member of a three-judge panel for the film competition on global warming sponsored by the

British Council The British Council is a British organisation specialising in international cultural and educational opportunities. It works in over 100 countries: promoting a wider knowledge of the United Kingdom and the English language (and the Welsh lan ...

and

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in Kathmandu in 2010.

Plays

Her play, ''I Killed My Best Friend's Father'', about two teenagers who survive the civil conflict in Nepal, was stage-read at the

Arcola Theatre Arcola Theatre is an Off West End theatre in the London Borough of Hackney. It presents plays, operas and musicals featuring established and emerging artists. The theatre building, in the former Colourworks paint factory on Ashwin Street, Dalst ...

in London as part of the Kali TalkBack FestivalKali TalkBack Festival
/ref> on December 8, 2012.

Film

''Sound of Silence'' (1997) was screened at the ''New Asian Currents''New Asian Current

/ref> at the Yamagata Documentary Film Festival. "Water" (2000) Water on Youtube
/ref> part of a series of documentaries on water from seven countries produced by IRC Netherlands and Ton Schouten Productions, was screened on the Q and A with

Riz Khan Rizwan "Riz" Khan ( ur, ; born August 1962 ) is a British broadcaster of Asian origin. From 2006 until April 2011 he hosted his own eponymous television show on Al Jazeera English. He first rose to prominence while working for the BBC and CNN ...

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, and the UN World Water Forum in Kyoto. WATER has also been screened at

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

's Southern Asia Institute, Flickerfest Film Festival in

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

, Vancouver Nepali Film Festival, Himalayan Film Festival in London, and other venues. ''The Escape'' (2006), a short fiction film about a teacher targeted by rebels, was shot at the New York Film Academy in Paris, and was accepted to the

Berlinale Talent Campus The Berlin International Film Festival (german: Internationale Filmfestspiele Berlin), usually called the Berlinale (), is a major international film festival held annually in Berlin, Germany. Founded in 1951 and originally run in June, the festi ...

in 2007. "Supportive Men" (2014) Supportive Men on Youtube
/ref> shows young men starting a movement for gender equality by sharing housework and cooking in a Dalit community in Southern Nepal. The film was made for

CARE Care may refer to: Organizations and projects * CARE (New Zealand), Citizens Association for Racial Equality, a former New Zealand organisation * CARE (relief agency), "Cooperative for Assistance and Relief Everywhere", an international aid and ...

Nepal, Norway, Austria and USA. In 2014, Joshi also consulted and researched for the script of "Singha Durbar," a fictional TV series featuring a female prime minister, produced by

Search for Common Ground Searching or search may refer to: Computing technology * Search algorithm, including keyword search ** :Search algorithms * Search and optimization for problem solving in artificial intelligence * Search engine technology, software for findi ...

and funded by USAID.

Art

"The Quake", about the artist's survival after being buried in the 2015 Nepal earthquake, was exhibited at the World Bank in Washington DC as part of the 2020 Art of Resilience exhibition.The Quake
/ref> In 2004, Joshi had a solo exhibit "Blue Nepal" at Gallery Nine in Kathmandu. The exhibit was of 26 figurative paintings depicting the state of Nepal during the civil conflict. Joshi's multimedia installation titled ''Jumla: A cyberphoto installation'' was accepted to the Eighth International Symposium on Electronic Art, or ISEA97 at the

Art Institute of Chicago The Art Institute of Chicago in Chicago's Grant Park, founded in 1879, is one of the oldest and largest art museums in the world. Recognized for its curatorial efforts and popularity among visitors, the museum hosts approximately 1.5 mill ...

in 1997.

Education and influences

Joshi was born and grew up in Kathmandu. From age 8 to 12, she studied in Dowhill School,

Kurseong Kurseong is a town and a municipality in Darjeeling district in the Indian state of West Bengal. It is the headquarters of the Kurseong subdivision. Located at an altitude of , Kurseong is from Darjeeling and has a pleasant climate throughout ...

, in the district of Darjeeling. She finished her education at Mahendra Bhawan and Siddhartha Vanasthali High School in Kathmandu. Joshi went to the US at age 18 to study at Brown University. She graduated from

Brown University Brown University is a private research university in Providence, Rhode Island. Brown is the seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, founded in 1764 as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providenc ...

in the US in 1996 with a BA in international relations. She also took workshops in fiction, autobiography and poetry, and classes in documentary production with the artist Tony Cokes. From 1999 to 2002, she was in graduate school at the

New School For Social Research The New School for Social Research (NSSR) is a graduate-level educational institution that is one of the divisions of The New School in New York City, United States. The university was founded in 1919 as a home for progressive era thinkers. NSSR ...

in New York, where she received an MA in

anthropology Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including past human species. Social anthropology studies patterns of behavi ...

. During the summers, she attended The

Breadloaf School of English Middlebury College is a private liberal arts college in Middlebury, Vermont. Founded in 1800 by Congregationalists, Middlebury was the first operating college or university in Vermont. The college currently enrolls 2,858 undergraduates from all ...

