Writers Workshop
Encyclopedia
Writers Workshop is a Calcutta-based literary publisher founded by the poet-professor P. Lal
in 1958. Over the next few decades it published many new authors in urban literature of the post-independence period. These authors later became big names.
was first founded as a group of eight writers (P. Lal, Deb Kumar Das, Anita Desai
, Sasthibrata Chakravarti who wrote by the names of Sasthi Brata
, William Hull, Jail Ratan, Kewlian Sio and Pradip Sen) in 1958. It was an initiative of P. Lal
(1929–2010), a professor of English at St. Xavier's College, Calcutta
. Although it mainly publishes Indian writing in English, it has also published books in other modern Indian languages. To date the press has published over 3500 titles of poetry
, novels, drama
, and other literary works, with two main focuses: experimental literature
of the present day, and translation
from Sanskrit
and other classical India
n languages.
Writers Workshop , India
has published the first books by many authors who have gone on to become famous, including A. K. Ramanujan
, Asif Currimbhoy, Agha Shahid Ali
, Adil Jussawalla , Arun Kolatkar
, Arvind Krishna Mehrotra
, Chandrakant Bakshi
, Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
, Gieve Patel
, Hoshang Merchant , Jayanta Mahapatra
, Joe Winter
, Keki Daruwalla, Kamala Das
, Meena Alexander
, Mani Rao
, Nissim Ezekiel
, Pritish Nandy
, R. Parthasarathy , Poile Sengupta
, Ruskin Bond
, Vikram Seth
, Shiv Kumar
, Saleem Peeradina, William Hull, Lakshmi Raj Sharma
etc... As Writers Workshop, Calcutta enters its sixth decade of existence, it has become an extremely important part of the literary history of India. These titles appear as hand-loom sari-bound volumes with exquisite calligraphy on them. Throughout its history, this alternative publishing venture has published authors without a distribution system to back it.
Perhaps the most important publishing venture Writers Workshop has undertaken is P. Lal's translation of the entire Indian epic Mahabharata
in 18 volumes (now appearing in press, 2005–2009).
After the death of P. Lal in 2010, his son Ananda Lal
, professor of English at Jadavpur University
in Kolkata, runs the publishing house.
P. Lal
Purushottama Lal was an Indian poet, essayist, translator, professor and publisher. He was the founder and publisher of Writers Workshop in Calcutta, established in 1958.-Life and education:...
in 1958. Over the next few decades it published many new authors in urban literature of the post-independence period. These authors later became big names.
History
Writers Workshop, IndiaIndia
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
was first founded as a group of eight writers (P. Lal, Deb Kumar Das, Anita Desai
Anita Desai
Anita Mazumdar Desai is an Indian novelist and Emeritus John E. Burchard Professor of Humanities at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology...
, Sasthibrata Chakravarti who wrote by the names of Sasthi Brata
Sasthi Brata
Sasthi Brata is an Indo-Anglian writer of fiction. He was educated at Calcutta Boys' School, Kolkata and then at Presidency College, Kolkata...
, William Hull, Jail Ratan, Kewlian Sio and Pradip Sen) in 1958. It was an initiative of P. Lal
P. Lal
Purushottama Lal was an Indian poet, essayist, translator, professor and publisher. He was the founder and publisher of Writers Workshop in Calcutta, established in 1958.-Life and education:...
(1929–2010), a professor of English at St. Xavier's College, Calcutta
St. Xavier's College, Calcutta
St. Xavier's College is located in Kolkata, India, and is named after St. Francis Xavier, a Jesuit saint of the 16th century, who travelled to India. It is an autonomous college affiliated to the University of Calcutta. It gained autonomy in July 2006, thus becoming the first autonomous college of...
. Although it mainly publishes Indian writing in English, it has also published books in other modern Indian languages. To date the press has published over 3500 titles of poetry
Poetry
Poetry is a form of literary art in which language is used for its aesthetic and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning...
, novels, drama
Drama
Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance. The term comes from a Greek word meaning "action" , which is derived from "to do","to act" . The enactment of drama in theatre, performed by actors on a stage before an audience, presupposes collaborative modes of production and a...
, and other literary works, with two main focuses: experimental literature
Experimental literature
Experimental literature refers to written works - often novels or magazines - that place great emphasis on innovations regarding technique and style.-Early history:...
of the present day, and translation
Translation
Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. Whereas interpreting undoubtedly antedates writing, translation began only after the appearance of written literature; there exist partial translations of the Sumerian Epic of...
from Sanskrit
Sanskrit
Sanskrit , is a historical Indo-Aryan language and the primary liturgical language of Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism.Buddhism: besides Pali, see Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Today, it is listed as one of the 22 scheduled languages of India and is an official language of the state of Uttarakhand...
and other classical India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
n languages.
Writers Workshop , India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
has published the first books by many authors who have gone on to become famous, including A. K. Ramanujan
A. K. Ramanujan
Attipat Krishnaswami Ramanujan was a scholar of Indian literature who wrote in both English and Kannada. Ramanujan wore many hats as a Indian poet, scholar and author, those of a philologist, folklorist, translator, poet and playwright. His academic research ranged across five languages: Tamil,...
, Asif Currimbhoy, Agha Shahid Ali
Agha Shahid Ali
Agha Shahid Ali was a Kashmiri American poet...
, Adil Jussawalla , Arun Kolatkar
Arun Kolatkar
Arun Balkrishna Kolatkar was a poet from Maharashtra, India. Writing in both Marathi and English, his poems found humor in many everyday matters. His poetry had an influence on modern Marathi poets...
