Author Biography 

LONG BIO – (522 Words)

 

Nandita Chakraborty was born in Kolkata, India in a small conservative family which has always been associated with the arts. Her father won many accolades in Indian cinema; his film In Search of Famine was the first Indian film in a regional language to win the Silver Bear at the Berlin Film Festival in 1980.

Nandita’s sense of creativity started at a young age. The whole house would be surrounded by action and glamour, where well known artists would spark her creative mind at the dinner table or at her mother’s dressing table.

Along with her siblings, she was sent out to boarding school at the age of seven in the hills of Meghalaya, India. A few years down the track the family settled in New Delhi, where she attended Sri Venkateswara University in New Delhi to study political science by day – and at night she would attend her fashion and visual merchandising school.

In her third year in college, she went on to pursue a Diploma in Visual Merchandising, leaving behind her career in political science. She began to work with a well -known designer in India, finding fame and fortune in that path – but it still didn’t leave her creatively satisfied. Lying awake in her bedroom, she would often write poetry to herself. Secretly she wrote short stories about her adventures in her designing career. Often these would either land in the dustbin or make their way into the hands of junk dealers making paperbacks for grocery shopping.

In 2000 she came to Melbourne where she started her own fashion boutique, later went on to work for banking. It was not until 2008 she joined RMIT to do a short course in creative fiction writing under the mentoring of Rosalie Ham Attending several book clubs, writing seminars, and participating in many writing competitions, she met with some remarkable writers. Later she began to write short stories for the local newspaper and magazine in Melbourne.

Her first book, mainly written for family and friends as a diary Missing Peace: Love, Life & Me, detailing her quest for peace, love, and life. It is an autobiography that she started writing in 2010 and was later self-published in 2013.

In 2011, she met with an accident while rock climbing, falling 40 meters and acquiring traumatic brain injury. After several months in rehab, she continued working but in 2016 she was back in rehab. She has a disability which cannot be seen, also known as a blind disability, and suffers from vestibular migraine with permanent cognitive issues, resulting in fatigue. Also known as the accidental writer for her successful novellas Meera Rising and Rosemary’s Retribution.  The novellas were the product of her therapy rehab in 2016- 2017. 

Currently, living in Melbourne, Australia, working as a casual library officer at Moreland city libraries.  She is also a feature writer for Melbourne’s leading Indian newspapers The Indian Weekly and G’Day India. She’s also a screen writer and has writer few screenplays that are in developmental stages. In between her writings and therapies, she is constantly creating stories, new recipes and finding ways to keep her brain active.

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MEDIUM BIO – (119 Words)

 

Nandita Chakraborty is a cognitively disabled screenwriter and author of Rosemary’s Retribution and Meera Rising.  As a form of therapy, Chakraborty has been writing novellas with strong autobiographical elements and has mixed realism with fantasy. She mostly writes about love, identity, sexuality, disability, and the cross-cultural conflict of being an immigrant. 

Chakraborty learnt creative writing under the mentorship of Rosalie Ham (author of Dressmaker) and screenwriting at RMIT. Her novellas are selected Finalist for the American Best Book Awards 2018.

The Australian Indian writer, Chakraborty loves food, gin, and movies. She lives in Melbourne and works as a casual library officer at the Moreland City Libraries and writes feature articles for Melbourne’s leading Indian newspapers, G’Day India and Indian Weekly.

 

SHORT BIO – (66 Words)

 

The Australian Indian Writer, Nandita Chakraborty has successfully written two novellas, Meera Rising & Rosemary’s Retribution, with her cognitive impairment. She managed to do so by using Writing as a form of therapy. Her novellas are selected finalists at the American Book Awards 2018. Her books provide insight into the life of an Australian-Indian and implores on themes such as identity, love, disability, and mental health.

2 LINE BIO

Nandita Chakraborty is an Australian – Indian author with a cognitive disability. She has written Meera Rising and Rosemary’s Retribution because of her therapy. 

 

SPEAKER INTRODUCTION - (185 Words)

Nandita Chakraborty is an Australian Indian Writer. Originally from Kolkata, India, she moved to Australia in 2000. She is also known as the Accidental Writer because she not only survived a horrific rock-climbing accident which led to her permanent cognitive impairment by her career in writing is often an accidental metaphor. In 2008, to relive the mundane job of a bank, Nandita joined RMIT for a short course in creative fiction, under the mentoring of Rosalie Ham. She however, applied her training and took writing seriously in 2017 as a part of her rehabilitative and therapeutic care sessions. Since then, she has written and successfully published two novellas, Meera Rising (2017) and Rosemary’s Retribution (2018). Her Novellas have won multiple nominations at the American Book Fest 2018 for the American Best Book Award. She now writes screenplay for film and television and is currently collaborating with a critically acclaimed international filmmaker Jhanu Barua and hopes to use films as another way to tell her stories. She also writes feature stories for Melbourne’s leading Indian newspapers, Indian Weekly and G’Day India.