A lifetime dedicated to writing short-stories and plays in English
Writing over a period of seven decades, Prema Sastri is considered a pioneering Indian author writing in English.
Primarily known for her avant-garde short-stories, and gripping three-act historical plays, Prema is ranked on India’s Sahitya Akademi’s Who’s Who of the top 100 Indian authors writing in English as an author and playwright.
Prema started her career as an writer 1950s at Chatham College, Pittsburgh.
The Minor Bird, the student literary magazine, published her first short-story A Paper Package.
In 1985, the Writer’s Workshop published The Blue Convertible her first solo collection of short-stories.
The first edition of A Fine Gift For Lakshmi, published in 2007, sold out in a a few months.
She published her last anthology of short-stories, Butterfly Dreams, in 2012, five years before she passed away.
Shivaji and Gandhi establish Prema Sastri as a trailblazer
Prema soon went on to writing and directing plays with the Bangalore Little Theatre. She later started her own production company, Kalidasa Theatres.
Her first play, Shivaji, published in 1974 under her pen-name Lata Narain, played to packed audiences.
Produced by Kalidasa Theatres, the play debuted at the Ravindra Kalakshetra and toured across India.
The Chhatrapati Shivaji Coronation Tricentenary Celebrations Committee, released the play and commissioned its production in New Delhi. In the same year, the play won a national award.
In 1987, The Writer’s Workshop, once again published her play Gandhi: Man of the Millions. Kalidasa Theatres debuted the play in Bangalore, at the Ravindra Kalakshetra.
With the both Shivaji and Gandhi capturing the national imagination, Prema quickly established herself as a pioneering Indian woman of letters in English.
London and New York open their doors to Prema’s literary mastery
In 1994, Prema’s one act play Across the Border made its debut performance in Watermans Arts Centre, in London. Set on the border of an unnamed country, with unnamed characters – a Brigadier and a General, with two foot soldiers – the story is a universal tale of the futility of war. The play received rave reviews, standing ovations two awards for the best director and best actor whilst bringing the audience to tears.
In New York, the Pan Asian Repetory Theatre did a reading of the play with Madhur Jaffrey, in the role of Kasturba.
Groundbreaking work with writers in English in south India
In her later years, Prema was an active member of Katha Lok. This informal group of writers in English include both published and unpublished writers. Writers meet and read their stories, get instant feedback and listen to authors sharing their experiences. The group published Many Rooms Many Voices as a collaborative venture.
Prema also was an active member of Inklinks, another writer’s collective focusing on women writers in English. The collective published two anthologies of short stories, Bhelpuri and Door In the Wall. Both featured Prema’s stories.
Embracing the digitisation of print, Prema’s novellas Water on a Lotus Leaf and Where Peacocks Fly were first published online by Induswomanwriting as serialised chapters of the books. She also contributed short articles, children’s stories and a few short stories to the collective when it was first started in 2009.
In 2017, the writers in collective paid touching tributes to Prema as an inspiration and pioneering author of Indian literature written in English.
