Jaya Madhavan

Jaya Madhavan
Born (1972-10-01) 1 October 1972 (age 52)
Madras, Tamil Nadu, India
OccupationAuthor
Period1998-present
GenreNovelist, comic creator, columnist, poet
Notable worksKabir The Weaver Poet, Sita and the Forest Bandits, Loony Life
Website
jayamadhavan.blogspot.com

Jaya Madhavan (born 1 October 1972) is an Indian author, poet, The New Indian Express columnist and comic creator. She is a winner of The Children's Book Trust All India Competition for Writers of Children's Books.[1][2]

Biography

Jaya Madhavan was born in Chennai, India.[citation needed] She studied at Kendriya Vidyalaya (KVCLRI) and studied literature at Queen Marys College Chennai. She is an alumnus of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi and completed her MA in English literature in 1994.[citation needed] She is an M.Phil. Degree holder from University of Madras.[citation needed] Jaya is a certified yoga instructor from Krishnamacharya Yoga Mandiram and a mental health professional by qualification and practice. She is a visiting faculty at the prestigious National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad and Bangalore.  Jaya (also known as Neelayathakshi Jaya) currently lives in Chennai with her two children,[3] and is the granddaughter of Seetha Doraiswamy.[4][5]

Work

Jaya is a YA fiction writer, poet, and columnist. Her first novel, Sita and the Forest Bandits,[6][7] was awarded the first prize in the Children Book Trust's All India Competition for Writers of Children's Books in 2001 and was subsequently published by Children's Book Trust, New Delhi. Jaya's retelling of a folk tale was awarded in the folk tale category and included in the Golden Treasury of short stories published by the Children's Book Trust.  One of her short articles published in The Hindu has been included in the NCERT English textbook with permission.[citation needed]

Her second book for young adults, Kabir The Weaver Poet, is a research backed novel[8] reaching the Top 15 reading list for young adults[9][10][11] and was published by Tulika Publications[2] in 2006. Kabir, The Weaver-Poet[12][13][14] was born of a two-year research of Kabir's songs and dohas. The book and is a YA fiction that was selected by the CBSE as part of its curriculum.[15] It has been selected among the 15 top YA fiction for age 12–21.[citation needed]

To share the spirit of Kabir, Jaya, along with her two sisters, performed Akath Kahani,[16][17][18][19][20][14][21] a unique immersive song-spoken word-dance presentation that won rave reviews. It was showcased on many stages including Prithvi theatre as part of Kabir festival in Mumbai, Sufi festival in Orissa, Auroville Kabir festival, and other parts of India. Jaya was invited to speak at the 8th edition of Kala Ghoda festival in Mumbai.[22]

Jaya ran a very popular weekly humour column called "Loony Life" for The New Indian Express[23][24][25][26][27][28] which enjoyed a huge readership. Every fortnight her Antidep comic strip[29] (created along with her sister) could be seen in The New Indian Express's Saturday Zeitgeist feature.[1][30]

Jaya's third novel, Sita and the twin ghosts, was published as a year long series by Gokulam Children's magazine, which Jaya illustrated herself.[citation needed]

Jaya's poems have been published by Unisun in their anthologies (The Peacock's Cry,[31] I, me, myself, Timescapes, Mosaic[32] etc.), Muse India and the South Asian Literary Journal.[33] Two of her published poems were selected to be translated into Croatian and published in the book Afternoon showers: an Anthology of Modern Indian Women Writers[34] brought out by the Croatian Ministry of Culture. Fifty Indian women poets were chosen for this anthology and Jaya among them.

