Meghna Pant

Meghna Pant
Meghna Pant at the Mumbai book launch of her novel ' One & A Half Wife '
Occupation	Author, journalist
Nationality	Indian
Notable works	One & A Half Wife, Happy Birthday!, Feminist Rani, The Trouble With Women
Website
www.meghnapant.com

Meghna Pant is an Indian author, journalist, feminist, and speaker. Claimed to be among India’s best female writers,^[1][2] Pant’s books have been critically and commercially successful.^[3]

Biography

Born in Shimla, Pant is the sister of stand-up comedian Sorabh Pant. ^[4]

On her upbringing, Pant says: "My parents worked for the government, so I’ve seen most of India (20 states). My studies and jobs have taken me from Zurich to Singapore to New York and Dubai. I’ve travelled to 30 countries across 4 continents. As a result, I’ve lived in more than 25 homes! This exposure has given me a wonderful platform to immerse myself in worlds and cultures different from mine. It’s made me sensitive to what sets people apart and brings them together."^[5]

Career

One & a Half Wife^[6] (Westland, 2012) – her debut novel – won the national Muse India Young Writer Award (2014) and was shortlisted for several other awards, including the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award.

Pant's debut collection of short stories Happy Birthday.^[7] (Random House, 2013) was long-listed for the Frank O'Connor International Award (2014).

Her second short story collection The Trouble Book with Women (Juggernaut, 2016) is considered by one commentator to be a landmark in feminist writing ^[8] and was described as 'the best book from Juggernaut' by The Hindu Business Line. ^[9]

Pant published her first non-fiction book Feminist Rani (Penguin Random House, 2018) ^[10] that features interviews with Kalki Koechlin, Gurmehar Kaur, Tanmay Bhat, Gul Panag and Aditi Mittal, among others. ^[11] She has two forthcoming books: HOW TO GET PUBLISHED (Bloomsbury, 2019) and THE HOLY 100 (Rupa, 2018). ^[12]

On her writing, Pant says, “The whole point of my stories is to capture duality, the beauty and horror that is our life.”^[13]

Pant's short stories have been published in over a dozen international literary magazines, including Avatar Review,^[14] Wasafari, Eclectica,^[15] and QLRS.^[16], as well as in several anthologies including Namita Gokhale's The Himalayan Arc, where her story Boongthing was critically praised by The Hindu and Hindustan Times. ^{[17] [18]}

Feminism

Among India’s five gutsy women making powerful personal statements - The Hindustan Times^[19]

25 witty, sharp and fearless women to follow on Twitter - SheThePeople^[20]

An honest, intelligent, insightful and downright feminist - GirlHQ^[21]

Pant curates a monthly panel discussion in Mumbai called 'Feminist Rani'^[22] and anchors various women-centric shows for the news portal FirstPost.^[23][24]

The writer thinks, “In our society, women have been conditioned to please our brothers, fathers, husbands, sons and our bosses. What kind of life are we leading as women in India if we say ‘I will not sacrifice, I will not compromise, I will not be subservient, and I will not adjust’? That’s the basic framework of feminism in India’s context today". Adding on, she asserts, “Every woman who rises above her circumstances to shift the axis on which women stand, and gives them a higher place in society’s matrix, is an empowered female. Every woman who reframes gender biases and makes the world more hospitable to women is an opinion leader.”

Pant has been a speaker and moderator at events where she interviews women who have reportedly broken glass ceilings in various walks of life. She has ostensibly taken a strong feminist stance in her writing.

Pant has written on issues including consent, rape,^[25] domestic violence, surrogacy, body-shaming^[26] and public safety for women for various prominent publications. A physical abuse survivor, she has spoken at several platforms, including TEDx, on her personal experience, urging women to speak out against domestic violence. She is credited for having popularised the phrase “Stop The Silence. Stop The Violence.”^[27]

Journalist

Pant has previously worked as a business news anchor with Times Now, NDTV and Bloomberg-UTV in Mumbai and New York. She was reporting from the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) during the 2008 financial crisis. Her articles have been published in all major publications, including The Hindustan Times^[28] and The Huffington Post.^[29]

Speaker

Pant has been invited as a speaker for literary festivals and conferences including Young Makers Conclave, #RiseWithTwitter, The Feminist Conference, the Kala Ghoda Literature Festival,^[30] the Pune International Literary Festival,^[31] as well as TEDx.^[32]

Awards and Achievements

• Laadli Media Award (2018) – Winner^[33]
• Bharat Nirman Award (2017) – Winner^[34]
• FON (Fellows of Nature) South Asia Short Story Award (2016) – Winner^[35]
• Muse India Young Writer Award (2013) – Winner^[36][37]
• Commonwealth Short Story Prize (2018) – Longlist ^[38]
• Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award (2014) – Longlist^[39][40][41]
• Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award (2012) – Shortlist^[42]
• The Cinnamon Press Novel Writing Award (2012) – Shortlist^[43]
• 53 Indian Women Writers Millennials Must Read^[44]
• 10 Indian Achievers Make It Big^[45]
• 25 Women To Follow On Twitter^[46]
• Best Female Authors^[47]

Pant abridged the world’s longest epic, The Mahabharata, into one hundred tweets^[48] that The Guardian (UK) called "wonderfully descriptive and paced".^[49][50]

Bibliography

Novels

• One & A Half Wife (2012). New Delhi: Westland. pp. 304 pages. ISBN 978-9381626481.

Short Stories

• Happy Birthday! (2013). London: Random House. pp. 296 pages. ISBN 978-8184004038.
• The Trouble With Women (2016).

Non-fiction

• Feminist Rani (2018). Penguin Random House. pp. 256 pages. ISBN 978-0143442875.

References

External links

• Official Website