Suniti Namjoshi

Her work has been translated into several languages, including Spanish, Italian, Dutch, Chinese, Korean, Hindi, and Turkish.

• Name — Suniti Namjoshi • Born — 1941 • Birthplace — Mumbai, India • Occupation — Poet, author, educator • Education — * University of Missouri (Master's degree) • McGill University (PhD) • Notable Work — Feminist Fables • Honorific Suffix — FRSL

Suniti Namjoshi was born in Mumbai in 1941. Her father, Manohar Vinayak Namjoshi, was a senior test pilot at Hindustan Aircraft in Bangalore. He died when his plane crashed in 1953. Her mother, Sarojini Namjoshi, née Naik Nimbalkar, was from Phaltan. Namjoshi was sent to Woodstock School, an American mission school in the Himalayan foothills, and then to Rishi Valley School in Andhra Pradesh.

She started working as an officer in the Indian Administrative Service in 1964, before pursuing further education. She earned a master's degree in public administration from the University of Missouri and a PhD on Ezra Pound from McGill University. Namjoshi taught in the Department of English at the University of Toronto from 1972 to 1987. She wrote Feminist Fables in 1981. It has been described as a minor feminist classic and is the work for which Namjoshi is best known. She began writing full-time in 1987, publishing fiction and poetry works. The play Kaliyug - Circles Of Paradise and the poetry collection Flesh And Paper were written in collaboration with Gillian Hanscombe. Namjoshi has been influenced by Virginia Woolf, Adrienne Rich, Hilary Clare, and Kate Millett. She has been active in the feminist movement and gay liberation movements. Namjoshi was an Honorary Research Fellow at the Centre for Women's Studies at Exeter University in England from 1995 to 2001, and was a member of the Literary Panel of the Arts Council of England from 1993 to 1996. In 1996 Namjoshi published Building Babel, a postmodern novel about building cultures, whose story continued online with a collaborative project that enables readers' contributions. In 2023 Namjoshi was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. Namjoshi lives and writes in Devon, United Kingdom.

• Feminist Fables. London: Sheba Feminist Press, 1981. • The Conversations of Cow. London: The Women's Press, 1985. • The Blue Donkey Fables. London: The Women's Press, 1988. • The Mothers of Maya Diip. London: The Women's Press, 1989. • Because of India: Selected Poems and Fables. London: Onlywomen Press, 1989. • Saint Suniti and the Dragon. North Melbourne: Spinifex Press, 1993. • Building Babel. North Melbourne: Spinifex Press, 1996. • Goja: An Autobiographical Myth. North Melbourne: Spinifex Press, 2000. • Sycorax: New Fables and Poems. New Delhi: Penguin Books, 2006. • The Fabulous Feminist: A Suniti Namjoshi Reader. Delhi: Zubaan Books, 2012. • Suki. Delhi: Penguin India, 2012. • Aesop the Fox. Melbourne: Spinifex Press, 2018. • Dangerous Pursuits. Delhi: Zubaan/Penguin, 2022. • The Good-Hearted Gardeners. Melbourne: Spinifex Press, 2023. • O Sister Swallow. Melbourne: Spinifex Press, 2024. • Matriarchs, Cows and Epic Villains. Delhi: Zubaan/Penguin Random House, 2025.

• Poems. Calcutta: Writers Workshop, 1967. • More Poems. Calcutta: Writers Workshop, 1971. • Cyclone In Pakistan. Calcutta: Writers Workshop, 1971. • The Jackass and the Lady. Calcutta: Writers Workshop, 1980. • The Authentic Lie. Fredericton: Fiddlehead Poetry Books, 1982. • From the Bedside Book of Nightmares. Fredericton: Goose Lane Editions, 1984. • Flesh and Paper (with Gillian Hanscombe). UK: Jezebel Tapes and Books, 1986. • Because of India: Selected Poems and Fables. London: Onlywomen Press, 1989. • Sycorax: New Fables and Poems. New Delhi: Penguin Books, 2006.

• Aditi and the One-Eyed Monkey (illustrated by Hassan Hanife). London: Sheba Feminist Press, 1986. • Aditi and the Thames Dragon (illustrated by Bindia Thapar). Chennai: Tulika Publishers, 2002. • Aditi and the Marine Sage (illustrated by Bindia Thapar). Chennai: Tulika Publishers, 2004. • Aditi and the Techno Sage (illustrated by Shefalee Jain). Chennai: Tulika Publishers, 2005. • Aditi and Her Friends Take on the Vesuvian Giant (illustrated by Shefalee Jain). Chennai: Tulika Publishers, 2007. • Aditi and Her Friends Meet Grendel (illustrated by Shefalee Jain). Chennai: Tulika Publishers, 2007. • Aditi and Her Friends Help the Budapest Changeling (illustrated by Shefalee Jain). Chennai: Tulika Publishers, 2007. • Aditi and Her Friends In Search of Shemeek (illustrated by Shefalee Jain). Chennai: Tulika Publishers, 2008. • Gardy in the City of Lions (illustrated by Proiti Roy). Chennai: Tulika Publishers, 2009. • Monkeyji and the Word Eater (illustrated by Proiti Roy). Chennai: Tulika Publishers, 2009. • Siril and The Spaceflower (illustrated by Proiti Roy). Chennai: Tulika Publishers, 2009. • Beautiful and the Cyberspace Runaway (illustrated by Proiti Roy). Chennai: Tulika Publishers, 2009. • Blue and Other Stories (illustrated by Nilima Sheikh). Chennai: Tulika Publishers, 2012. • Little i (illustrated by Sayan Mukherjee). Chennai: Tulika Publishers, 2014. • The Boy and Dragon Stories (illustrated by Krishna Bala Shenoi). Chennai: Tulika Publishers, 2015. • Aditi Adventures 13: The Antarctic Mission (illustrated by Shefalee Jain). Chennai: Tulika Publishers, 2020. • In the Land Where Beetles Rule (illustrated by Krishna Bala Shenoi). India: Pratham Books, 2022.

• Poems of Govindagraj by Ram Ganesh Gadkari. Translated by Suniti Namjoshi and Sarojini Namjoshi. Calcutta: Writers Workshop, 1968.