Manisha Chaudhry has many years of experience as a publishing professional and in the social development sector. She began her professional career in India’s first feminist publishing house, ‘Kali for Women‘, in 1986 and has been a consultant to a range of organisations in the development sector and the UN. An editor and translator fluent in Hindi and English, her work has been published by Kali for Women, Oxford University Press, Zubaan Books, Yatra Books, Niyogi Books, Pratham Books and Permanent Black. Her translation of A Street in Srinagar of the Hindi novel Ailan Gali Zinda Hai by Chandrakanta was shortlisted for the DSC Prize for Literature in 2012. Her most recent translation, The Chipko Movement: A People’s History of Shekhar Pathak’s Hari Bhari Ummeed has been awarded the Kamladevi Chattopadhyay Book Prize in 2022. Manisha was Editorial Head at Pratham Books, a not-for-profit multilingual children’s publisher, from its inception until 2017. She is a severely published author of children’s books and has translated numerous others. As one of the founder trustees of Bookaroo Children’s Literature Festival, she spearheaded the initiative of Bookaroo in the City. The Children’s Outreach of the Jaipur Literature Festival was started under her guidance. She has been Advisor to the Kahani Festival and JUMPSTART, a children’s content congress run by the German Book Office. She is an invited member to the Publishing Committee of FICCI. She has been in the forefront of many new initiatives to democratise the joy of reading and books and improve equity in education. She works as an independent consultant for publishing and translation initiatives. Currently, she leads Jaipur BookMark, the publishing segment of the Jaipur Literature Festival and has recently concluded the Zubaan – Prabha Khaitan Translation Programme.
