Adivasi Writers from the Northeast
Yeshe Dorje Thongchi (1952- ). Adivasi writer from the Shedukpen tribal community in Arunachal Pradesh. Author of many books and winner of the Padma Shri as well as the Sahitya Akademy Awards. He has published eight novels; his novel Sonam, which focuses on the Brokpa tribe from the Bhutan-Arunachal area, was adapted into a film in 2005. His short Story "Mirror" appears in the Lokpriya Adivasi Kahaniya anthology. (English Wikipedia) (Short story online here)
Mamang Dai (1957- ): An Adi writer who has written novels, poems, and nonfiction in English. (Read our author profile here)
Easterine Kire Iralu (1959- ): An Angami Naga writer, poet, translator, and editor who writes in English. (Read our author profile here)
Avinuo Kire (dates unknown), Contemporary Naga writer from Nagaland. Aughor of The Power to Forgive and Other Stories (short stories), Where Wildflowers Grow a collection of poetry), and co-author of Naga Heritage Centre: People Stories. (Brief profile here)
Irom Chanu Sharmila (1972- ). Irom Chanu Sharmila is a poet and activist from Manipur. In 2000, she joined a hunger strike against the Armed Forces Special Powers Act in northeastern states, which led to her imprisonment for fourteen years She was released from prison in 2014, and published a collection of poetry called Garden of Peace, an English translation of poems originally written in Manipuri. A selection of her poems are included in Vandana Tete's Lokpriya Adivasi Kavitaen. (English Wikipedia)
Joram Yalam Nabam (birth year unknown): A contemporary writer, novelist, and poet from the Tani people of Arunachal Pradesh writing in Hindi. (Our translation of her short story "Her Name was Yapi") (Hind profile and selected prose)
Kumal Kumar Tanti (birth year unknown). Kumal Kumar Tanti is from an Adivasi Assamese background (referred to in one sources as the "Tea Tribe"), who presently works as a physicist and lives in Mumbai. His first poetry collection, Marangburu Aamar Pita (“Marangburu Our Father”), published in 2007, won him the prestigious Munin Barkotoki Literary Award in 2008. For this same collection, he also received the Sahitya Akademi Yuva Puraskar in 2012. A selection of his poems are included in Vandana Tete's Lokpriya Adivasi Kavitaen.
Laltluangliana Khiangte (1961- ). A Mizo writer from Mizoram, in India's northeast region, and the author of many books (in the Mizo language as well as English) and translations (to and from the Mizo language). He received the Padma Shri for his contributions to Mizo literature. (English Wikipedia)
Nzanmongi Jasmine Patton (birth year unknown). A contemporary Lotha Naga writer, and author of A Girl Swallowed by a Tree (2017).
Desmond L. Kharmawphlang: A poet, writer, and folklorist from the Khasi community who writes in English. He has published several texts documenting traditional folk tales from communities in Meghalaya. (Read our author profile here)