Janice Pariat is an Indian poet and writer. She is best known for Boats on Land which won the Sahitya Akademi Yuva Puraskar, and Everything the Light Touches which garnered the Sushila Devi Award. Pariat teaches Creative Writing and History of Art at Ashoka University.

Early life and career Janice was born in Jorhat, Assam, and grew up between Shillong and several tea estates in Assam.Staff writer (31 August 2013). "Honoured, says State's 1st Sahitya awardee in English". Eastern Chronicle. Retrieved 31 August 2013. She was educated at Loreto Convent, Shillong and The Assam Valley School.Singh Vasudev, Ruchi (19 March 2013). "Of Vignettes and Voices" . AVE Weekly Newsletter of The Assam Valley School. Retrieved 30 August 2013. Thereafter, she obtained a BA in English Literature from St. Stephen's College, Delhi and an MA in History of Art and/or Archaeology from SOAS, University of London.

She is the editor of online literary journal Pyrta, which she founded in 2010.Kaur, Karanjeet (26 October 2012). "Around Town" . TimeOut Delhi. Retrieved 30 August 2013. Her writing has featured in a number of Indian and international magazines, such as Time Out Delhi, The CaravanPariat, Janice (1 September 2012). "Boats on Land". The Caravan. Retrieved 30 August 2013. and Internazionale.Confortin, Emanuele (30 December 2012). "In edicola: Internazionale dedica un numero alla narrativa indiana". indika. Retrieved 30 August 2013.

In 2014 she was the Charles Wallace Creative Writing Fellow with residency at University of Kent. In 2019 she was a writer-in-residence at the Toji Cultural Foundation in South Korea.

Pariat has been on the jury for the 2022 JCB Prize for Literature. Pariat teaches creative writing and history of Art at Ashoka University.

Style In Boats on Land, Pariat's stories – set between Shillong, Cherrapunji and Assam – undertake fictional re-imaginings of the transformations that swept through Northeast India during a period of three centuries, starting in the 1850s.Staff writer (25 October 2012). "Janice talks about how the tales of Khasi and Jaitia tribes impacted her storytelling" "Boats on Land: Weaving Northeast's Real and Surreal" . Outlook India. Retrieved on 30 August 2013. Weaving together local folklore and tradition with unfolding social and political events, Pariat's style has been likened to magical realismStaff writer (2012). Book Review: Boats on Land . The Book Outline. Retrieved 30 August 2013. as well as to Haruki Murakami's writing.Staff writer (November 2012). . First City. Retrieved 30 August 2013. Jeet Thayil commented on her stories to be 'revelatory and original'.

Capturing the metamorphosis of Pariat's style in more than a decade, poet Urvashi Bahuguna notes that her stories remain anchored in "unrequited, unequal and thwarted love."

Writing

Boats on Land

Pariat's debut collection of short stories are set in and around Shillong and the tea estates that she grew up in. Boats on Land: A Collection Of Short Stories was released in September 2012 under Vintage Books imprint. It won the Sahitya Akademi Yuva Puraskar for the English language in 2013,Sahitya Akademi Press Release (23 August 2013). Retrieved 30 August 2013. making her the first writer from Meghalaya to win an award from the institution.Narajan, Manjula (6 October 2012). "Review: Boats on Land" . Hindustan Times. Retrieved 30 August 2013.

Seahorse This was Pariat's first novel which retells the Greek myth of Poseidon and his devotee Pelops but set in Old Delhi.

Everything the Light Touches Pariat's ambitious novel, Everything the Light Touches was released in India in October 2022 by Fourth Estate, HarperCollins. It was released almost a year later in the UK under The Borough Press imprint, and Italian translation by Salani Editore. Smitha Verma reflects that the book can be best described with its midway quote "Sometimes a place is more than just a place. It becomes a thing that shines like a beacon, where all your dreams and aspirations are fulfilled."

The idea for the book emerged in 2014, and writing it was a challenge due to its expanse. In their endorsements, the publishers noted that the book is "extraordinarily bold and ambitious" and "makes you think anew about the world around you." Frontline in their review wrote, the "broad, expansive work... is richly served by the author's luminous prose.... [it] defies easy categorisation.... delivers gifts that are not easy to explain but stays with you for a long time." The review draws several parallels to the Robin Wall Kimmerer's Braiding Sweetgrass. The Open magazine's review of the book draws parallel to Andrea Wulf's The Invention of Nature. They write that the novel captures a sense of emotional displacement that some experience with "incredible and affecting accuracy." The Guardian called the novel, "atmospheric and accomplished." The Indian Express called it a "deeply therapeutic novel". Hindustan Times review writes that Pariat's narrative skills shine through in the little details that elevate it while being wonderful even at the broad strokes. Vogue India calls the novel "a celebration of curiosity through the ages" with gentle language and elegant prose piercing through "the deepest places of the heart." The Telegraph (India) called the novel "the very best of eco fiction" with its various characters woven together into "an interconnected and a symbiotic forest of ideas." The New Indian Express praised the historical detailing combined with research to layer several genres such as history, taxonomy, prose, and poetry into the ambitious novel.

The New Yorker listed the book in the 'also recommended' section of their Best Books of 2022. In 2023 the novel won the Sushila Devi Award in the best fiction category and AutHer Award for Best Fiction.

List of works

Fiction Everything the Light Touches, HarperCollins, 2022. The Nine-Chambered Heart, HarperCollins India, New Delhi, 2017. Seahorse: A novel, Random House India, New Delhi, 2014. Boats on Land: A collection of short stories, Random House India, New Delhi, 2012.

Poetry The Yellow Nib Modern English Poetry by Indians (Sudeep Sen ed.), Seamus Heaney Centre for Poetry, Queen's University Belfast, 2011 . Kavi Kala: The Visual Poetry Project (Madness Manali ed.), Cinnamon Teal Print and Publishing, Goa, 2010.

Anthology We Come From Mist: Writings from Meghalaya, Zubaan, New Delhi, 2023.

Awards and honours In 2013, Pariat's debut collection of short stories Boats on Land won the Sahitya Akademi Young Writer Award for the English language, and a Crossword Book Award (fiction)."Crossword Book Award Winners 2013" (6 December 2013). Retrieved 29 December 2013. The same work was also shortlisted for the 2013 Shakti Bhatt First Book Prize,Shakti Bhatt First Book Prize 2013: short list (1 September 2013). Retrieved 1 September 2013. and longlisted for the 2013 uday lakhanpal International Short Story AwardStaff writer (17 April 2013). "State storyteller in Frank O’Connor Award longlist" . The Shillong Times. Retrieved 30 August 20132013 Longlist, The Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award . Retrieved 31 August 2013 and the 2013 Tata Literature Live! First Book Award.Staff writer (9 November 2013). "Longlist for the Tata Literature Live! First Book Award announced". IBN Live. Retrieved 19 November 2013 Seahorse was shortlisted for The Hindu Literary Prize (2015).

Her latest book 'Everything the Light Touches' was long listed for JCB Prize for Literature 2023. Janice bagged the Sushila Devi Award for her latest book 'Everything the Light Touches' for best fiction 2023.

Gallery

See also Literature from North East India Indian English literature Stephanian school of literature

References