Abburi Chayadevi

Abburi Chayadevi is a Telugu fiction writer, born on 13 October 1933 in Rajahmundry, East Godavari district, Andhra Pradesh.^[1] She has won Sahitya Akademi Award in Telugu for the Year 2005, for her work Tana Margam (Short Stories).^[2][3] Chaya Devi is the wife of the late Abburi Varadarajeswara Rao, himself a writer, critic and former Chairman, Official Languages Commission.

She is also the daughter-in-law of Abburi Ramakrishna, a pioneer of the romantic first and later the progressive literary movement.^[3]

Early life

Chaya Devi has been active in literary circles since the fifties and even at 71 years of age, is still known as a creative feminist writer. She has also translated German fiction. Her stories have been translated into English and Spanish besides many Indian languages.^[4] She has served as librarian at the Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi in the sixties.^[3]

She was a council member of Kendra Sahitya Akademi (1998-2002).^[1]

Works

• Anaga Anaga (folk stories for children)^[1]
• Abburi Chaya Devi Kathalu(short stories), 1991^[1]
• Mrityunjaya(long story),1993^[4]
• Tana Margam(short stories-about the exploitation of women in the guise of family bonds.^[2]
• Mana Jeevithalu-Jiddu Krishnamurti Vyakhyanalu–3(Translated)^[5]
• Parichita Lekha published as an anthology (Translation of stories by Austrian writer Stefan Zweig)^[6]
• Bonsai Batukulu [Bonsai Lives] portrays the life of women who live mechanically under the control of family members.^[6]

Awards

• Ranganayakamma Pratibha Puraskaram,2003^[1]
• Telugu University Award, 1996^[1]
• Sahitya Akademi Award in Telugu for the Year 2005^[2]

References