Jaya's short stories for children have regularly appeared in Chatterbox children's magazine, Gokulam children's magazine, The Hindu's Young World, Children Book Trust's collection of short stories, and Unisun's collection of short stories. Her short story for adults, ‘The Monarch butterfly’, won the second prize in British Council-Unisun's national competition for writers of short stories 2005, and was selected by Shashi Deshpande for the collection title Winners,[35] published by Unisun, Bangalore. Her short stories "Curse of the bird"[36][37][38][39] and the "Other brother" was also showcased in the collection of paranormal stories published by Unisun, Bangalore titled Curse of the bird. The collection was named after Jaya's story that appeared in the collection. Jaya also won the second prize for her children's story ‘Siddharth becomes a big brother’ which was subsequently published in Unisun's collection of short stories for children titled Monsters under the bed and other stories.[40]

Jaya's articles have appeared in The Hindu, The Hindu's literary review, The Hindu's World of Women special supplement, The New Indian Express, the Sunday Express and the Times of India, Outlook Traveller.[41]

Select bibliography

  • Sita and the Forest Bandits, CBT, ISBN 9788170119777
  • Kabir The Weaver-Poet, Tulika books, ISBN 9788181461681
  • The Peacock's Cry, Unisun Anthologies, ISBN 9788188234233
  • The curse of the bird and other paranormal stories, Unisun Publications, 2009, ISBN 9788188234547
  • Winners, Unisun Publications, 2005, ISBN 9788188234110

References

  1. ^ a b "HABITAT YOUNG VISIONARY AWARD 2010". Archived from the original on 15 April 2012. Retrieved 12 December 2011.
  2. ^ a b "Tulika Books Authors". Archived from the original on 19 November 2010. Retrieved 9 February 2014.
  3. ^ Music, film festival will spread Kabir's message – Times Of India
  4. ^ Loony Life! (Award Winning Column)
  5. ^ "And The Granny Goes To..." Archived from the original on 18 July 2017. Retrieved 12 December 2011.
  6. ^ "Sita and the Forest Bandits" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 1 April 2016. Retrieved 1 February 2020.
  7. ^ "Sita and the Forest Bandits". 9 December 2011.
  8. ^ niranjana.wordpress.com/2011/01/10/kabir-the-weaver-poet
  9. ^ "15 Midsummer Reads for Young Adults". Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 12 December 2011.
  10. ^ "Kabir the Weaver - Poet".
  11. ^ World Kid Lit (17 September 2016). "Top 15 YA reads".
  12. ^ "Kabir the Weaver Poet".
  13. ^ Tulika Publishers (14 January 2011). "Discussing Kabir".
  14. ^ a b DT Next (16 November 2017). "Akath Kahani".[dead link]
  15. ^ Kabir the Weaver Poet. "CBSE ACADEMIC" (PDF).
  16. ^ Deccan, Herald (16 March 2012). ""Akath Kahani" review".
  17. ^ Times of India (14 November 2017). "Akath Kahani". The Times of India.
  18. ^ The Hindu (3 May 2012). "Akath Kahani". The Hindu.
  19. ^ The Hindu. "Akath Kahani review".
  20. ^ "Auroville Radio - Akath Kahani". Archived from the original on 16 February 2024. Retrieved 16 August 2020.
  21. ^ Empire of Enchantment (October 2018). Kabir the Weaver Poet. ISBN 9780190914394.
  22. ^ Times of India. "Kala Ghoda Festival".
  23. ^ Indian Express. "Loony Life column".
  24. ^ The Indian Express. "Loony Life column".
  25. ^ The Indian Express. "Loony Life".
  26. ^ The Indian Express. "Loony Life".
  27. ^ The Indian Express. "Loony Life".
  28. ^ The Indian Express. "Loony Life".
  29. ^ "Antidep comic strip".
  30. ^ "High Grossing Indian Novels". Archived from the original on 26 April 2012. Retrieved 12 December 2011.
  31. ^ The Peacock's Cry. OCLC 70129440.
  32. ^ Deccan Herald (28 December 2009). "I, Me, Myself".
  33. ^ Discussion with Authors (Including Jaya Madhavan)
  34. ^ "Sensa - 50 Indian Poets translated to Croatian".
  35. ^ Mathew, Mary; Mathew, Annie Chandy (2005). The Monarch Butterfly. ISBN 9788188234110.
  36. ^ Hindu. "Stories". Archived from the original on 17 March 2004.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  37. ^ "The Curse of the bird".
  38. ^ The Indian Express. "Curse of the Bird Review".
  39. ^ "Curse of the Bird". New Indian Express.
  40. ^ New Indian Express. "Monsters under the bed".
  41. ^ "Outlook Traveller".