Voices From the Gaps - Fall 2007

Mahasweta Devi was born on January 14, 1926 and grew up in West Bengal. Her father wrote poetry, prose writer, and novelist and her mother was a writer and social worker. They greatly inspired Devi to be an intellectual writer and to value her culture. She was sent to the finest middle and high schools, and furthered her education at Asutosh College of Calcutta University with a degree in English with high honors in 1946.

Devi married soon after college, and because her husband was a communist and constantly harassed, work was hard to find for him; money was tight. They had one son. Devi worked odd jobs until she became a teacher in 1967. In 1984, she retired to focus on her writing career and social activism. She wrote weekly newspaper columns and dozens of short stories and novels throughout her writing career.

Devi’s writings mainly focus on culture, especially tribal. Devi’s stories are part of an important contribution to many current discourses on third world literature. Many critics praise Devi on her ability to capture the plight of tribal communities. Her works have been translated from Bengali into many languages, including English, Hindi, and Kannada. Devi is still alive and continues to write.