Kitaab is delighted to announce two new names to its growing list of international editors. Well-known Dhaka-based writer Farah Ghuznavi joins Team Kitaab as the country editor (Editor-at-large) for Bangladesh and Rituparna Mahapatra joins the team as Editor-at-lage for Dubai.
Farah Ghuznavi is a writer and newspaper columnist, with a background in development work in Asia and Africa. She remains an unrepentant idealist despite the existence of empirical evidence that suggests it might be better to think otherwise. Her work has been widely-anthologised in Europe, Asia and North America. Her story “Judgement Day” was Highly Commended in the Commonwealth Competition 2010, and “Getting There” placed second in the Oxford University GEF Competition. In 2013, Farah published her first short story collection, Fragments of Riversong (Daily Star Books, Bangladesh). The book has been well-received by the global literary community. In 2012, she edited Lifelines, an anthology of Bangladeshi writing for the Indian publisher, Zubaan Books. Having completed a stint as Writer in Residence with Commonwealth Writers in 2013, Farah has written a number of essays and advice columns on writing.
“I am delighted to be Bangladesh Country Editor for Kitaab, and the opportunity is meaningful to me for a variety of reasons,” she said in a statement. “Not just because it is an honour to be part of a team that includes colleagues like Amitava Kumar and my friend Anees Salim, but also because Kitaab has a vision – and a clear plan – for what it aims to do in order to bring the work of Asian writers to a wider audience. Its focus on originality and literary merit rather than the ‘marketability’ in the selection of projects means that Kitaab is providing a much-needed space for writers to explore their potential without feeling the pressure to conform to what is expected of them.”
Rituparna Mahapatra is a writer and educator from Orissa, India. She taught English literature at Sambalpur University and Delhi University. Driven by her love for writing, she gave up teaching and freelanced for various publishing houses like The Telegraph, Deccan Herald, before a short stint with Encyclopedia Britannica India. A movie enthusiast, and a voracious reader, she loves nature walks in her free time and aspires to be a singer among other things. Cooking for her family and friends is an added passion. Mother of two kids, she takes utmost pride in being called ‘Mom’. Currently, she lives in Dubai with her dog and family.
