Mamang Dai

Mamang Dai (born 23 February 1957) is an Indian

poet, novelist and journalist based in Itanagar, Mamang Dai
Arunachal Pradesh. She received Sahitya Akademi
Award in 2017 for her novel The Black Hill.

Life
Mamang Dai was born on 29 February 1957 at
Pasighat, East Siang district, to Matin Dai and Odi Dai.
Her family belongs to the Adi tribe. She completed her
schooling from Pine Mount School, Shillong,
Meghalaya. She completed her Bachelor in English
literature from Gauhati University, Assam.[1][2]

She was selected for the IAS in 1979, but later she left
the post to pursue her career in journalism. She is the Mamang Dai at Sahitya Akademi, New Delhi;
first woman from her state to be selected for IAS.[3] March 2023
While working as a journalist, she contributed to The Born 23 February 1957
Telegraph, Hindustan Times and The Sentinel.[4] She Pasighat, East Siang district,
has also worked in radio, as well as TV-AIR and DDK, Arunachal Pradesh, India
Itanagar where she worked as an anchor and conducted Occupation Poet, Novelist, Journalist
interviews.[5][6] Language
Adi
She was appointed programme officer at Worldwide English
Fund for Nature, known as WWF, where she worked in Nationality Indian
the Eastern Himalayas Biodiversity Hotspots
Notable The Sky Queen
programme. She was the former secretary of Itanagar
works
Press Club. She was the president of Arunachal Stupid Cupid
Pradesh Union of Working Journalists (APUW).[2] In Mountain Harvest: The Food
2011, she was appointed a member of Arunachal of Arunachal Pradesh
Pradesh state public service commission. River Poems
Notable Padma Shri (2011)
awards
Sahitya Akademi Award
Works (2017)

Her non-fictional works include Arunachal Pradesh:

The Hidden Land (2003) and Mountain Harvest : The Food of Arunachal (2004). The Sky Queen and
Once Upon a Moontime (2003) are illustrated folklore texts by her. She published her first novel, The
Legends of Pensam in 2006, which was followed by Stupid Cupid (2008) and The Black Hill (2014)
Escaping the Land (2021). River Poems (2004), The Balm of Time (2008) Hambreelmai's Loom (2014),
Midsummer Survival Lyrics (2014) are her poetry collections. The Balm of Time was also published in
Assamese as El Balsamo Del YTiempo.[1]

When she began writing, she wrote romantic verse and stories. She then moved from the theme of the self
to focus on a larger reality. She reflects upon the sense of a close knit community living in remoter towns
and villages.[7]

Some of the positions that she has occupied include General Secretary of the Arunachal Pradesh Literary
Society, member of the North East Writers’ Forum and General Council member of the Sahitya and
Sangeet Natak Akademi.[5]

Awards
She received Padma Shri in 2011 from the Government of India. The government of Arunachal Pradesh
conferred on her annual Verrier Elwin Prize in 2013 for her book Arunachal Pradesh: The Hidden
Land.[2][8] She received Sahitya Akademi Award in 2017 for her novel The Black Hill.[9]

See also
Indian English Literature
Literature from North East India

References
1. Sarangi, Jaydeep; Dai, Mamang (2 August 2017). "In Conversation with Mamang Dai" (http
s://journals.flinders.edu.au/index.php/wic/article/view/23/19). Writers in Conversation. 4 (2).
Flinders University. doi:10.22356/wic.v4i2.23 (https://doi.org/10.22356%2Fwic.v4i2.23).
S2CID 134637086 (https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:134637086).
2. Ramaṇika Gupta (2006). Indigenous Writers of India: North-East India (https://books.google.
com/books?id=FWCiWWeRCU4C&pg=PA23). Vol. 1. New Delhi: Concept Publishing
Company. pp. 23–24. ISBN 978-81-8069-300-7. Retrieved 24 February 2018.
3. "Mamang Dai – Publishing Next" (http://www.publishingnext.in/mamang-dai/).
www.publishingnext.in. Retrieved 26 May 2018.
4. "Mamang Dai" (https://www.thehindu.com/books/mamang-dai/article5530345.ece). The
Hindu. 2 January 2014. ISSN 0971-751X (https://search.worldcat.org/issn/0971-751X).
Retrieved 14 September 2024.
5. "Mamang Dai (poet) - India - Poetry International" (https://web.archive.org/web/2018052619
3457/https://www.poetryinternationalweb.net/pi/site/poet/item/16974/27/Mamang-Dai).
www.poetryinternationalweb.net. Archived from the original on 26 May 2018. Retrieved
26 May 2018.
6. "RædLeafPoetry-India – The Phenomenal Woman- An interview of Mamang Dai by Ananya
Guha" (https://web.archive.org/web/20180527023100/https://rlpoetry.org/the-phenomenal-w
oman-an-interview-of-mamang-dai-by-ananya-guha/). rlpoetry.org. Archived from the original
(https://rlpoetry.org/the-phenomenal-woman-an-interview-of-mamang-dai-by-ananya-guha/)
on 27 May 2018. Retrieved 26 May 2018.
 7. "The Land as "Living Presence" (article) - India - Poetry International" (https://web.archive.or
g/web/20180526192858/https://www.poetryinternationalweb.net/pi/site/cou_article/item/1706
8). www.poetryinternationalweb.net. Archived from the original on 26 May 2018. Retrieved
26 May 2018.
8. "Padma Awards" (https://web.archive.org/web/20151015193758/http://mha.nic.in/sites/uploa
d_files/mha/files/LST-PDAWD-2013.pdf) (PDF). Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of
India. 2015. Archived from the original (http://mha.nic.in/sites/upload_files/mha/files/LST-PD
AWD-2013.pdf) (PDF) on 15 October 2015. Retrieved 21 July 2015.
9. "Arunachal author Mamang Dai among 24 winners of 2017 Sahitya Akademi awards" (http
s://scroll.in/latest/862334/arunachal-author-mamang-dai-among-24-winners-of-2017-sahitya
-akademi-awards). scroll.in. 21 December 2017. Retrieved 10 February 2019.

External links
Interview in Thanal Online (http://www.thanalonline.com/Issues/08/Interview2_en.htm)
Poetry and the Northeast: Foraging for a destiny (https://web.archive.org/web/20050325214
259/http://www.hindu.com/lr/2004/11/07/stories/2004110700350500.htm)
Negotiating Change With Memory (https://web.archive.org/web/20100106050317/http://ww
w.hindu.com/lr/2010/01/03/stories/2010010350130300.htm)
Works by Mamang Dai (https://books.google.com/books?&as_auth=%22Mamang+Dai%22)
at Google Books

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