Shubhangi Swarup

Shubhangi Swarup (hindi - शुभांगी स्वरुप; IPA - ʃʊbʰɑ́ŋgiː svəruːp) is an Indian author, journalist and educator. She is best known for her novel Latitudes of Longing, which was published in 2018 by HarperCollins^[1] and was declared a bestseller soon after its release in India,^[2][3] and Sweden.^[4]

Shubhangi Swarup
Swarup in Mumbai, 2018
Born	1982 (age 41–42) Nashik, Maharashtra
Nationality	Indian
Education	St. Anne's High School, Fort, Mumbai
Alma mater	St. Xavier's College (Mumbai), SOAS University of London
Notable work	Latitudes of Longing
Website	shubhangiswarup.com

Swarup has worked as a journalist since 2008, and has written for Open,^[5] The Mint^[6] and also worked briefly in Zanzibar in 2011.^[7]

She was the Executive Editor for ElseVR channel, India's first virtual reality (VR) journalism platform co-created by filmmaker and producer Anand Gandhi. In this capacity, she directed and wrote When Borders Move, a documentary about Hunderman, a village in Kargil that once belonged to Pakistan, was shortly in no man’s land, and now belongs to India.^[8][9]

As part of the Dekeyser and Friend’s Dance Project, Swarup was part of Fire of Anatolia, a Turkish dance group consisting of 120 dancers, several choreographers and other technical staff.^[10][11] Additionally, she has volunteered as a teacher for street children and low income groups, and co-founded the community group, Hamara Footpath, a Mumbai-based NGO dedicated to the educational needs of children who live on Mumbai’s streets.^[12]

Swarup was born in Nashik^[13] to Sunanda Swarup and Govind Swarup in 1982. She holds a Masters of Sciences degree in Violence, Conflict and Development from SOAS University of London.

Notable works

Latitudes of Longing (2018)

Swarup began work on her first book in 2011.^[14] In an interview published in The Hindu, she mentioned that it took her seven years to write the novel, and that her training as a journalist taught her ‘the value of deadlines, and sticking to them in the face of uncertainty.’.^[15][16]

Latitudes of Longing is among the first Indian novels to engage with nature as a living, heaving entity. A tectonically active fault-line running through the Indian subcontinent holds all the stories together, in lieu of a plot. Winner of the Émile Guimet Prize for Asian Literature, the jury observed that the novel has invented a genre in itself: the fiction of nature.^[17] Critically and commercially successful, the novel is in the process of being translated in 17 different languages.^[18] It was selected by the GOOP book club^[19] and Oprah Daily^[20][21] in 2020, and its Taiwanese translation was selected by the Eslite chain of bookstores, Taipei as their November book of the month.

Shikaar (2019)

Shikaar is a Hindi play conceptualized and co-written by Swarup in 2019.^[22] She wrote the story, and the play was produced by Patchworks Ensemble. Set among a group of chudails, the story explores the threat independent women pose to fascism.^[23][24][25] Shikaar received both popular and critical acclaim.^[26][27]

Awards

Swarup was awarded the Charles Pick Fellowship for creative writing^[28] at the University of East Anglia, and the South Asia Laadli Media & Advertising Award for Gender Sensitivity twice for her articles - "The Many Perceptions of Rape", 2009^[29] and "Stealth Revolution", 2012.^[30]

For Latitudes of Longing, she received the following awards and nominations -

• the 6th Émile Guimet Prize for Asian Literature, 2022^{[31][32][33][34]}
• won the Sushila Devi Literature Award for Best Book of Fiction Written By A Woman, 2020^[35]
• longlisted for International Dublin Literary Award, 2020^[36]
• longlisted for DSC Prize for South Asian Literature, 2019^[37]
• won the Tata Literature Live! First Book Award - Debut Fiction, 2018^[38]
• shortlisted for the inaugural JCB Prize for Literature, 2018^[39][40]

Influences

Discussing her literary influences in an interview with Prakruti Maniar,^[41] Swarup shared that she primarily considers Naguib Mahfouz and A.K. Ramanujan, specifically his short story collection A Flowering Tree for narrative style; as well as Haruki Murakami, Gabriel García Márquez and Maria Dermoût’s The Ten Thousand Things, and other Japanese, Spanish and African literature.

Beyond literature, Swarup also credited filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki as a strong influence.

