Professor
Room No.: HSB 332B
Phone : +91 (44) 2257 4515
Email : sree@iitm.ac.in

(VR on 31st January 2022)

Academic Background:

• Ph.D. English from Central University, Hyderabad – 1998
• M.Phil. English from Central University, Hyderabad, First Division – 1992
• M.A. English from Central University, Hyderabad, First Division – 1990
• M.A. English from Stella Maris College, University of Madras, First Division – 1988

Research Interests:

• Creative Writing Theory
• Poetry
• Indian Literatures in Translation
• Women’s Writing

Funded Research Projects, Fellowships and Writing Grants:

• Exploratory Research Project for a project on “Investigating Gynocritics: Interviews with Contemporary women writers in Tamil” (Collaborator: Prof.Swarnalatha, Dept. of HSS, IIT Madras); 2016-2017.
• Writing Grant from the Indo-Korean Foundation, Chennai and the Literature Translation Institute, Korea, October 2012.
• Sangam House Writing Residency (2009-2010)
• Charles Wallace Writing Fellowship cum Residency at the University of Stirling, Scotland, 2010
• Writer in Residence for the 2011 Creative writing workshop conducted by American College, Madurai and the Kodaikanal International school.
• Awarded research grant for a project on translation and women’s writing by the Sunya Foundation, Ahmedabad (March 2001).
• Fulbright Pre-doctoral fellow at the University of California, Santa Cruz, (1995-1996)
• Research project grant from the Professor V.S Sethuraman Centre for Culture Studies at Mozhi: A Trust for Resource Development in Language and Culture, Chennai. The writing of my book titled The Other Half of the Coconut: Women Writing Self-Respect History published by Kali for Women, New Delhi, was partly supported by this grant.
• Principal Investigator, research project on Gender and Tamil magazines at Anveshi, Research Centre for Women’s Studies, Hyderabad (June 1993 to March 1994)

Literary Festivals (Readings/Lectures):

• Invited participant at the Kala ghoda literary and arts festival, Mumbai, 2014, 2015, 2016
• Invited participant at the Seoul International writers festival, 2012
• Invited participant and plenary speaker at the Coimbatore Literature Festival, February 2012
• Reading from my novel Table for Four at Stella Maris College, Chennai.
• Reading from Table for Four, Hyderabad Literary Festival, January 2012 organized by Muse India (Reading from Table for Four)
• Reading with Adil Jussawala (from Arriving Shortly (collection of poems) at the Central University, Hyderabad. January 2012.
• Hindu Lit for Life festival, October 2011, Chennai.

Publications:
a) Books (Academic and Creative)

Academic:

1. All the Worlds Between: Indo-Irish Collaborative Poetry Anthology, co-edited with Fiona Bolger, Forthcoming from Yoda Press.
2. Mapping the Ahampuram: Interviews with Contemporary Women Writers from Tamilnadu. (Co-edited with Swarnalatha Rangarajan), Forthcoming from Women Unlimited.
3. The Rapids of a Great River: The Penguin Book of Tamil Poetry. New Delhi: Penguin/Viking, 2009. (Co-edited with Lakshmi Holmstrom and Subashree Krishnaswamy)
4. Short Fiction from South India. (Co-edited with Subashree Krishnaswamy) OUP, Delhi: 2008
5. Restoration Age. Tamilnadu Open University course book. (Co-authored with Anuradha Shyam). Chennai: 2004.
6. Creative WritingTamilnadu Open University course book. Chennai: 2004.
7. The Other Half of the Coconut: Women Writing Self-Respect History (an anthology of women’s writing from the Dravidian Self-Respect movement) published by Kali for Women, New Delhi, 2002.

Fiction, Poetry and Translations:

1. Bookmarking the Oasis (a collection of poems). Paperwall/Poetrywala, 2015
2. Writing Octopus(collection of poems). New Delhi: Authorspress, 2013.
3. Table for Four, Penguin, India, 2011 (Long-listed for the Man Asian Literary Prize, 2009)
4. Once there was a girl, translation of the Tamil novel Vattathul by Vatsala. Kolkata: Writers Workshop, 2012.
5. Arriving Shortly(collection of poems) Kolkata: Writers Workshop, 2011.
6. Seablue Child. Kolkata: the Brown Critique, 2002.

b) Refereed Research Journal Publications:

