Susmita Bhattacharya

WORK HISTORY

EDUCATION

ABOUT SUSMITA BHATTACHARYA

I\'m a published author. My debut novel, The Normal State of Mind (Parthian, 2015) was long listed for the Mumbai Association of Moving Images (MAMI) Word to Screen Prize. Table Manners 9Dahlia Books, 2018) won the Saboteur Award for Best Short Story Collection and was finalist in the Dorchester Literary Festival Prize in 2019. It was also serialised on BBC Radio 4 Extra. I write across genres and have been commissioned to write non-fiction essays for Commonwealth Writers, BBC Radio 4 and other publications such as Gathering: an essay anthology of nature writing by women of colour from across the UK. My poems have been included in anthologies, placed in competitions and recently been included in the Indian Poetry Yearbook 2023. Recently, I was successful in getting an ACE funded Develop Your Creative Practice (DYCP) grant which enabled me to work on writing an audio drama. I teach creative writing at Winchester University and have developed a course, Write and Submit a Short Story for Professional Writing Agency (PWA)and New Writing North. I\'m also developing and teaching a Litro Masterclass on Writing Creative Non-Fiction. As a mentor for the Middle Way Mentoring project, I support underrepresented writers. I also run workshops for writers of all ages in the community and have been involved in a project with Southampton Cultural Educational Partnership (SCEP) and ArtfulScribe to help build a cultural curriculum for schools in Southampton. After a successfully receiving funding from British Council, I co- developed and co-facilitated a cross-border mentoring programme, Write Beyond Borders, for mentees from Pakistan, India, Bangladesh and the UK with the Kiran Collective. I am passionate about writing and teaching, as well as mentoring writers. I am keen on developing cultural projects for the community and work with several local organisations to create memorable projects that leave a legacy for the community and future generations to enjoy.