About Debjani Chatterjee MBE
Debjani Chatterjee is an Indian-born 'poet full of wit and charm' (Andrew Motion), 'a rainbow spirit' (Paul Beasley) and 'a voice of rare originality' (David Morley). Editor, translator, children's writer, she has written & edited over 60
books, including the poetry collections Namaskar: New & Selected Poems, Words Spit & Splinter and I Was That Woman. Award-winning anthologies she has edited include The Redbeck Anthology of British South Asian Poetry and Barbed Lines.
Her poetry & translations have won major prizes. Sheffield Hallam University awarded her an honorary doctorate for literature, the arts & community service. In 2008 she received an MBE. She has been described as 'the best-known Asian poet in the UK
today'.
Debjani is also a children's writer and storyteller. Her retellings of traditional tales from many cultures include Nyamia & the Bag of Gold (Longman), The Most Beautiful Child (CUP), The Snake Prince & Other
Folk Tales from Bengal (Sahitya Press) and The Elephant-headed God & Other Hindu Tales (Lutterworth), which was selected for Children's Books of the Year. Her multilingual interactive play 'The Honoured Guest' was toured by Twisting Yarn Theatre and
published by Faber & Faber in Plays for Children 2.
Her many residencies have included ones at York St John University, the Ilkley Literature Festival, Bedfordshire Schools, Kelvin Grove Museum & Art Gallery
and Sheffield Children's Hospital and the Millennium Galleries.
Debjani is available for writing commissions, residencies, readings, talks, workshops, storytelling & competition adjudications in the UK & abroad.