Anil Acharya

Anil Acharya (Bengali: অনিল আচার্য) is an Indian Bengali essayist, short story writer and poet. In 1966, he founded the Bengali literary quarterly and little magazine Anustup.[1]

Anil Acharya
NationalityIndian
OccupationEssayist, writer, poet
Known forEditor of Anustup literary magazine

Education

Acharya graduated with an honors degree in English literature from the Scottish Church College.[2] Thereafter he earned his master's degree in English literature from the University of Calcutta. He started publishing the literary quarterly Anustup as an undergraduate student at Scottish Church College in 1966.[1]

Career

Since his college days, he has written poems, short stories and essays in Bengali and English. After earning a postgraduate degree in English literature, he started out as a lecturer, and later became a reader and then associate professor in English at the Serampore College, within the aegis of the University of Calcutta.[1] He was also Head of the Department of English and set up the Communicative English programme in Serampore College.

He is a member of the Publisher and Bookseller's Guild, the organisers of the Kolkata Book Fair, which is Asia's largest book fair and the most attended book fair in the world. He was elected Secretary of the Guild for three successive terms, between 1996-1998, and during his tenure, the noted French Philosopher Jacques Derrida inaugurated the Kolkata Book Fair in 1997.

He has spent a life in writing and editing his quarterly journal, and has also founded an English language literary periodical for translated short stories from Bengali, called Harvest.[1] In 1970, he assisted the Australian director Paul Cox as the assistant director in making the documentary on Calcutta. He was also the associate producer of Paul Cox's film "Force of Destiny" released in 2014. He is currently associated with St. Thomas' College of Engineering and Technology, Kolkata.[3]

Between February 2013 and February 2015, he wrote a regular Sunday column in the Bengali newspaper 'Ei Somoy', called "Nipaatone Siddho". It documented the myriad experiences, that played out across four decades in the Bengali cultural and political landscape, and shaped Anustup and what it stands for. He is also the author of the Bengali book titled "Parasmaipadi" which is a collection of his selected articles.

Recognition

In recognition of his efforts, in 2012, he was appointed as a Tagore National Scholar by the Ministry of Culture of the Government of India.[4]

See also

References
  1. Anustup website's profile of the editor. Retrieved on 9 September 2013
  2. Some Alumni of Scottish Church College in 175th Year Commemoration Volume. Scottish Church College, April 2008, p. 588.
  3. Calcutta
  4. National Library Kolkata newsletter
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