Middlebury College Middlebury College is a private liberal arts college in Middlebury, Vermont. Founded in 1800 by Congregationalists, Middlebury was the first operating college or university in Vermont. The college currently enrolls 2,858 undergraduates from all ...

, Vermont, and received another MA in

English Literature English literature is literature written in the English language from United Kingdom, its crown dependencies, the Republic of Ireland, the United States, and the countries of the former British Empire. ''The Encyclopaedia Britannica'' defines E ...

in 2005. At Bread Loaf, she studied playwriting with the 1998–1999

Obie Award The Obie Awards or Off-Broadway Theater Awards are annual awards originally given by ''The Village Voice'' newspaper to theatre artists and groups in New York City. In September 2014, the awards were jointly presented and administered with the A ...

winning playwright Dare Clubb, as well as theatre directing and acting with Alan and Carol MacVey.

Books and Anthologies

"Global Nepalis: Religion, Culture, and Community in a New and Old Diaspora"
Eds David N. Gellner & Sondra L. Hausner, Oxford University Press, 2018
"The Himalayan Arc"
an anthology edited by Namita Gokhale, co-founder of Jaipur Literary Festival, HarperCollins India, 2018
"House of Snow"
A collection of the greatest writing about Nepal, Head of Zeus, 2016
"The Prediction"
Sansar Media, Kathmandu, Nepal, 2013
"The Other Side of Terror: An Anthology of Writings on Terrorism in South Asia
Ed. Nivedita Majumdar, Oxford University Press, 2012
"The Lotus Singers"
Ed. Trevor Carolan, Cheng and Tsui Company, 2011
"The Mammoth Book of Apocalyptic Sci-Fi"
Ed. Mike Ashley; Little, Brown, 2010
"The End of the World"
Longlisted for the Frank O’Connor Short Story Award, Fineprint, Nepal, 2008
"New Nepal, New Voices: An anthology of Nepali writing"
Rupa, India 2008
"Art Matters"
Sansar Media, Kathmandu, Nepal 2008

Eds. Shamillah Wilson et al. Zed Books 2005

Ed. Anna Tsing, Four Corner Books 2004
"Sexual Sites, Seminal Attitudes: Sexualities, Masculinities and Culture in South Asia"
Ed. Sajaya Srivastava, SAGE, California, USA, 2004
"Greenwood Encyclopedia of Women's Issues Worldwide"
Editors Lynn Walter and Manisha Desai, Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, USA, 2003
"An Other Voice: English Literature from Nepal"
Martin Chautari, Kathmandu, Nepal, 2002
"‘Cheli-Beti’ Discourses of Trafficking and Constructions of Gender, Citizenship and Nation in Modern Nepal'
Special edition of South Asia, Deakins University, Melbourne, Australia, 1999

Selected stories

"No Place Like Home"
Mascara Review, Sydney, Australia, Winter 2021
"How I Healed from the Nepal Earthquake"
Kyoto Journal Issue 95, Kyoto, Japan, September 2019

Southward, Munster Literature Centre, Ireland, Summer 2017
"In Search of Rubies"
Emanations: I Am Not a Number, 2017
"Chorus of Life"
Kyoto Journal, Japan, November 2016
"Orange Peel"
Far Cry Zine, USA, October 2016

''Republica'', Nepal, January 2016
"The Zia Motel"
''Emanations'', USA, 2015

Irrawaddy, Thailand, 2014
"The Prediction"
Himalaya, The Journal of the Association for Nepal and Himalaya Studies, Yale University, USA, 2014
"The Fourth Child"
ECS Magazine, Dashain Fiction special, Kathmandu, Nepal, 2014
"A Boleria For Love"
LA.Lit Magazine, Kathmandu, Nepal, 2014
"The Promised Land"
Of Nepalese Clay, Kathmandu, Nepal, April 2014

Of Nepalese Clay, Kathmandu, Nepal 2013
The End of The World
Translated in simplified Chinese, Yeeyan.org, 2013

''El Ghibli'', Italy, June 2013
"Soft Things"
''Mascara'', Australia, November 2012
What we can learn from Burma
Future Challenges, Germany, January 2012

''Himal South Asia'', Nepal, October 2011
"The Discovery of the High Lama"
''East of the Web'', UK, 2011
"The Mammoth Book of Apocalyptic Sci-Fi"
''The Mammoth Book of Apocalyptic Sci-Fi'', UK, 2010

El-Ghibli, Italy, Anno 7, Numero 28 issue, June 2010
"The Little Girl Who Died"
(Excerpt of the story), World Literature Today, Oklahoma, USA, 2010
"I Woke Up Last Night and I Cried"
''New Asian Writing'', Thailand, 2010
"The Promised Land"
Itch Literary Journal, South Africa, June 2010

Happano (Japanese translation), Japan, 2010
"The Blockade"
''East of the Web'', UK, 2009
"The Colonel Gets a Visitor"
''Kyoto Journal'', Japan, January 2009
"Betrayal"
'' Cha: An Asian Literary Journal'', Issue 3, HongKong, May 2008
"Cheese"
''Buran, Il Cibo'', Italy, February 2008 (Italian translation)
"Ngày tận thế (truyện ngắn)"
Vietnam (Vietnamese translation)
"'Red pole' justice in Nepal"
'' Eureka Street'', Volume 16 No.6, Australia, June 12, 2006
"War-Torn Shangri-La"
''

Ms. Magazine ''Ms.'' is an American feminist magazine co-founded in 1971 by journalist and social/political activist Gloria Steinem. It was the first national American feminist magazine. The original editors were Letty Cottin Pogrebin, Mary Thom, Patricia Ca ...

