A bilingual writer and activist whose works include eco-disaster novel The Butterfly Effect and has worked with international NGOs and the UN Commission on Sustainable Development.
I am a bilingual fiction writer and activist from India. I have published five works of fiction (novels and short story collections) including The Best Asian Speculative Fiction (2018), edited and introduced by me. My latest eco-disaster novel The Butterfly Effect (2018) is on the list of `Fifty Must Read Eco-Disasters’ of Book Riot, on a climate fiction list of Earth Day network and also listed in Around the World in 80 Books: A Guide to Ecological and Climate Themes in Fiction by Mary Woodbury of Ecofiction Canada. My sixth book, a work of translation, is forthcoming.
I have won the British Council administered Charles Wallace Creative Creative Writing Fellowship (University of Chichester, 2014), UK, a Hawthornden Castle Fellowship (2015), Scotland, a Korean Arts Council-InKo Residency (2013) in South Korea for researching and writing my novel The Butterfly Effect.
I have done readings from my books, presented and spoken about my writing, eco-fiction, climate change fiction, and their interface with broader environmental and sustainability themes at national and international venues like Sahitya Akademi (Delhi), Dongguk University (Seoul), Chichester University (UK), George Washington University (US), Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HK), Osmania University (India), Museum of Science Fiction (US) and elsewhere. My critical writing, fiction and literary essays have appeared in Indian Literature, Asian Review of Books, American Book Review (Univ of Houston), Scroll, Outlook magazine, The Telegraph and elsewhere.
I have worked with international non-profits and have been involved with the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development (UNCSD) as the Southern Coordinator of the NGO Caucus on Energy and Climate Change at the UN headquarters, New York. I am also a past contributor to the UN World Human Development Report (UNDP) and have published non-fiction and activist work on water, sustainable consumption, responsible advertising and other issues.
Rajat is one of our members featuring their work as part of the ClimateCultures Quarantine Connection series. We shared his piece, Heat or the Iceberg Chill, translation, on Day 23 of the 40-day series.