Parismita Singh
BornAssam, India
OccupationAuthor, Illustrator, Graphic Novelist, Educator
NationalityIndian
EducationSt. Stephen's College, Delhi
GenreGraphic novels, Children's books, Fiction, Non-fiction
Notable worksThe Hotel at the End of the World, Peace Has Come
Notable awards2009 Shakti Bhatt First Book Prize shortlist

Parismita Singh (born 1979/1980[1]) is an Indian author, illustrator, graphic novelist, and educator. She is a founding member of the Pao Collective, and her work includes The Hotel at the End of the World, which was shortlisted for the Shakti Bhatt First Book Prize and is one of the first graphic novels published in India. She is also the author and illustrator of the short story collection Peace Has Come.

Early life and education

Singh was born in Assam[2] and raised in the town of Biswanath Chariali, about six hours away from Guwahati in Assam, India.[3] Her grandmother, Durgamoni Saikia, would tell traditional folk tales, but adapted to include family members and historical events.[3] Singh cites Maus as her inspiration for becoming a graphic novelist.[3]

Singh attended St. Stephen's College in Delhi.[4]

Career

After publishing visual narratives in Tehelka and Little Magazine,[4] Singh published her first graphic novel, The Hotel at the End of the World,[5] in 2009,[6][7][8] which was one of the first graphic novels published in India.[9][10][11] She had spent more than two years developing the novel, and began working for the NGO Pratham in grassroots education in Assam in 2009.[12][3][13] She then published short stories in Time Out and comics in The Siruvar Malar, while also working with the Pao Collective, and later published comics in Mint.[4]

Singh is a founding member of the Pao Collective, with Orijit Sen, Sarnath Banerjee, Vishwajyoti Ghosh, and Amitabh Kumar.[4][14][15] In December 2007, as a Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS) Sarai programme research fellow, along with Sarai fellow Banerjee, Singh presented "Comix/Comics: A Workshop on Comics and Graphic Novels" organized by the CSDS and the French Information and Resource Center, and met Sen at similar workshops.[4] Over the course of workshops and presentations from 2007 through 2009, the founding members decided to organize a collective to promote comics and support comics artists in India,[4][16] becoming the first organization in India to promote graphic novels[17] and help artists "earn their daily bread (pao)".[18][15] Singh contributed the chapter "Sleepscapes" to Pao: The Anthology Of Comics 1, published in 2012.[19][20]

Singh wrote and illustrated Mara And The Clay Cows, a children's book based on a Tangkhul Naga folk tale, which was published in 2015.[21][13] She also edited the 2018 anthology Centrepiece: Women’s Writing and Art from Northeast India.[22][23] Over three years while working in Assam on education projects, she wrote and illustrated a collection of short stories set in Assam titled Peace Has Come, which was published in 2018.[24]

In 2018 and 2019, she wrote and illustrated the articles "NRC: BJP Is On A Collision Course With Assamese 'Nationalists' Over Citizenship Bill" and "Assam NRC: Who Will Judge The Judges?", and co-wrote and illustrated "NRC Sketchbook: Ahead Of Deadline, One Final Rush For Inclusion In Assam", all published by HuffPost.[25][26][27] While writing about the National Register of Citizens (NRC) and Assam, Sanjay Barbora stated, "Novelist Parismita Singh’s thoughtful and reflective pieces on the fallout of the NRC allude to the difficulties that such people have had to endure, as well as the potential for violence that it has brought in its wake."[28]

Books

  • Singh, Parismita (2008). The Adventures of Tejimola and Sati Beula. Guwahati: Parismita Singh.[29]
  • Singh, Parismita (2009). The Hotel At The End Of The World. Penguin India. ISBN 9780143102946.
  • Parismita Singh (2012). "Sleepscapes". In The Pao Collective (ed.). Pao: The Anthology Of Comics 1. Penguin India. ISBN 978-0143417682.[30][31]
  • Singh, Parismita (2015). Mara And The Clay Cows. Tulika Publishers. ISBN 978-93-5046-657-5.
  • Singh, Parismita, ed. (2018). Centrepiece: Women's Writing and Art from Northeast India. Zubaan Books. ISBN 9789385932410.
  • Singh, Parismita (2018). Peace Has Come. Westland. ISBN 9789386850508.

