The Address of God

The writer, Gourahari Das, can be called a traveller. His journeys, both figurative and actual, both inward and outward, have made a writer of him. Born in 1960, in a back-of-the -beyond Indian village, Sandhagara near river Mantei he has come a long way. Real-life experiences acquired while growing up in an impoverished monastery sharpened his skills as a writer and endowed him with a sensibility laced with compassion and humour, which gives his creative being its distinctive character. His first book, Juara Bhatta (High Tide, Low tide), a short story collection, was published when he was only 21 years old. He has now as many as 70 books to his credit, which include novels, short-story collections, vignettes, travelogues, plays and essays. Gourahari has visited many countries across continents and leads a life full of activities. Many of his works have been translated into English, which include The Little Monk and Other Stories, The Nail and Other Stories, Koraput and Other Stories and The Shades of Life. He has received several awards such as Sahitya Akademi (India’s national Akademi of letters) Award, Odisha Sahitya Akademi Award, Sangeet Natak Akademi Prize. He was also Senior Fellow of the Ministry of Culture of India and a Writer in Residency of Sahitya Akademi. Gourahari lives in Bhubaneswar, India.

Manoranjan Mishra (PhD) works as an Assistant Professor in the Department of English, Government Autonomous College, Angul, Odisha. He has more than eighteen years of teaching experience. His hobbies include translating short stories from Odia to English and vice-versa. Best Stories of Chandrasekhar Dasburma (ISBN 93-86437-93-7) is his first published translated text. Some of his translated stories and research articles have been published in Galaxy(ISSN 2278 9529), The Creative Launcher (ISSN 2455 6580), The Criterion (ISSN 0976 8165), Langlit (ISSN 2349 5189), Ashvmegh (ISSN 2454 4574), Muse India (ISSN 0975 1815)and Sahayogi (ISSN 2454 6828). He has edited Contemporary Odia Short Stories (Black Eagle Books, 2020).