Usha Sherchan (; born 22 August 1955) is a Nepalese poet, lyricist and writer. She has published three collections of poetry, a collection of short stories and a novel. She has also written lyrics for five music albums. She writes about various social and feminism issues in her poems and stories. She is one of the few writers in Nepal who writes stories about

queer people ''Queer'' is an umbrella term for people who are not heterosexual or cisgender. Originally meaning or , ''queer'' came to be used pejoratively against those with same-sex desires or relationships in the late 19th century. Beginning in the lat ...

Early life and education

Sherchan was born on 22 August 1955 (6 Bhadra 2012 BS) in Nalamukh in

Pokhara city Pokhara ( ne, पोखरा, ) is a metropolitan city in Nepal, which serves as the capital of Gandaki Province. It is the second most populous city of Nepal after Kathmandu, with 518,452 inhabitants living in 101,669 households in 2021. It ...

in a Thakali family to father Jhapat Bahadur Bhattachan and mother Yam Kumari Bhattachan. After completing her school level education ( SLC), her parents urged her to get married but she decided to move to

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

for further education. Her father worked for the royal family as in‐charge of Hima Griha palace in Pokhara and the royal family assisted her for her further education. She attended Ratna Rajya Laxmi Campus in Kathmandu. She then attended

Prithvi Narayan Campus Prithvi Narayan Campus or P.N. Campus,( ne, पृथ्वीनारायण क्याम्पस) is a public co-educational institution located in the northern part of the Pokhara city and is one of the largest campuses affiliated to th ...

in Pokhara for her bachelor's studies.

Literary career

In Prithivi Narayan Campus, she met various writers such as Saru Bhakta, Tirtha Shrestha, Prakat Prageni Shiva, Binod Gauchan etc. She used to write poems in her notebook since studying in RR Campus but didn't published it. Her friend Binod Gauchan saw ''Jindagi'', one of her poems and sent it to '' Gorkhapatra'', the national daily and her poem was published in ''Gorkhapatra'' in 1978. She, along with fellow writers started a writer's club named Pokhreli Yuwa Sanskriti Pariwar in Pokhara, directed by Durga Baral. She published her first poetry collection titled ''Najanmeka Asthaharu'' in 1991. Her second book, ''Aksharharuka Shiwirbata'' is a collection of couplets (Muktak) and was published in 1999. ''Sarwakaleen Pinda Ra Jagritika Shankhaghosh'', her third poetry collection was published in 2006. In 2009, she published a short story about a closeted gay man being pressured to get married. In 2013, she published her first short story collection ''Tesro Rang''. The stories featured multiple characters form

LGBTQI+ ' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity. The LGBT term is an ...

community. She published her first novel ''Aadhi'' in 2019. The novel is about a woman who is sexually assaulted.

Awards

She has received around 13 awards such as ''Parijat Rastriya Pratibha Puraskar'' and the ''Ratnashree Suwarna Padak'' for her contribution to literature and music.

Notable works

Books Music albums

Personal life

She married D.B. Sherchan in 1982. They have a son and a daughter.

References