Detha – Chouboli and Other Stories-Vol.1 & Vol.2

Christi Merrill is Assistant Professor of South Asian Literature and Postcolonial Theory at the University of Michigan. She translates postcolonial writing from Hindi, Rajasthani, and French, and writes on the practice and politics of translation. Her recently published work Riddle of Belonging: India in Translation and Other Tales of Possession extensively refers to Detha's works, among other Indian writers.

Kailash Kabir has translated much of Vijaydan Detha's works into Hindi. Primarily a poet, he has published a collection of Hindi poems Tumhare Aane Par. He has also translated A K Ramanujan's Folktales of India from English into Hindi. He is the recepient of the Sahitya Akademi National Award for Translation, as well as Rajasthan Sahitya Akademi Award for Poetry.

Vijadan Detha's lively, wry, and irreverent folk-based tales have widely been widely, read, loved, and awarded since the 1970's. One of the most prolific writers in Indian Literature today, he has to his credit more than 800 short stories, which have been translated into Hindi, English and other languages. Bijji- as Detha is affectionately called- has a gift for selecting the most provocative tales he hears from his fellow villagers and recreating them in a literary form as engaging and as daring as his oral narrative sources. His short fiction anthologies in Rajasthan include Baatan Ri Phuwaari, Alekum Hitler, Roonkh and Kaboo Rani; while Anokha Ped, Antaral, Phoolwari and Priya Mrinal in Hindi. Apart from writing, Detha has also been working tirelessly for the Rupayan Sansthan, an institute that Detha established in 1960 with Komal Kothari. He is also the recipient of the Sahitya Akademi Award for Rajasthani, the Bhartiya Bhasha Parishad Award, the Sahitya Chudamani, the Padma Shri and the Katha Chudamani Award.