Jayasree Kalathil

Jayasree Kalathil is an Indian writer, translator, mental health researcher and activist. She is known for her work in the area of mental health activism as well as for her translations of Malayalam works, The Diary of a Malayali Madman and Moustache, the former winning Crossword Book Award and the latter, the JCB Prize for Literature, both in 2020.

Jayasree Kalathil
Born
Kottakkal, Malappuram, Kerala, India
NationalityIndian
Alma mater
OccupationWriter, translator, researcher, activist
Notable work
  • Moustache
  • Diary of a Malayali Madman
  • The Sackclothman
  • ''Values and Ethics in Mental Health
Awards

Biography

Jayasree Kalathil was born in Kottakkal, a town in Malappuram district of the south Indian state of Kerala.[1] After completing college education at Farook College, Kozhikode, and the Department of English, University of Calicut, she pursued her research at the English and Foreign Languages University, Hyderabad under the guidance of the noted activist and writer, Susie Tharu, which earned her a doctoral degree.[2] Before moving to the UK, she worked as a researcher at Bapu Trust for Research on Mind & Discourse, Pune, Infochange India, Pune, and as a research fellow on mental health at Anveshi Research Centre for Women’s Studies, Hyderabad.[2]

Jayasree Kalathil lives in London.[2]

Work in mental health and anti-racism

Kalathil has been involved with the international Psychiatric survivors movement since the 1990s and her initial work in this area was around women’s mental distress and its representation in literature and cinema.[3] At 'Bapu Trust', Pune, she served as the founding editor of Aaina, the first Indian newsletter dedicated to mental health advocacy.[4] After moving to the UK, she worked as a researcher at the Mental Health Media, London, and the Centre for Mental Health, London. In 2007, she set up the virtual collective, Survivor Research, a platform for research, activism and advocacy to highlight and challenge the institutional racism embedded in psychiatric practice and knowledge.[5] She has worked as a consultant policy advisor at the Afiya Trust, London, an organization combatting racial inequalities in health, simultaneously managing 'Catch-a-Fiya', a national network of mental health service users and survivors from racially minoritised communities in the UK, and the National BME Mental Health Advocacy Project. She also co-chaired the Social Perspectives Network from 2009-2012, and served as the editor of 'Open Mind', a mental health magazine during 2010-2012.[2]

In 2012, Kalathil was one of the four coordinators of the 'The Inquiry into the ‘Schizophrenia’ Label' (ISL),[6] a campaign which aimed to question the usefulness of ‘schizophrenia’ as a diagnosis and medical condition, and investigated the impact this diagnosis on people’s lives.[7] She was one of the founding editors, with Jhilmil Breckenridge, of 'Mad in Asia Pacific', an online platform, founded in 2018, for voices from the Asia-Pacific region that offer a critical examination and rethinking of mental health, madness and disability.[8] She is also involved with a project mapping the knowledge produced by psychiatric survivors and persons with psychosocial disabilities.[2]

As a survivor researcher, Kalathil has written about the experiences of people at the intersection of madness and racism.[9] Her study, Recovery and Resilience, explored the personal experiences of mental distress and recovery of Black and Asian women in the UK, narrated through life story narrative interviews,[10] and Dancing to Our Own Tunes,[11] a review done by her, deals with the experiences of Black and Asian mental health service users within the survivor movement and its user involvement spaces;[12] the report was subsequently came up for discussion in the UK Parliament.[13] She has also co-authored a textbook, Values and Ethics in Mental Health: An Exploration for Practice.[14][15]

Literary career

Kalathil is the author of The Sackclothman,[16] a book for children[17] a book under the 'Different Tales' project,[18] which has since been translated into Indian languages such as Hindi,[19] Telugu[20] and Malayalam.[21][22] In 2019, Harper Collins published her work, Diary of a Malayali Madman, the translation of five novellas, written by Malayalam writer, N. Prabhakaran.[23] The publishing company contracted her again for the translation of Meesha, a controversial novel written by S. Hareesh which was subsequently published under the title, Moustache in 2020.[24][25]

Awards and honors

In 2011, the Mental Health Foundation selected Kalathil's work on the Recovery and Resilience project for the Janice Sinson Research Prize.[2] She received the Crossword Book Award in 2020, for Diary of a Malayali Madman, the translation of N. Prabhakaran's novellas.[26][27][28] In the same year, Moustache, her translation of Meesha, by S. Hareesh,[29] fetched her the JCB Prize for Literature,[30][31] arguably the literary award in India with the largest winner's purse.[32]

Selected publications

Original works
  • Kalathil, Jayasree (2008). The Sackclothman. Kottayam: D.C. Books. ISBN 978-81-264-2032-2. OCLC 838341206.
  • Kalathil, Jayasree (2008). Chakkupranthan. Kottayam: D.C. Books. ISBN 978-81-264-2023-0.
  • Kalathil, Jayasree (2008). Gonnesanchi Abbayi. Translated by Singaraju, Ramadevi. Hyderabad: Anveshi Research Centre for Women’s Studies. ISBN 978-81-907042-3-6.
  • Kalathil, Jayasree (2011). "Dancing to our own tunes: Reassessing black and minority ethnic mental health service user involvement". National Survivor User Network. Retrieved 2020-12-18.
  • Kalathil, Jayasree (2011). Recovery and resilience: African, African-Caribbean and South Asian women’s narratives of recovering from mental distress. Mental Health Foundation.
  • Morgan, Alastair.; Felton, Anne; Fulford, Bill; Kalathil, Jayasree; Stacey, Gemma. Values and ethics in mental health : an exploration for practice. London. ISBN 978-1-137-38258-0. OCLC 909321183.
  • Kalathil, Jayasree (2008). Borewala. Translated by Sablok, Shashi. Bhopal: Eklavya. ISBN 978-93-85236-44-0.

