Janice Pariat

Janice Pariat is an Indian poet and writer. She is best known for Boats on Land which won the Sahitya Akademi Yuva Puraskar, and Everything the Light Touches which garnered the Sushila Devi Award. Pariat teaches Creative Writing and History of Art at Ashoka University.

Early life and career Janice was born in Jorhat, Assam, and grew up between Shillong and several tea estates in Assam. She was educated at Loreto Convent, Shillong and The Assam Valley School. Thereafter, she obtained a BA in English Literature from St. Stephen's College, Delhi and an MA in History of Art and/or Archaeology from SOAS, University of London. Her writing has featured in a number of Indian and international magazines, such as Time Out Delhi, and Internazionale.

In 2014 she was the Charles Wallace Creative Writing Fellow with residency at University of Kent. In 2019 she was a writer-in-residence at the Toji Cultural Foundation in South Korea. Pariat teaches creative writing and history of Art at Ashoka University.

Style In Boats on Land, Pariat's stories – set between Shillong, Cherrapunji and Assam – undertake fictional re-imaginings of the transformations that swept through Northeast India during a period of three centuries, starting in the 1850s. Weaving together local folklore and tradition with unfolding social and political events, Pariat's style has been likened to magical realism as well as to Haruki Murakami's writing. Jeet Thayil commented on her stories to be 'revelatory and original'.

Writing

Boats on Land

Pariat's debut collection of short stories are set in and around Shillong and the tea estates that she grew up in. Boats on Land: A Collection Of Short Stories was released in September 2012 under Vintage Books imprint. It won the Sahitya Akademi Yuva Puraskar for the English language in 2013, making her the first writer from Meghalaya to win an award from the institution.

Seahorse This was Pariat's first novel which retells the Greek myth of Poseidon and his devotee Pelops but set in Old Delhi. It was released almost a year later in the UK under The Borough Press imprint, and Italian translation by Salani Editore. Smitha Verma reflects that the book can be best described with its midway quote "Sometimes a place is more than just a place. It becomes a thing that shines like a beacon, where all your dreams and aspirations are fulfilled."

The idea for the book emerged in 2014, and writing it was a challenge due to its expanse. The Open magazine's review of the book draws parallel to Andrea Wulf's The Invention of Nature. They write that the novel captures a sense of emotional displacement that some experience with "incredible and affecting accuracy." The Indian Express called it a "deeply therapeutic novel". Hindustan Times review writes that Pariat's narrative skills shine through in the little details that elevate it while being wonderful even at the broad strokes. Vogue India calls the novel "a celebration of curiosity through the ages" with gentle language and elegant prose piercing through "the deepest places of the heart." The Telegraph (India) called the novel "the very best of eco fiction" with its various characters woven together into "an interconnected and a symbiotic forest of ideas." The New Indian Express praised the historical detailing combined with research to layer several genres such as history, taxonomy, prose, and poetry into the ambitious novel. In 2023 the novel won the Sushila Devi Award in the best fiction category and AutHer Award for Best Fiction. The same work was also shortlisted for the 2013 Shakti Bhatt First Book Prize, and longlisted for the 2013 uday lakhanpal International Short Story Award and the 2013 Tata Literature Live! First Book Award. Seahorse was shortlisted for The Hindu Literary Prize (2015).

Her latest book 'Everything the Light Touches' was long listed for JCB Prize for Literature 2023. Janice bagged the Sushila Devi Award for her latest book 'Everything the Light Touches' for best fiction 2023.

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