1. “Ways of Approaching a Poem: Lessons from the Field” in Kavya Bharati No.25, 2013 (pp 139-146)
2. “Fissures, Continuities and a Translating Consciousness: A Reading of AK Ramanujan’s Oeuvre” in The Atlantic Critical Review, January-March 2012, Vol.11, No.1 (pp.30-42).
3. “Writing, Real Work, Silences” in JSL (Journal of the School of Languages, JNU edited by GJV Prasad). Autumn 2011.
4. “Green mountains outside the Kitchen Window: An Eco-critical Reading of Ambai” in Indian Journal of Eco-criticism August 2008 Vol 1. Issue 1 (pp.55- )
5. “Dwelling in Place: An Ecocritical Reading of Sangam Poetry” in the ICFAI Journal of English Studies, December 2007, Volume 2, Number 4, pp 47-53.
6. “From Subjugation to Celebration: A Study of Bama’s Karukku and Sangati. (co-authored with K.A Geetha in Language Forum Vol.33, No.1. Jan-June 2007. Bahri Publications, New Delhi. (pp.85-98)
7. “Slipping Past Patriarchal, Literary Gate-Keepers: Kalki Krishnamurthy and the Formation of a Female Readership”. in Akshara: International Annual Research Journal of Critical and Creative Writing in English. Vol.3, No.3, March 2007. (Published by the Dept. of English, DG Vaishnav College, Chennai) (pp.18-27)
8. “Creating a New Constituency of Readers: Chintamani and Jaganmohini, JSL (Journal of the School of Language, Literature and culture Studies,) published by JNU and Pencraft International, Spring 2006.
9. “What Creative Writing is not: Some Theoretical and Pedagogic Issues” JEFL, No.34, December 2004
10. “Indian Writing in English and Regional Literatures: The Engagement with the Local” in the Year Book of the Goethe Society of India: 2001-2002. Chennai: 2003
11. “Looking for Other Stories: Women’s Writing, Self-Respect Movement and the Politics of Feminist Translations” in the journal Inter-Asia Cultural Studies (Routledge), Vol.3, No.3, December 2002
12. “The Story of the Up-market Reader: Femina’s ‘New Woman” and the Normative Feminist Subject” in the Journal of Arts and Ideas (April 1999).
13. “Gender and the Self-Respect Movement: The Question of Female Agency” in the Enreca Occasional Paper Series (4) published by the Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta (1999).
14. “‘Romance’, Post-coloniality, Popular Culture” in the Indian Journal of American Studies (Winter 1993 – Vol.23, No.1)
15. c) Book chapters and Contributions to Anthologies/Books:
16. “Trained Dogs” and an untitled poem by P.Mathiyalagan in K.Satyanarayana and Susie Tharu ed. No Alphabet in Sight (New Delhi, Penguin, 2011).
17. Srilata and EV Ramakrishnan, MA English Part 2, Course 4, “Indian and Other Post-colonial literatures in English, Block 3, Indian writing in English: Poetry. (EFLU, School of Distance Education, 2011). Series editors: T.Sriraman and B.Venkat Rao.
18. Translation of Vatsala’s poem “Why didn’t I become a poet?” in Ammu Joseph, Vasanth Kannabiran, Ritu Menon and Volga, Eds.in Interior Decoration: Poems by 54 Women in Ten Languages (New Delhi: Women Unlimited, 2011).
19. Translation of Bama’s short story “Venayam” (Worldly Wisdom) published in Samyukta. January 2004.
20. Translation of essay by Alhaj Subako in Uma Chakravarthi ed. Shadow Lives: Narratives of Widowhood. New Delhi: Kali for Women, 2002.
21. Paper titled “Feminists are Modern, Families are Indian: Women’s Magazines and the Politics of Modernity” in Rosemary George ed. Burning Down the House: Recycling Domesticity (Harper Collins/Westview Press, 1998).
22. d) Short Stories (Published after a process of reviewing):
23. “These things happen if you don’t watch it” (Accepted by Wasafiri Literary Magazine: An International Journal of Contemporary Literature, Published by Taylor and Francis) Due to appear in September 2013.
24. “Game of Asylum Seekers” in Breaking the Bow: Speculative Fiction Inspired by the Ramayana (Edited by Anil Menon and Vandana Singh), Zubaan, 2012 (to be released shortly).
25. “Sarasu” in Other People: The Sangam House Reader Vol. I”, Sangam House: 2011. (another version of this appeared in the Little Magazine cited below)
26. “State of Whiteness” in The Shrinking Woman and Other Stories. Bangalore: Unisun, 2009
27. “How Do I Love Thee?: Let Me Count the Ways”. in The Penguin Book of New Writing From India 2: First Proofs . New Delhi: Penguin, 2006. ays Shortlisted for the TLM New Writing Award, 2006 (New Delhi: the Little Magazine, 2006); also in the Little Magazine. Vol. 5, Issue 4, 2004

Courses Taught:

• Creative Writing, Fiction, Indian Literature, Rise of the Novel, Poetry, Literatures in Translation, English for Communication, Indian Classics, Literature and Values.

Ph.D Research Guided (Completed):

• Martha Thindle (Children’s Literature)
• A Geetha (Tamil Dalit Literature)
• OJ Joycee (Orality and Folk tales)

Ongoing Ph.D Guidance:

• Sheeja Rajagopal (Women’s Writing: Cancer Narratives)
• Sindhu Sekhar (Migration narratives in Amitav Ghosh)

M.A Project Guidance:

• Satish Pandian, “The Fiction of Charles Dickens”, 2011.
• Kaamya Sharma, “Rasa Theory and the Barahmasas”, 2013.
• Swathy Kumar, “Representation of Children in British Literature”, 2014
• Aswin Vijayan, Anglophone Poetry in India”, 2016
• Anju Muraleedharan, “A Feminist Reading of Ambai’s short stories”, 2016
• Amala Bonnie, “The Frame of Lived Experience: Women’s Writing”, 2016
• Lida Paul, “Vernacular cosmopolitanism in the works of Amitav Ghosh” (2017 – On-going)
• Shabna Safeer, “The Graphic novel: Joe Sacco’s Palestine” (2017- On-going)

Summer Intern (Guidance):

• Kavery Murthy, “Oral History of Vidyasagar”
• Suparna Bhattacharya: “Translations of Writing by Marathi Women”