Bashabi Fraser

Bashabi Fraser CBE
Born	1954 (age 69–70) Purulia,West Bengal,India
Occupation(s)	Poet, children's writer, editor, translator, academic
Website	bashabifraser.co.uk

Bashabi FraserCBE(born 1954) is an Indian-born Scottish academic, editor, translator, and writer. She is a Professor Emerita of English and Creative Writing atEdinburgh Napier Universityand an Honorary Fellow at the Centre for South Asian Studies at the University of Edinburgh and an Honorary Fellow of the Association of Literary Studies (ALS), Scotland, and a formerRoyal Literary FundFellow.She has authored and edited 23 books, published several articles and chapters, both academic and creative and as a poet.

Early life and education

Born inPurulia,West Bengal,India,Bashabi Fraser moved to the United Kingdom when she was young. Her mother Anima was awarded a scholarship to theLondon School of Economicsand her father Bimalendu Bhattacharya became the firstCommonwealth Scholarfrom India hosted in the UK. A friend of Fraser's parents in the UK, Julian Dakin, would bring books for her and read them with her. Fraser would write poetry for him and he would later enter the poems for the Commonwealth Scholar Award, without her parents' knowledge, which resulted in Fraser winning its first prize.

Fraser returned to India where her parents worked at the newly openedNorth Bengal University.She attended St. Helen's Convent,KurseonginDarjeelingand later earned a BA in English fromLady Brabourne College,University of Calcuttaand an MA in English fromJadavpur University,both inKolkata.She pursued a PhD in English from the University of Calcutta andUniversity of Edinburgh,Scotlandas aCommonwealth Fellow.She was introduced to her future husband, Neil, while completing her PhD at the University of Edinburgh. She moved toEdinburghfollowing their wedding.

Career

Fraser was Professor of English and Creative Writing atEdinburgh Napier Universityand became Professor Emerita at the institution after retirement. She is co-founder and director of the Scottish Centre of Tagore Studies (ScoTs). She is an Honorary Fellow at the Centre for South Asian Studies at the University of Edinburgh and an Honorary Fellow of the Association of Literary Studies (ALS), Scotland, and a formerRoyal Literary FundFellow.

Fraser specialises inpostcolonial literatureandtheory.Her profile on the ScoTs website states that "Her research and writing reflect her interest indiasporicthemes: the intermeshings of culture and identity, of dislocation and relocation, of belonging and otherness, of memory and nostalgia, of third space and hybridity and of conflicts and freedoms. "She is chief editor ofGitanjali and Beyond,an academic and creative peer-reviewed online journal associated with ScoTs,and is on the editorial board of WritersMosaic, a platform for writers of colour which is an initiative of the Royal Literary Fund.

Fraser has been described as "chief ideator" of the Intercultural Poetry and Performance Library, an organisation made up of various creative individuals and formed in 2017 under the KolkataIndian Council for Cultural Relations.

Honors and awards

Fraser was appointed aCommander of the Order of the British Empirein the2021 New Year Honoursfor services to education, culture and cultural integration in Scotland, in particular her projects linking Scotland and India.TheSaltire Societynamed her an Outstanding Woman of Scotland in 2015.

Works

As author

• — (1997).Life.London: Diehard.ISBN9780946230440.
• — (2001).With Best Wishes from Edinburgh.Calcutta: Writers Workshop.ISBN9788175958517.
• — (2004).Just One Diwali Night: A Children's Story.Kolkata: Das Gupta & Co.ISBN9788182110045.
• — (2004).Tartan & Turban.Edinburgh: Luath.ISBN9781842820445.
• — (2004).Topsy Turvy.Kolkata: Das Gupta & Co.ISBN9788182110052.
• — (2009).From the Ganga to the Tay: a poetic conversation between the Ganges and the Tay.Edinburgh: Luath.ISBN9781906307950.
• — (2011).Scots Beneath the Banyan Tree: Stories from Bengal.Edinburgh: Owl and Lion.ISBN9780956808103.
• — (2012).Ragas and Reels: Visual and Poetic Stories of Migration and Diaspora.Edinburgh: Luath.ISBN9781908373342.
• — (2015).Letters to My Mother and Other Mothers.Edinburgh.ISBN9781910745144.{{cite book}}:CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
• — (2017).The Homing Bird.Halwill, Beaworthy: Indigo Scotland.ISBN9781910834343.
• — (2019).My Mum's Sari.Word Waves. Bright Button Productions.
• — (2019).The Ramayana: A Stage Play and A Screen Play.Jaipur, India: Aadi Publications.ISBN978-93-87799-28-8.
• — (2019).Rabindranath Tagore.Critical Lives. London:Reaktion Books.ISBN9781789141498.
• — (2021).Patient Dignity.Edinburgh: Scotland Street Press.ISBN9781910895542.

As editor

• —; Clark, Helen; Dick, Lorraine, eds. (1996).Peoples of Edinburgh: Our Multicultural City, personal narratives, experiences, and photographs.City of Edinburgh Council.
• —; Clark, Helen; Connan, Joyce, eds. (1999).Peoples of Edinburgh: Methodology and Evaluation.City of Edinburgh Council and Workers Educational Association.
• —; Grieg, Elaine, eds. (2000).Edinburgh: an Intimate City, an illustrated anthology of contemporary poetry on Edinburgh.Dept. of Recreation, City of Edinburgh Council.ISBN978-0905072937.
• —;Chatterjee, Debjani,eds. (2003).Rainbow World: Poems from Many Cultures.London: Hodder Wayland.ISBN978-0750242806.
• —, ed. (2004).The Tagore-Geddes Correspondence.Kolkata: Visva-Bharati.ISBN9788175223738.
• —, ed. (2006).Bengal Partition Stories: An Unclosed Chapter.London: Anthem Press.ISBN978-1843312994.
• —; Mukherjee, Tapati; Sen, Amrit, eds. (2017).Scottish Orientalism and the Bengal Renaissance: The Continuum of Ideas.Santiniketan: Visva-Bharati.ISBN9788175226517.
• —; Mukherjee, Tapati; Sen, Amrit, eds. (2017).A Confluence of Minds: The Rabindranath Tagore and Patrick Geddes Reader on Education and Environment.
• —;Riach, Alan,eds. (2017).Thali Katori, An Anthology of Scottish and South Asian Poetry.Edinburgh.ISBN978-1912147090.{{cite book}}:CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)

External links

• Official website