Ranjita Biswas

PROFILE

Ranjita Biswas

CF 11, Sector I, Salt Lake, Kolkata 700064, India

Phone: +91 (33) 46018918. Mobile : +91 98300 13466

Occupation: Journalist, author, translator of fiction.

Main areas of writing: Travel, Films, Arts & Culture Women and gender issues, Health, Development issues, Environment, Travel, Films, Arts & Culture.

Education: Post Graduate in English literature.

Regional languages fluent in, both written and oral: Assamese, Bengali.

Foreign language: Spanish (Second Level)

At present:

Editor, Trans World Features, Kolkata

Work history:

Translator cum writer of features for the American Center, Kolkata (1974-77)
Sub-Editor, News Star, Guwahati, Assam (1982-83)
Correspondent, FEMINA, of the Times of India group (1983-88)
Feature Editor, The Financial Express, Kolkata (Indian Express group) (1991-94)
Senior Sub-Editor (Features) with The Telegraph (ABP Group), Kolkata (1994-97)

Contributor to:

Deccan Herald, Bangalore
The Tribune, Chandigarh
Free Press Journal, Mumbai
Press Institute of India, Chennai
The Quint, online magazine
The Citizen, online magazine
India Blooms.com
Travel magazines
Film websites and magazines

Creative writing:

Published books:

The Loneliness of Hira Barua (translation, PanMacmillan, 2020) Best English Translation Award, PFC-Valley of Words, 2021
Notes from a Spanish Diary (travelogue) Niyogi Books, New Delhi, 2017
Music of the Hills (children fiction). National Book Trust, 2017
Written in Tears (anthology, translation), Harper Collins, 2015. (Recipient Best English Translation, Sahitya Akademi, 2017)
Brahmaputra and the Assam Valley. Niyogi Books, 2013
Folk Tales from Assam, Meghalaya & Arunachal Pradesh (retold stories from folk tradition of North East India): DC Books, Kerala, 2014
As the River flows: (short story anthology, translation). Harper Collins, 2012
Dawn:( Novel, translation), Zubaan, New Delhi, 2004
Pita –Putra (Father and Son: novel, translation) National Book Trust, India, 1999
Fetters: (translation, short stories ) Sahitya Akademi, New Delhi , 1997 & 2012

Others

Second Prize: Short story competition conducted by British Council, Kolkata (2009)
KATHA Prize winner, 2000. Felicitated at the International Interdisciplinary Conference on the Short Story, New Delhi (December, 2000).
Presentation ``English and Translation in Multilingual Society’’ at the All India Seminar on English literature, Lucknow (1998) organized by the British council Division, New Delhi, to commemorate India’s 50 years of Independence.
First Prize winner in the translation competition organized by KATHA, and The British Council Division, New Delhi (Book ``Visions-Revisions’’, 1995).
Prize winner for children’s fiction competition several times organized by the India Book House, Mumbai.
Member, FIPRESCI, international organization of film journalists.

Served as FIPRESCI Jury member in Mumbai International Film Festival (2001) and Toronto International Film Festival (2008).

Also,

Jury member, Indian film section, Bangalore International Film Festival, 2013
Fipresci Jury member , 33^rd Toronto International film Festival, 2008
Fipresci Jury Member, 4^th International Film Festival, Mumbai, 2001.

Achievements:

The Laadli Media Award (2011-2012) for Gender Sensitivity, Eastern Region, (Print)
Media scholar, International AIDs Conference, Rome July, 2011
Media Scholarship, Buenos Aires, January, 2010
SIDA Fellowship for training on “LGBT & Human Rights” conducted by RFSU, Stockholm (November 10-28, 2009)
Selected by the International Women's Media Foundation, USA, to participate in 10-day capacity-building workshop on AIDS, including reporting from the UN High Level Meeting on AIDS (June 4-13, 2008).
Full Scholarship, (Media ) recipient to attend 8^th International Congress on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific (ICAAP) , Colombo (19-24 August, 2007)
Certificate “The Regional Institute on Sexuality: Sexuality, Society and Culture” (New Delhi, September 15-22, 2004) organized by TARSHI (The South and Southeast Asia Resource Centre on Sexuality).
Certificate of Completion, “Gender and Conflict Transformation” online Course, The Network University, Amsterdam, July-August, 2003. (EU scholarship).
· Selected for workshop on “The use of ICTS for reporting on the Science of HIV/AIDS” by SciDev.Net, UK, and UNESCO for women communicators in South East Asia ( 5-12 November, 2003, in Chennai)
Full Scholarship recipient, the XIV International AIDS Conference, Barcelona, (7-12 July, 2002). Presentation: ``Vernacular media for better dissemination of knowledge on HIV/AIDS.’’ Also, registered as media delegate for reporting.
Media delegate to the Sixth International Congress on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific, Melbourne, (5-10 October, 2001).
Delegate-presenter at the 6^th Women in Asia Conference, Canberra, (23-27 September, 2001) Paper: ``Urban Indian Working Women: Changing Attitude.’’
Also moderator for the session on ``Women under Conflict Situations.’’
Jury Member, 4^th International Film Festival, Bombay, 2001.
Presenter delegate, the International Conference of the West Bengal Sexual Health Project on HIV/AIDS, 1997.
Recipient of The Indian Fellowship from the Panos Institute (London) on project ``Social Development: Looking Beyond the Cliches”. The analytical report on landless labourers, both men and women, appears in the publication ``Let the Dawn Come.’’ (Panos, 1995).