Elsewhere Where Else

by Sampurna Chattarji, Eurig Salisbury

Sampurna Chattarji and Eurig Salisbury are two of the ten poets from India and Wales who took part in a project organized by Literature Across Frontiers and partners to mark the 70th anniversary of independent India. The poets collaborated to create new work and translate each other into their respective languages during a series of residencies in both countries, alternating between the hustle and bustle of Indian metropolises and the peace and quiet of welsh towns and rural locations. The project addressed, in a myriad ways, the theme of “independence”. In artistic practice, independence means freedom to think, act and create beyond the confines of convention and economic necessity. But successful independence-of communities and individuals alike-also involves co-independence, collaboration and understanding across divides and differences. At a time of global change which sees increasing friction between identities, we hope this project has helped to open up a unique dialogue and formulate new narratives and ideas which both uncover and move beyond histories.

190 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2018

About the author

Although born in Ethiopia Sampurna Chattarji grew up in Darjeeling, India and graduated in English Literature from New Delhi. She worked in advertising for 7 years before becoming a full time writer in 1999.

She is a poet, novelist and translator. Her nine published books include three poetry collections— Absent Muses, The Fried Frog and Sight May Strike You Blind; and two novels— Rupture and Land of the Well. Her translation of Abol Tabol: The Nonsense World of Sukumar Ray is now a Puffin Classic titled Wordygurdyboom! Her poetry has been translated into German, Swiss-German, Irish, Scots, Welsh, French, Tamil, Manipuri and Bambaiyya; and her children’s fiction into Welsh and Icelandic.

Sampurna is the editor of Sweeping the Front Yard, an anthology of women’s writing in English, Malayalam, Telugu and Urdu. She was the 2012 Charles Wallace writer-in-residence at the University of Kent, Canterbury.

More about her writing can be found at sampurnachattarji.wordpress.com.