Illustrated essays

Honors and awards

References

  1. "Roots and wings". The Indian Express. March 27, 2010. ProQuest 238384455. Retrieved 22 September 2021. Parismita Singh, 30,
  2. Sharma, Sanjukta (January 26, 2018). "Ceasefire state of mind". Mint. Retrieved 22 September 2021.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Anushreemajumdar (May 11, 2009). "Drawing Attention". The Indian Express. Retrieved 22 September 2021.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Stoll, Jeremy (2013). "Bread and Comics: A History of the Pao Collective". International Journal of Comic Art. 15 (2): 363–382. Retrieved 22 September 2021.
  5. "Inky Fingers All". The Indian Express. May 9, 2009. ProQuest 238264788. Retrieved 22 September 2021. When my generation was growing up, two things were largely invisible: India in comic books, and the Northeast in Indian English writing. Yes, there was that one glorious page of Delhi in Tintin in Tibet - complete with sacred cow and manic driver - and the occasional Commando war-comic in which the heroic Brit or Australian was battling the murderous Jap outside Kohima. The first thing that one thinks about when looking at Parismita Singh's first graphic novel is that, at least, we don't live in those times any more.
  6. Singh, Saurabh (May 25, 2009). "Art therapy: Characters in this graphic novel find solace in the art of storytelling". India Today. ProQuest 198668461. Retrieved 22 September 2021.
  7. Sayeed, Vikhar Ahmed (February 25, 2011). "In graphic detail". Frontline. Retrieved 22 September 2021.
  8. Baruah, Sanjib (August 31, 2018). "Non-citizens and history". Frontline. Retrieved 27 January 2022. The Assamese graphic novelist Parismita Singh, author of The Hotel at the End of the World (Penguin, 2009), has written touchingly of the experience of villagers near Biswanath Chariali, an area where she grew up.
  9. "At the end of the world". The Kathmandu Post. February 11, 2012. ProQuest 920886495. Retrieved 22 September 2021.
  10. Kees Ribbens (2010). "War comics beyond the battlefield:Anne Frank's transnational representation in sequential art". In Berndt, Jaqueline (ed.). Comics Worlds and the World of Comics: Towards Scholarship on a Global Scale. Kyoto Seika University: International Manga Research Center. p. 219. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.464.7381. ISBN 978-4-905187-01-1.
  11. Betageri, Ankur (July 2009). "Graphic Drive [Review of The Hotel at the End of the World, by P. Singh]". Indian Literature. Sahitya Akademi. 53 (4): 254–256. JSTOR 23340179.
  12. "China as metaphor in graphic novel". Hindustan Times. IANS. May 14, 2009. ProQuest 470089951. Retrieved 22 September 2021.
  13. 1 2 "Mara And The Clay Cows (English)". Tulika Books. Tulika Publishers. Retrieved 22 September 2021.
  14. Pisharoty, Sangeeta Barooah (November 2, 2012). "Picture and prose". The Hindu. Retrieved 22 September 2021.
  15. 1 2 Overdorf, Jason (June 17, 2010). "India's comics boom: The Pao Collective". GlobalPost. Retrieved 22 September 2021. last year Singh's "The Hotel at the End of the World" reignited the interest of India's literati.
  16. Kanjilal, Pratik (September 8, 2012). "One Plate Pao Bhaji". The Indian Express. Retrieved 22 September 2021.
  17. "Graphic novels find toehold - with Bollywood twist". Deccan Herald. IANS. February 5, 2010. Retrieved 22 September 2021.
  18. John A. Lent (2021). "Women an Asian Comic Art". In Woo, Benjamin; Stoll, Jeremy (eds.). The Comics World: Comic Books, Graphic Novels, and Their Publics. University Press of Mississippi. p. 40. ISBN 9781496834690. citing Stoll 2013a, 2013b, 2015; [...] "Comic art collectives that sprouted in parts of India in recent years included a few women, such as Vidyun Sabhaney, cofounder of Captain Bijli Comics in Delhi, Tina Thomas, co-operator of Studio Kokaachi in Cochin, and Parismita Singh of Pao Collective in Delhi. - via MUSE
  19. Singh, Jai Arjun (November 3, 2012). "Great repeat value". The Hindu. Retrieved 22 September 2021.
  20. "The comic treasure of thought bubbles". The New Indian Express. November 18, 2012. ProQuest 1159143344. Retrieved 22 September 2021.
  21. Rose, Jaya Bhattacharji (November 15, 2015). "A spiderweb of yarns". The Hindu. ProQuest 1732997254. Retrieved 22 September 2021. Some other examples of well-told stories are: [...] Parismita Singh's stupendous graphic story retelling the Naga folktale Mara and the Clay Cows (Tulika) [...]
  22. Kalita, Nandini (January 14, 2018). "Art and narrative that delineate the complexities associated with Northeastern identity". The Print. Retrieved 22 September 2021.
  23. Pal, Deepanjana (February 3, 2018). "Faces in the mirror". India Today. Retrieved 22 September 2021.
  24. Ravi, S. (April 2, 2018). "Like a garment caught on a nail…". The Hindu. Retrieved 23 September 2021.
  25. Singh, Parismita (December 10, 2018). "NRC: BJP Is On A Collision Course With Assamese 'Nationalists' Over Citizenship Bill". HuffPost. Retrieved 23 September 2021.
  26. Singh, Parismita (July 28, 2019). "Assam NRC: Who Will Judge The Judges?". HuffPost. Retrieved 22 September 2021.
  27. Singh, Parismita; Hussain, Shalim M (August 30, 2019). "NRC Sketchbook: Ahead Of Deadline, One Final Rush For Inclusion In Assam". HuffPost. Retrieved 22 September 2021.
  28. Barbora, Sanjay (January 17, 2020). "NRC debate: How Assam's complicated history has shaped its current predicament". Scroll.in. Retrieved 22 September 2021.
  29. Sadokpam, Dhiren (May 2008). "Beyond boxes and borders". Biblio. pp. 32–33. Retrieved 1 February 2022.
  30. Lobo, Joanna (September 16, 2012). "Book review: Pao: The Anthology Of Comics 1". DNA. Retrieved 22 September 2021.
  31. Jha, Aditya Mani (September 9, 2012). "An anthology even greater than the sum of its parts". The Sunday Guardian. Retrieved 22 September 2021.
  32. "Shakti Bhatt First Book Prize shortlist announced". Rediff.com. August 26, 2009. Retrieved 22 September 2021.
  33. "For mother of three, a sweet first". The Indian Express. December 16, 2009. ProQuest 238365868. Retrieved 22 September 2021. Koshy beat competition from five other nominees - Chandrahas Choudhury's Arzee the Dwarf, Parismita Singh's The Hotel at the End of the World, Palash Krishna Mehrotra's Eunuch Park, Mimlu Sen's Baulsphere and Anuradha Roy's An Atlas of Impossible Longing.
  34. "Best of 2018: Non-fiction books to understand India and the world". Scroll.in. Retrieved 22 September 2021.
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