Shauna Singh Baldwin was born in Montreal and grew up in
India. She is the author of English Lessons and Other Stories
and coauthor of A Foreign Visitor's Survival Guide to
America. Her short fiction, poetry, and essays have been published
in literary magazines in the U.S.A., Canada, and India.
From 1991-1994 she
was an independent radio producer, hosting "Sunno!" the East-Indian-American radio show where you don't have to be East-Indian to listen.
Shauna holds an M.B.A. from Marquette University. Her first novel,
What the Body Remembers, was published in 1999 by Knopf, Canada; Nan
Talese/Doubleday, and Transworld UK. It has been translated into
eleven languages, and was awarded the 2000 Commonwealth Writer's Prize
for Canada/Caribbean region.
Shauna's awards include India's international Nehru Award (gold medal)
for public speaking, and the national Shastri Award, a silver medal
for English prose. She is the recipient of the 1995 Writer's Union of
Canada Award for short prose and the 1997 Canadian Literary
Award. English Lessons received the 1996 Friends of American Writers
Award.
Her next novel, The Tiger Claw, was published by Knopf in Fall 2004 and has been shortlisted for the The Giller Prize.
Her own website.
- About Shauna Singh Baldwin
- Interview by Lindsay Pereira. April 2005.
- Interview by Nupur Sinha in The
Statesman, 18 March 02.
- .. in
search of a home. Times of India.
- With contempt or love?. Speech by
Shauna Singh Baldwin, Montreal, 24 May 2003.
- Bilingual reading of the Japji Sahib, available from AudioForum.
- Other writing
- Shauna reviews Irshad Manji's 'The Trouble with Islam. on Sawnet.
- Shauna interviews Samina Ali, the author of Madras on Rainy Days.
- In
search of herstory an essay by Baldwin in Blue Ear Books.
- South Asian Women's List of
Good Resolutions, written with Pia Sen.
- What I've Learnt from Writing, a
keynote speech at a writers' conference.
-
Rawalpindi 1919, a short story.
Bibliography
- We are not in Pakistan
Goose Lane, Canada. 2007
- A new collection of ten stories. Migrating from Central America to the American South, from Metro Toronto to the Ukraine, this book features an unforgettable cast of characters. In the title story, 16-year-old Megan hates her Pakistani grandmother -- until Grandma disappears. In the enchanting magical realism of "Naina," an Indo-Canadian woman is pregnant with a baby girl who refuses to be born. "The View from the Mountain" introduces Wilson Gonzales, who makes friends with his new American boss, the aptly named Ted Grand. But following 9/11, Ted's suspicions cloud his judgment and threaten his friendship with Wilson.
- Sawnet Review by Shabnam Arora Afsah
- Sparks in my (third) eye. Essay by Baldwin on the writing of this collection.
- Moving from the U.S. Melting Pot and Canada's Mosaic to a Cultural 'Third Way'. Canada's Foreign Policy Newsweekly.
- Interview on Everywoman, AlJazeeraEnglish (Youtube).
- Audio interview on Youtube, by Writerly.
- The colourful life, after 9/11. Article in the Edmonton Journal.
- The Tiger Claw
Knopf, Fall 2004.
- An extraordinary story of love and espionage, cultural tension and displacement, inspired by the life of Noor Inayat Khan (code name "Madeleine"), who worked against the Occupation after the Nazi invasion of France. When Noor Khan's father, a teacher of mystical Sufism, dies, Noor is forced to bow, along with her mother, sister and brother, to her uncle's religious literalism and ideas on feminine propriety. While at the Sorbonne, Noor falls in love with Armand, a Jewish musician. Though her uncle forbids her to see him, they continue meeting in secret.
When the Germans invade in 1940, Armand persuades Noor to leave him for her own safety. She flees with her family to England, but volunteers to serve in a special intelligence agency. She is trained as a radio operator for the group that, in Churchill's words, will "set Europe ablaze" with acts of sabotage. She is then sent back to Occupied France. Unwavering courage is what Noor requires for her assignment and her deeply personal mission -- to re-unite with Armand. As her talisman, she carries her grandmother's gift, an heirloom tiger claw encased in gold.
