HarperCollins is proud to announce the publication of The Early Classic Stories Series Edited by Mini Krishnan

A Teashop in Kamalapura and Other Classic Kannada Stories
292 pp | Translated from the Kannada by Susheela Punitha

Maguni’s Bullock Cart and Other Classic Odia Stories
224 pp | Translated from the Odia by Leelawati Mohapatra, K.K. Mohapatra and Paul St-Pierre

The Second Marriage of Kunju Namboodiri and Other Classic Malayalam Stories
272 pp | Translated from the Malayalam by Venugopal Menon 

Published by Harper Perennial
Paperback | Fiction | All priced at INR 399 each
Available wherever books are sold | Released on 18 March 2025

NEW DELHI, March 19, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — HarperCollins Publishers India announces the publication of The Early Classic Stories Series Edited by Mini Krishnan. The series presents three anthologies of captivating regional short stories from three regions of India that have all been translated into English for the first time. These classic stories cover a wide range of subjects, from caste and class to common joys and hardships, and present a range of literary traditions and human relationships. The narratives transport the readers to an India that now exists only in books.

Edited by Mini Krishnan, the stories have been individually compiled and translated with artistry and feeling.

ABOUT THE BOOKS

An India almost unknown to us floods the pages of this significant series of short stories sourced from the late nineteenth to the mid-twentieth centuries.

Ringing with the music of India’s regional languages, and peppered with wit and social commentary, these stories are windows to the past and its people—the everyday struggles and joys; the ties of friendship and faith; the politics of love and rejection; the intricacies of betrayal and envy; and the conflicts of class and caste—while continuing to be relevant to our present, puncturing the boundaries of time and space.

How much has Indian society changed?

How much of it has not?

A Teashop in Kamalapura and Other Classic Kannada Stories

About the Translator

Susheela Punitha is a Sahitya Akademi Award winner, receiving the first Translation Award for English in 2015 for her translation of Bharathipura by U.R. Ananthamurthy. Bharathipura was also shortlisted for the Jaipur Literary Prize, 2012 and The Hindu Literary Prize, 2012. Her translation of Hundreds of Streets to the Palace of Lights and Other Stories by S. Diwakar (2015) was shortlisted for the Crossword Book Award, 2016.

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Maguni’s Bullock Cart and Other Classic Odia Stories

About the Translators

Leelawati Mohapatra has co-translated with K.K. Mohapatra and Paul St-Pierre extensively from Odia into English.

Paul St-Pierre is a former Professor of Translation Studies at Montreal University. He has co-edited several books on translation theory and practice.

K.K. (Kamalakanta) Mohapatra has written three collections of short stories, a novel, a book of essays and three books of memoirs in Odia.

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The Second Marriage of Kunju Namboodiri and Other Classic Malayalam Stories

About the Translator

Venugopal Menon retired after a long stint at Larsen and Toubro and turned his attention to literary pursuits by publishing a number of English translations of Malayalam short stories, novels and interviews. He lives in his home state and publishes occasionally in the national media.

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Series Editor, Mini Krishnan, says, “At a time when identities are not only plural but fluid, our translated literature should be seen for what it is: not just a part of history, but a treasure house of our own pasts because memory is the cement of our identity.”

Dharini Bhaskar, Associate Publisher, Literary at HarperCollins India, says, “While we live in a land rich in the tradition of storytelling, many narratives have been lost to a generation of readers, either because they were passed down orally, or because they existed in languages that were not widely accessible. What Mini Krishnan—in conjunction with Susheela Punitha, Leelawati Mohapatra, Paul St-Pierre, K.K. Mohapatra and Venugopal Menon—has done is a bit of literary archaeology. She has infused new life into and revived India’s forgotten Odia, Kannada and Malayalam short stories, by editing translations of them into English for the first time. We, at HarperCollins India, are extremely proud to release these books into the world.”

About the Series Editor

Mini Krishnan is currently the Managing Editor of the Tamil Nadu Textbook and Educational Services Corporation working with twenty English language publishers to take Tamil to the world through translations of poetry, fiction and non-fiction. She is also on the editorial board of the Murty Classical Library of India, Harvard University Press.

ABOUT HARPERCOLLINS PUBLISHERS INDIA

HarperCollins is celebrating its 31^st anniversary this year, having begun publishing in India in 1992. HarperCollins India publishes some of the finest writers from the Indian Subcontinent and around the world, publishing approximately 200 new books every year, with a print and digital catalogue of more than 2,000 titles across 10 imprints. Its authors have won almost every major literary award including the Man Booker Prize, JCB Prize, DSC Prize, New India Foundation Award, Atta Galatta Prize, Shakti Bhatt Prize, Gourmand Cookbook Award, Publishing Next Award, Tata Literature Live! Award, Gaja Capital Business Book Prize, BICW Award, Sushila Devi Award, Sahitya Akademi Award and Crossword Book Award. HarperCollins India also represents some of the finest publishers in the world including Harvard University Press, Gallup Press, Oneworld, Bonnier Zaffre, Usborne, Dover and Lonely Planet. HarperCollins India has won the Publisher of the Year Award four times at Tata Literature Live! in 2022, 2021, 2018 and 2016, and at Publishing Next in 2021 & 2015. HarperCollins India is a subsidiary of HarperCollins Publishers.

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