Ananda Devi

Ananda Devi (born March 23, 1957) is a Mauritian writer.^[1]

Of Andhra Pradesh and Creole descent, she was born at Trois-Boutiques, Mauritius. At the age of 15, she won a prize in a Radio France Internationale short story competition. She went on to study at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London. In 1977, she published a collection of short stories Solstices. After spending several years in Brazzaville in the Congo, she moved to Ferney-Voltaire in 1989, the same year in which her first novel Rue la poudrière was published. This was followed by more novels: Le Voile de Draupadi in 1993, L’Arbre fouet in 1997 and, in 2000, Moi, l'interdite, which received the Prix Radio France du Livre de l’Océan Indien.^[1]

In 2007, Devi received the Certificat d’Honneur Maurice Cagnon du Conseil International d’Études Francophones.^[1]

Works^[1]

• Solstices, short-story collection (1977)
• Le poids des êtres, short-story collection (1987)
• Rue la Poudrière, novel (1988)
• Le Voile de Draupadi, novel (1993)
• La fin des pierres et des âges, short-story collection (1993)
• L'Arbre-fouet, novel (1997)
• Moi, L'Interdite, novel (2000)
• Pagli, novel (2001)
  • English translation by Ananda Devi (Rupa Publishers, 2007)
• Soupir, novel (2002)
• La Vie de Joséphin le fou, novel (2003)
• Le Long Désir, poetry collection (2003)
• Ève de ses décombres, novel (2006), received the Prix des cinq continents de la francophonie and the Prix Télévision Suisse Romande
  • Eve Out of Her Ruins, English translation by Jeffrey Zuckerman (Deep Vellum, 2016; Les Fugitives, 2016)
• Indian Tango, novel (2007)
  • Indian Tango, English translation by Jean Anderson (Host Publications, 2011; Random House India, 2013)
• Le sari vert, novel (2009), winner of the Prix Louis-Guilloux
• Quand la nuit consent à me parler, poetry collection (2011)
  • When the Night Agrees to Speak to Me, English translation by Kazim Ali (HarperCollins India, 2019)
• Les hommes qui me parlent, autobiographical novel (2011)
• Les Jours vivants, novel (2013)
• L'ambassadeur triste, short-story collection (2015)
  • English translation of "The Sad Ambassador" by Namrata Poddar published in collaboration with the Asian-American Writers' Workshop (2015)
  • English translation of "The Orchid" by Ananda Devi published as part of the 2015 PEN World Voices Online Anthology (2015)

References

1. "Ananda Devi". The Institute of Modern Languages Research.

External links

• "Ananda Devi". Île en île. Lehman College. (French)
• Interview with Ananda Devi at the Los Angeles Review of Books.