“One important way to encourage translation and interpretation is having a translation included in college and university courses.” – Himansu S. Mohapatra (Translator)
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Team Kitaab is in conversation with former Professor and translator Himansu S. Mohapatra where we talk about his journey as a translator, Odia literature, and its global impact.
Himansu S. Mohapatra is a former Professor of English, Utkal University, Odisha, and a translator. He has produced, with Paul St-Pierre, an edited volume of Odia stories in English translation entitled The Other Side of Reason (2008), and four books of translation: Following My Heart (Dhauli Books, 2023), a memoir in Odia by J.M. Joardar, Battles of Our Own (Penguin, 2022), an ‘industrial novel’ by Jagadish Mohanty, Letters to Jorina (Authors Press, 2021), an epistolary novella by Ganeswar Mishra, and Basanti: Writing the New Woman (Oxford University Press, 2019)—it is the first woman-oriented Odia novel written by nine authors in 1931.
His translation, The Life and Times of Banka Harichandan, a composite Odia novel about growing up by Dipti Ranjan Pattanaik, was published by Yoda Press and Simon & Schuster in November 2023. A selection of his literary journalism has been published as Model of the Middle (BirdNest, 2013).