, Arvind Krishna Mehrotra
Arvind Krishna Mehrotra
Arvind Krishna Mehrotra is a noted Indian poet, anthologist, literary critic and translator.- Biography :Arvind Krishna Mehrotra was born in Lahore 1947. He has published four collections of poetry in English and one of translation...
, Chandrakant Bakshi
Chandrakant Bakshi
Chandrakant Keshavlal Bakshi was a Gujarati author. He was a son of Keshavlal and Chanchalbahen. He completed his primary education at Palanpur. Fans also address him as "Bakshi" or "Bakshibaabu".He completed his M.A. in History and Bachelor of Laws from Calcutta...
, Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni is an Indian-American author, poet, and the Betty and Gene McDavid Professor of Writing at the University of Houston Creative Writing Program....
, Gieve Patel
Gieve Patel
Gieve Patel is a poet, playwright and artist, as well as a practicing doctor.-Early life and education:Gieve Patel was born in 1940 in Mumbai. He was educated at St Xavier's High School and Grant Medical College...
, Hoshang Merchant , Jayanta Mahapatra
Jayanta Mahapatra
Jayanta Mahapatra is one of the best known Indian English poets.By all standards, Mahapatra's tryst with the muse came rather late in life. He took to writing poetry when he was into his 40s...
, Joe Winter
Joe Winter
Joe Winter is a British educationist and poet who is renowned for translating poets Rabindranath Tagore and Jibanananda Das.-Biography:He was born in London in 1943 and educated, amongst others, at Exeter College, Oxford. He taught English in secondary schools in London from 1967 to 1994. Taking...
, Keki Daruwalla, Kamala Das
Kamala Das
Kamala Suraiyya was a major Indian English poet and literateur and at the same time a leading Malayalam author from Kerala state, South India...
, Meena Alexander
Meena Alexander
Meena Alexander is an internationally acclaimed poet, scholar, and writer. Born in Allahabad, India, and raised in India and Sudan, Alexander lives and works in New York City, where she is Distinguished Professor of English at Hunter College in the and at the CUNY Graduate Center in the...
, Mani Rao
Mani Rao
Mani Rao is an Indian poet and translator, writing in English .-Biography:Author of eight poetry collections, and a translation of the Bhagavad Gita as a poem, Rao has had poems published in literary journals including Fulcrum, Wasafiri, Meanjin, Washington Square, West Coast Line, Tinfish, and in...
, Nissim Ezekiel
Nissim Ezekiel
' was an Indian Jewish poet, playwright, editor and art-critic. He was a foundational figure in postcolonial India's literary history, specifically for Indian writing in English....
, Pritish Nandy
Pritish Nandy
Pritish Nandy is a Indian poet, painter, journalist, politician, media and television personality, animal activist and film producer. He is Bengali by ethnicity. He was member of Rajya Sabha, the upper house of the Indian parliament representing Maharashtra based party Shiv Sena...
, R. Parthasarathy , Poile Sengupta
Poile Sengupta
Poile Sengupta was born in 1948 as Ambika Gopalakrishnan. Today she is one of the foremost Indian writers in English especially well known as a playwright and writer for children....
, Ruskin Bond
Ruskin Bond
Ruskin Bond, born 19 May 1934, is an Indian author of British descent. He is considered to be an icon among Indian writers and children's authors and a top novelist....
, Vikram Seth
Vikram Seth
Vikram Seth is an Indian poet, novelist, travel writer, librettist, children's writer, biographer and memoirist.-Early life:Vikram Seth was born on 20 June 1952 to Leila and Prem Seth in Calcutta...
, Shiv Kumar
Shiv Kumar
Shiv K. Kumar is an Indian poet, playwright, novelist, and short story writer .-Early life and education:Shiv K Kumar was born in Lahore in 1921, and was matriculated from Dayanand Anglo-Vedic High School and did his M.A. at Forman Christian College, Lahore .In 1943, he joined D.A.V. College...
, Saleem Peeradina, William Hull, Lakshmi Raj Sharma
Lakshmi Raj Sharma
Lakshmi Raj Sharma is an Indian author, novelist, and academician. He teaches English literature and literary theory. He is currently a Professor at the Department of English and Modern European Languages at the University of Allahabad, Allahabad. Recently his novel The Tailor’s Needle was...
etc... As Writers Workshop, Calcutta enters its sixth decade of existence, it has become an extremely important part of the literary history of India. These titles appear as hand-loom sari-bound volumes with exquisite calligraphy on them. Throughout its history, this alternative publishing venture has published authors without a distribution system to back it.
Perhaps the most important publishing venture Writers Workshop has undertaken is P. Lal's translation of the entire Indian epic Mahabharata
Mahabharata
The Mahabharata is one of the two major Sanskrit epics of ancient India and Nepal, the other being the Ramayana. The epic is part of itihasa....
in 18 volumes (now appearing in press, 2005–2009).
After the death of P. Lal in 2010, his son Ananda Lal
Ananda Lal
Ananda Lal is an Indian academic and theatre critic. He is the son of P. Lal, founder of Writers Workshop, one of India's oldest creative writing publishers, established in 1958. He is professor of English at the Jadavpur University, Calcutta...
, professor of English at Jadavpur University
Jadavpur University
Jadavpur University , is a premier educational and research institution in India.It is located in Kolkata, West Bengal and comprises two campuses - the main campus at Jadavpur and the new campus at Salt Lake...
in Kolkata, runs the publishing house.