Translated works

Articles

See also

References
  1. ഡെസ്ക്, വെബ് (2020-11-17). "എന്‍റെ പൊളിറ്റിക്സുമായി ഒത്തുപോകണം, എങ്കിലേ വിവർത്തനം സാധ്യമാകൂ- ജയശ്രീ കളത്തിൽ - Madhyamam". www.madhyamam.com. Retrieved 2020-12-18.
  2. "Jayasree Kalathil, PhD – Survivor Research". Retrieved 2020-12-18.
  3. Editor, Anveshi Web. "Mental Health From A Gender Perspective". Anveshi. Retrieved 2021-01-13.CS1 maint: extra text: authors list (link)
  4. "Aaina - mental health advocacy newsletter" (PDF).
  5. "About Us – Survivor Research". Retrieved 2021-01-13.
  6. "The Inquiry into the 'Schizophrenia' Label (ISL)". www.schizophreniainquiry.org. Retrieved 2021-01-13.
  7. Thomas, Philip; Seebohm, Patience; Wallcraft, Jan; Kalathil, Jayasree; Fernando, Suman (2013-01-01). "Personal consequences of the diagnosis of schizophrenia: a preliminary report from the inquiry into the schizophrenia label". Mental Health and Social Inclusion. pp. 135–139. doi:10.1108/MHSI-05-2013-0013. Retrieved 2021-01-13.
  8. "Our Team". Mad in Asia Pacific. 2018-07-05. Retrieved 2021-01-13.
  9. "Jayasree Kalathil - Survivor Research - Academia.edu". survivor-research.academia.edu. Retrieved 2021-01-13.
  10. "Recovery and Resilience". Mental Health Foundation. 2011-03-01. Retrieved 2021-01-13.
  11. Kalathil, Jayasree. "Dancing to our own tunes: Reassessing black and minority ethnic mental health service user involvement". National Survivor User Network. Retrieved 2020-12-18.
  12. "Dancing to our own tunes". Retrieved 2021-01-13.
  13. "Written questions and answers - Written questions, answers and statements - UK Parliament". questions-statements.parliament.uk. Retrieved 2021-01-13.
  14. "Jayasree Kalathil and Roohi Kapur, Author at Himal Southasian". Himal Southasian. Retrieved 2020-12-18.
  15. Morgan, Alastair.; Felton, Anne; Fulford, Bill; Kalathil, Jayasree; Stacey, Gemma. Values and ethics in mental health : an exploration for practice. London. ISBN 978-1-137-38258-0. OCLC 909321183.
  16. Kalathil, Jayasree (2008). The Sackclothman. Kottayam: D.C. Books. p. 48. ISBN 978-81-264-2032-2. OCLC 838341206.
  17. "10 controversial books Indian children must read". www.dailyo.in. Retrieved 2021-01-13.
  18. admin. "Different Tales: About The Project". Anveshi. Retrieved 2021-01-13.
  19. Kalathil, Jayasree (2019). Borewala. Translated by Sablok, Shashi. Bhopal: Eklavya. ISBN 978-93-85236-44-0.
  20. Kalathil, Jayasree (2008). Gonnesanchi Abbayi. Translated by Singaraju, Ramadevi. Hyderabad: Anveshi Research Centre for Women’s Studies. ISBN 978-81-907042-3-6.
  21. Kalathil, Jayasree (2008). Chakkupranthan. Kottayam: DC Books. ISBN 978-81-264-2023-0.
  22. "Jayasree Kalathil - Words are Bridges". jaipurliteraturefestival.org/. 2013-09-17. Retrieved 2020-12-18.
  23. Pr̲abhākaran, N.; Kalathil, Jayasree (2019). Diary of a Malayali Madman. Uttar Pradesh: Harper Perennial India. p. 260. ISBN 978-93-5302-675-2. OCLC 1103920622.
  24. Hareesh, S.; Kalathil Jayasree (2019). Moustache. India: Harper Collins India. p. 360. ISBN 93-5357-602-4. OCLC 1134444334.
  25. "Jayasree Kalathil - author profile". HarperCollins Publishers India. Retrieved 2020-12-18.
  26. "Twinkle Khannas book wins at 17th Crossword awards". outlookindia.com. Retrieved 2020-12-18.
  27. "17th edition of Crossword Books Awards held in Mumbai, Maharashtra". affairscloud.com. Retrieved 2020-12-18.
  28. "Twinkle Khanna's 'Pyjamas Are Forgiving' Bags Top Prize at Crossword Book Awards". News18. 2020-01-15. Retrieved 2020-12-18.
  29. Feb 20, Supriya NairSupriya Nair; 2020; Ist, 08:34. "An act of love". Mumbai Mirror. Retrieved 2020-12-18.CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  30. "JCB Prize for Literature 2020: Malayalam author S Hareesh's Moustache, translated by Jayasree Kalathil, wins the award - Art-and-culture News , Firstpost". Firstpost. 2020-11-07. Retrieved 2020-12-18.
  31. "Moustache book". HarperCollins Publishers India. Retrieved 2020-12-18.
  32. Mary McDougall. "India's most valuable literature prize announces its first winner". CNN. Retrieved 2020-12-18.

Further reading
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