Writer Bio

Abha Dawesar is the author of four critically acclaimed novels: Family Values (Penguin Books India), That Summer in Paris (Nan A. Talese/Doubleday 2006, also available in paperback from Anchor Books), Babyji (Anchor Books, February 2005) and Miniplanner (Cleis Press, November 2000). She is the recepient of numerous honors including the American Library Association's Stonewall Award for 2006 as well as a Lambda Literary Award for 2005.

New York's weekly magazine Time Out listed Dawesar as one of 25 people who will make their mark in 2005. India's leading weekly magazine India Today named Dawesar as one of twenty-five path-breaking Indians in 2007. She has also been called one of India's 12 remarkable women by Femina magazine and named by the leading national English language newspaper, The Hindustan Times, with a list of eleven other authors in its Next Big Things for 2005. The New York Foundation of the Arts awarded Dawesar a Fiction Fellowship in 2000. Babyji was short-listed for France's most important literary award for foreign fiction Le Prix Médicis Roman Etranger and also for Le Prix Bel Ami in 2006-2007. L'Inde en héritage (the French translation of Family Values) was short-listed for the Prix Médicis Etranger, the Prix Femina, and the Prix RFI témoin du monde.

Babyji was named one of the ten best books of fiction for 2005 by the Boston Phoenix. It was reviewed nationally and internationally in the US media, India, Italy, Portugal, and Spain. The French producer-director Claude Berri recently optioned the film rights for Babyji following the success of the book in France. For further information check out the press page. Dawesar has been interviewed extensively on radio and television in the USA (Sree Srinivasan's "The Voice" on American Desi TV network, Ashok Vyas's program on ITV and Gayatri Iyer's "The Diaspora" on South Asia TV), France, and India. You can hear her speak to Barry Vogel on Radio Curious or watch her on the French Senate's public channel on a panel hosted by Jean-Pierre Elkabbach. Writer and journalist Sagarika Ghose of CNN-IBN in India invited Dawesar on a panel in early 2007 on The State of the Nation.

Dawesar has been invited to read, speak and conduct seminars in various cities in the U.S., Europe, and India including San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle, Boston, Chicago, Washington DC, Ann Arbor, New York, Paris, London, York, New Delhi, Chandigarh and Bangalore. Her work has been published in 9 countries. For upcoming events including book signing and visual arts exhibitions check here.

In addition to being an artist (see adjacent column) Dawesar keeps an on and off blog on art, French cinema, and books. She also occasionally writes for other publications. Some recent articles are:
-Citizens Can for India Today, December 2009
-Hanuman Sapiens for Mad in India published by the French photographers collective Tendance Floue, Summer 2008.
-Crime & Punishment for the review of the French photographers collective OEIL PUBLIC, Fall 2008.
-Bombay vs. Delhi for the French cultural magazine Senso. March 2008.
-Les intellectuals jugent… in Le Monde, Mar 22, 2007.
-Other past contributions have included Muze Magazine (France), Verve Magazine (India), Marie Claire (India), Publishers Weekly (USA) and General-Anzeiger (Germany). Dawesar also has an essay in the Indians Abroad: The Diaspora Writes Back published by STE Publishers, Johannesburg.

If you are interested in rights please email Sarah Hirsch (sarah at editions-heloisedormesson.com). For events email the author (abha.dawesar at gmail.com).

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