'' USA, Summer 2006
"Short Takes: News from all over"
''

Utne Reader ''Utne Reader'' (also known as ''Utne'') ( ) is a digital digest that collects and reprints articles on politics, culture, and the environment, generally from alternative media sources including journals, newsletters, weeklies, zines, music, and ...

'' September 2006
"Pho Mai"
''Viet Bao'', 2005 (Vietnamese translation)
"Cheese"
''East of the Web'', UK, 2005

''EUMAP'', USA, 2004
"Bonded To Labor"
SAMAR Magazine (South Asian Magazine for Action and Reflection), New York, 12/16/2003
"Anzaldua at the Liminal Edges of Identity"
Mosaic Magazine, USA, 2001 *Internet: Bridge or Digital Divide? (Prize for I-Mahal Essay Contest), 2001
"Women’s Day in Nepal"
''

Hinduism Today ''Hinduism Today'' is a quarterly magazine published by the Himalayan Academy, a nonprofit educational institution, in Kapaʻa, Hawaiʻi, USA. It is distributed throughout the United States and internationally, currently in 60 nations. Founded by ...

'', USA, September/October 2000
"Waiting for Rain"
''Samar'', Issue 13, Winter/Spring 2000
"De smaak van vroeger"
''Ode'' magazine, The Netherlands, 27 July/August 1999 issue
"Culture Shock in Kathmandu"
"Utne Reader", 1998 * Of Cabbages and Men: An interview with artist Sashikala Tiwari, Earshot Magazine, Kathmandu, Nov 1998

Selected recent articles

"Disband the UN"
Annapurna Express, 29 November 2019
"Homo Insapiens"
Annapurna Express, 31 May 2019
"The Circular Economy is a Myth"
Annapurna Express, 3 May 2019

External Reports

Access to Justice Assessments in the Asia Pacific: A Review of Experiences and Tools from the Region, UNDP, 2012

Nepal Conflict Report: Executive Summary, OHCHR, 2012

Nepalis in Diaspora, Oxford University, June 2012

Evidence for Education Policy and Planning: Keeping Children at the center, UNICEF, 2009

Office of Transitional Initiatives/OTI Nepal Program Evaluation (2006-2009)

Archive of the Nation Weekly Magazine at Digital Himalaya (2004-2005)

International Association for the Study of Forced Migration, 2004

Festivals, Awards

Kali TalkBack Festival, London, 2012

Writers panel at SDPI's Redefining Paradigms of Development in South Asia, Islamabad, 2011

Frank O Connor International Short Story Award (longlist), 2009

Ubud Readers and Writers Festival, Bali, 2009

Berlinale Talent Campus, Berlin, 2007

New Asian Currents Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival, Yamagata, 1997

Press

In the Shadow of the Peak, book review of "The Himalayan Arc: Journeys East of South-East"
The Telegraph, August 17, 2018

September 24, 2016
Nepal earthquake anthology profits to go to charity
The Bookseller, April 28, 2016
Read the World - PROPORTIONALLY! 100 Books from Around the World
2014
A Portrait of the Artist
Kathmandu Post, 2014
The End of the World by Sushma Joshi
Book Dragon, Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center, September 2012
We Must Look Towards East For Sustainable Development
PPI, Islamabad December 13, 2011
Proactive Author Aims to Encourage Nepali Writers
South China Morning Post, 28 August 2011
Review of "The End of the World" by Sumati Sivasiamphai, Guru Magazine, Friday Supplement of the Bangkok Post
08/2011
An Affair to Remember, Janet O'Neefe, Garuda Indonesia
November 2009
Ubud Writers and Readers Festival: A Star Studded Event, Janet O'Neefe, Garuda Indonesia
November 2009
Words Amidst Beauty, Lee Su kim, Malaysia Star
October 18, 2009

July 2009 * ttps://deepakadhikari.wordpress.com/page/11/ Book Review: And, Of The Word, Deepak Adhikari, Nepal Monitor2009
Listing of "New Nepal, New Voices" in "Dal Mondo," Internazionale
21 November 2008
Celebration Time in Gallery 9
2007
International panelists discuss labor in Asia, The Michigan Daily
11 December 2001

Chicago Tribune, 23 September 1997

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Joshi, Sushma 1973 births Living people People from Kathmandu Nepali-language writers Brown University alumni 21st-century Nepalese writers 21st-century Nepalese women writers