Temsula Ao

Temsula Ao Biography

Temsula Ao is an Indian author who writes in English, and currently one of the finest authors of the country. She received ‘Sahitya Akademi Award’ in 2013 for her collection of short stories ‘Laburnum for My Head’. She is a retired Professor of English in North Eastern Hill University, with which she has been associated since 1975. She retired in the year 2010 after putting in service for more than three decades. For her literary contributions, government of India honoured her with Padma Shri in 2007. She writes poetry and short stories. Her works have been translated into German, French, Assamese, Bengali and Hindi.

Temsula Ao was born in October 1945 at Jorhat, Assam. She started writing a bit late in life. Her first book of poems was published in 1988 - Songs that Tell, while she was into teaching job and fully busy looking after her four children as a single parent. So whatever time was left, she dedicated to writing. But slowly she established herself as one of the finest Indian writers, both prose and poetry in English. In between 1988 and 2007, she published 5 poetry collections, and interestingly the titles of all these works begin with the word, ‘Songs’.

Her published poetry works include - Songs that Tell (1988), Songs that Try to Say (1992), Songs of Many Moods (1995), Songs from Here and There (2003) and Songs from the Other Life (2007). Her early works have been published in Kolkata, and then in Pune. Temsula Ao has published two short story collections. These Hills Called Home: Stories from the War Zone and Zubaan and Laburnum for my Head. In 1989, she published Henry James' Quest for an Ideal Heroine, a book of literary criticism.

Published: September 22, 2018

Updated: September 22, 2018