References

1. "Shubhangi Swarup". HarperCollins Publishers India Books, Novels, Authors and Reviews. Retrieved 2023-10-12.
2. "Latitudes of Longing". Literary Hub. 2020-05-21. Retrieved 2023-11-23.
3. "Latitudes of Longing by Shubhangi Swarup". goop Book Club.
4. Webico (2020-05-20). ""Latitudes of Longing" by Shubhangi Swarup makes international waves from the start". Pontas Agency. Retrieved 2023-11-23.
5. "Shubhangi Swarup, Author at Open The Magazine". Open The Magazine. Retrieved 2023-10-23.
6. "Lounge Original: 'Confessions of a Menopausal Man' by Shubhangi Swarup". Mintlounge. 2018-12-28. Retrieved 2023-10-23.
7. "Paradise Island, Up Close and Real". Open The Magazine. 2011-11-25. Retrieved 2023-11-23.
8. "Shubhangi Swarup | Additional Crew, Director, Editor". IMDb. Retrieved 2024-02-03.
9. "Virtual reality adds transparency to narrative journalism". Business Standard. IANS. Retrieved 7 February 2017.
10. "DANCE PROJECT – Dekeyser & Friends". Retrieved 2023-11-23.
11. "My Life as an Extra". Open The Magazine. 2010-02-16. Retrieved 2023-11-23.
12. "Life's lessons learnt on the sidewalk". The Times of India. 2007-05-13. ISSN 0971-8257. Retrieved 2023-11-23.
13. "Shubhangi Swarup". www.thejcbprize.org. Retrieved 2023-10-23.
14. "Indian women are wowing the West with their first novels". The Times of India. 2020-08-05. ISSN 0971-8257. Retrieved 2023-10-23.
15. Mukherjee, Anusua (2020-02-08). "In conversation with Shubhangi Swarup". The Hindu. ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 2023-11-23.
16. "Human imagination has been trapped in rooms of our own creation". Business Standard. IANS. 2 September 2018.
17. "Shubhangi Swarup, prix Émile Guimet de littérature asiatique 2023". ActuaLitté.com (in French). Retrieved 2023-12-28.
18. "Shubhangi Swarup - Aevitas Creative Management". www.aevitascreative.com. Retrieved 2024-02-15.
19. "Goop Book Club - Latitudes of Longing by Shubhangi Swarup".
20. "28 Books to Transport You This Summer, Written By Women Around the World". Oprah Daily. 2020-06-24. Retrieved 2023-12-28.
21. "Oprah picks Mumbai debut writer Shubhangi Swarup for her summer list". Mintlounge. 2020-07-08. Retrieved 2023-12-28.
22. "SHIKAAR Hindi Play/Drama - www.MumbaiTheatreGuide.com". www.mumbaitheatreguide.com. Retrieved 2023-11-01.
23. "The play Shikaar preys on our notions of hunter and hunted". The Week. Retrieved 2023-11-23.
24. Phukan, Vikram (2019-08-14). "Shikaar: A commune of chudails". The Hindu. ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 2023-11-23.
25. "No easy answers!". DNA India. Retrieved 2023-11-23.
26. Phukan, Vikram (2019-08-14). "Shikaar: A commune of chudails". The Hindu. ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 2023-11-01.
27. "Shikaar successfully walks the fine line between real laughs and real fears". The Indian Express. 2019-08-21. Retrieved 2023-11-01.
28. "Charles Pick Fellowship - School of Literature, Drama and Creative Writing - About". www.uea.ac.uk. Retrieved 2023-12-24.
29. "5_Down_NATIONAL_BROCHURE_2010-2011_CURVE.pdf - Microsoft Word Online". onedrive.live.com. Retrieved 2023-12-24.
30. "5_Down_NATIONAL_BROCHURE_2010-2011_CURVE.pdf - Microsoft Word Online". onedrive.live.com. Retrieved 2023-12-24.
31. "Shubhangi Swarup remporte le prix Emile Guimet de littérature asiatique". Livres Hebdo (in French). Retrieved 2023-12-24.
32. lalettre (2023-01-21). "Prix Émile Guimet de littérature asiatique 2023 à Shubhangi Swarup". lalettredulibraire.com (in French). Retrieved 2023-12-24.
33. Scroll Staff (2023-01-23). "Shubhangi Swarup's 'Latitudes of Longings' wins 2023 Émile Guimet Prize for Asian Literature". Scroll.in. Retrieved 2023-12-24.
34. "Shubhangi Swarup, prix Émile Guimet de littérature asiatique 2023". ActuaLitté.com (in French). Retrieved 2023-12-24.
35. "Shubhangi Swarup's Latitudes of Longing wins Sushila Devi Literature Award". The Indian Express. 2020-01-03. Retrieved 2023-12-24.
36. IGO (2019-11-09). "Latitudes of Longing". Dublin Literary Award. Retrieved 2023-12-24.
37. Anderson, Porter (2019-09-27). "DSC Prize for South Asian Literature Releases Its Longlist". Publishing Perspectives. Retrieved 2023-12-24.
38. Scroll Staff. "Shubhangi Swarup and James Crabtree among the winners of the Tata Literature Live Awards". Scroll.in. Retrieved 2023-12-24.
39. "JCB Prize", Wikipedia, 2023-04-19, retrieved 2023-12-24
40. "Jasmine Days". www.thejcbprize.org. Retrieved 2023-12-24.
41. "Fiction begins where non-fiction ends: Shubhangi Swarup - Purple Pencil Project". 2018-10-18. Retrieved 2023-11-23.