The novel opens in December 1943. Noor has been imprisoned. She begins writing in secret, tracing the events that led to her capture. When Germany surrenders in 1945, her brother Kabir begins his search through the chaos of Europe's Displaced Persons camps to find her.
- Sawnet Review by Samyukta
- Behind the book. Author essay about the background of the story.
- In Noor's Jahan. Nilanjana Roy in Outlook.
- The Tiger Claw in Hurree Babu's Kitabkhana.
- Interview with Lindsay Pereira, largely about The Tiger Claw.
- Review from the Weekly Voice
- Review from See Magazine, Edmonton.
- Cracking Canada's literary code: Giller nominees reveal persistent obsession with past and small towns. A commentary on the books shortlisted for the Giller Prize, in the Toronto Star.
- Torn Apart. Review by MJ Stone in Hour.ca (Ottawa, Canada)
- Demystifying an enigma. Review by Paromita Chakrabarti in Express India.
- Historical Novel Society News re The Tiger Claw
- Mystic Spies - Anuradha Raman's review in the Indian Express.
- Hitler's Sufi Resistance. Lehar Sethi Zaidi's review in the Financial Express.
- What the Body Remembers
Knopf, September 1999.
- A novel set around Partition and three characters: Roop is a young girl who is to become the second wife of a wealthy Sikh landowner, Sardarji, whose first wife Satya has failed to bear him children. Roop believes that she and Satya, still very much in residence, will be friends. But the relationship between the older and younger woman is far more complex. And, as India lurches toward independence, Sardarji struggles to find his place amidst the drastic changes.
What the Body Remembers is at once poetic, political, feminist, and sensual. It was awarded the Commonwealth Writers Prize
for best book from the Canada/Caribbean region, and longlisted for the Orange Prize in fiction.
- Sawnet Review by Champa Bilwakesh, Amit Chaudhuri, Shoma Choudhary, Joyeeta Basu
-
Author essay about the writing of this book
-
Excerpt from the book
- Message to bookclub readers from
Shauna Singh Baldwin.
- We're
so Sari. Kai Friese writes about this book and others, in Village Voice.
- Book
of the Month review from canoe.ca
- Mundane
exotica and the desi market. Review in Biblio by Pran Chopra.
- Review
from the New Statesman, 17 Jan 00.
- Perfect
Horse Sense -- Review
by Nilanjana Roy in Business Standard
, Feb 2000.
- Review
from the Washington Post, 13 Feb 00.
- Talking with
Shauna Singh Baldwin. Rich Rennicks interviews Shauna on
borders.com...one Sasialister
talking to another.
- Review in Outlook
- Review
from the New York Times, 21 Nov 99.
- Review/article
in Edmonton Journal
Real Audio of Shauna on the Diane Rehm Show, 4 NOv 99.
-
Review in India Currents.
- Body
Language. India at mid-century gets equal billing with a novel's
characters. Review from the San Diego Union Tribune, 31 Oct 99.
-
Culture clash. Review from The Times, London. 25 Sep 99.
-
Goose Lane Editions, publishers of Shauna's first book is enjoying the
attention drawn to them by the success of What the Body Remembers.
Edmonton Journal, 24 Oct 99.
- Midnight
and She. Review by Ashok Chopra in India Today.
- Review from Indiaclub
-
Publisher's Weekly Fall First Fiction Favourites. Page down
to get to this book.
-
On What the Body Remembers, in Indigo
-
Lives of Girls and Women. Interview/article in Indigo.
-
Continental Drifter...Three countries,, many women, and one
sensibility. India Today, 8 Mar 99.
- Encounters.
Article in the Hindu, 7 Mar 99.
- English Lessons and Other Stories
Goose Lane Editions, Canada. 1996
- Passionate stories dramatise the lives of Indian women from 1919 to today, from India to North America, and from the closed circle of the family to the wilderness of office and university.
- Sawnet Review by Susan Chacko
-
Review of
English Lessons, by Lee Anne Phillips
- Review by
Ray Deonandan in The Podium.
- A Foreign Visitor's Survival Guide in America
John Muir Publications, 1992.
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