Amrita Pritam

Amrita Pritam was born in 1919 in Pakistan. She is considered one of the first and most prominent female Punjabi poets, novelists, and essayists. In her career of over 60 years, she wrote 28 novels, 18 anthologies of prose, five short stories, and 16 miscellaneous prose volumes. She has been awarded the Bhartiya Jnanpith, one of India’s highest literary award, in 1982; the Padma Shri, the fourth highest civilian award, in 1969; the Padma Vibhushan, the second highest civilian award and the Sahitya Akademi Fellowship, the highest literary award, both in 2004.

D.H. Tracy is the author of Janet’s Cottage, forthcoming from St. Augustine’s Press. He lives in Illinois. Mohan Tracy is D.H. Tracy’s mother. Punjabi is her mother tongue. She learned Gurmukhi (a script for Punjabi in which Amrita Pritam wrote) from her grandmother when growing up in Malaysia.

Their translations of Amrita Pritam’s “A Letter” and “Empty Space” first appeared in the June 2011 issue of "Poetry Magazine".

Amrita Pritam is featured in Edition: Small Wonder