Shweta Taneja

Shweta Taneja is an Indian author of novels, short fiction, graphic novels, nonfiction and comic books. Her work includes fantasy fiction series The Rakta Queen: An Anantya Tantrist Mystery,[1] The Matsya Curse: An Anantya Tantrist Mystery,[2] Cult of Chaos: An Anantya Tantrist Mystery[3] and books for YA and children like The Ghost Hunters of Kurseong[4] and How to Steal a Ghost @ Manipal.[5]

Shweta Taneja
BornNew Delhi, India
OccupationNovelist, Graphic Novelist, Journalist
Period2012 -
GenreFantasy
Website
shwetawrites.com

Her short story, The Daughter That Bleeds was published in Best Asian Speculative Fiction[6] and won the Editor's Choice Award.[7] The story was translated into French under the title La Fille qui saigne, published in Galaxies magazine[8] and was a finalist in the Grand Prix de l’Imaginaire Awards[9] for 2020 in France.

She wrote the scripts for The Skull Rosary, a five-story graphic novel involving the Hindu god Shiva (published by Holy Cow Entertainment)[10] and Krishna: Defender of Dharma, about the Hindu god Krishna (published by Campfire Graphic Novels).[11] She currently lives and works in Bangalore, India.

Biography

Shweta Taneja grew up in Delhi, India. She earned a Masters in English Literature from the Lady Shri Ram College for Women, University of Delhi and a Masters in Fashion Communication from the National Institute of Fashion Technology.

Writing career

Taneja's journalist career began with the magazines Femina and Men's Health (where she was the Assistant Editor of the India edition). She continues to write for several print and online publications including Mint,[12] Discover India, Scroll[13] and The Huffington Post (India).[14]

Her first publication was the Krishna: Defender of Dharma, a graphic novel on the Hindu god, for which she wrote the script and collaborated with illustrator Rajesh Nagulakonda. In 2013, the graphic novel was recommended for Classes 7 & 8 for schools affiliated to the Central Board of Secondary Education, India by the Association of Writers & Illustrators for Children.[15]

The Ghost Hunters of Kurseong was her first novel. It involves a group of twelve-year-olds who solve a mystery in the hill town Kurseong in India.[16] Taneja promoted the novel using a children's detective workshop. Groups of children would solve a mystery within a given time and then draw out their version of the events[17]

The Skull Rosary was Taneja's second graphic novel. She wrote the script and collaborated with five different illustrators for each of the five stories in the novel. It was nominated for Best Writer and Best Cover for the Comic Con India awards 2013.[18]

Her next work was Cult of Chaos: An Anantya Tantrist Mystery which is a detective fantasy novel based in Delhi, India. The protagonist of Cult of Chaos is Anantya who is a woman tantrist - a practitioner of Tantra.[19] Cult of Chaos is billed as India's first tantic-detective novel.[20] The novel was launched with a quiz on paranormal and supernatural beliefs in India.[21]

In 2016, Taneja published How to Steal a Ghost @ Manipal which is as described by The Asian Age as "A young student turns into a paranormal investigator to impress her boyfriend."[22] The book is published in an ebook format by Juggernaut Books and it was the Taneja's foray into becoming a hybrid author.[23] Her second novel of the Anantya Tantrist Mystery series - The Matsya Curse was published in 2017. The third novel of the Anantya Tantrist Mystery series - The Rakta Queen was published in 2018.

In 2016, Taneja was selected for the Charles Wallace India Fellowship (Chichester University, UK).[24] In 2020, Taneja's short story was a finalist in the French Grand Prix de l’Imaginaire Awards 2020.[25] The short story is about a dystopian future in India where fertile women are treated as commodities.[26]

Bibliography

Novels
NameTypePublication YearPublisherISBN
The Rakta Queen: An Anantya Tantrist MysteryNovel2018HarperCollins978-9353023294
The Matsya Curse: An Anantya Tantrist Mystery Novel 2017 HarperCollins 978-9352645022
Cult of Chaos: An Anantya Tantrist Mystery Novel 2014 HarperCollins 978-9351364443

Children's Books and Young Adult
NameTypePublication YearPublisherISBN
How to Steal a Ghost @ ManipalNovel2016Juggernaut Books
The Ghost Hunters of KurseongNovel2013Hachette978-9350095539

Graphic Novels
NameTypePublication YearPublisherISBN
The Skull RosaryGraphic Novel2013Holy Cow EntertainmentASIN: B00HNSSUDQ
Krishna: Defender of Dharma Graphic Novel 2012 Campfire Graphic Novels 978-9380741710

Short Stories
  • "The Biryani Choke", Eleven Stops to the Present: Stories of Bengaluru (2020)
  • "Les Chants que L’Humanité abandonna aux" (translated by Thomas Bauduret), Galaxies No 66 (2020)
  • "La Fille qui saigne" (translated by Mikael Cabon), Galaxies No 58 (2019)
  • "Grandma Garam's Kitty Party", Magical Women edited by Sukanya Venkatraghavan (Hachette India, 2019)
  • "Agni's Tattoo", Whose Future is It?: Cellarius Stories (Genesis Thought, 2018)
  • "The Daughter That Bleeds", The Best Asian Speculative Fiction (Kitaab, 2018)
  • "It's a Dog's Death" (comic with Vivek Goel), Were House (Holy Cow Entertainment, 2013)
  • "Terror Strikes Back", Celebrate Holi (Hachette India, 2013)

References
  1. "The Rakta Queen". HarperCollinsPublishers India. Retrieved 27 February 2020.
  2. "HarperCollinsPublishers India | The Matsya Curse". harpercollins.co.in. Retrieved 28 June 2017.
  3. "HarperCollinsPublishers India | Cult of Chaos". harpercollins.co.in. Retrieved 28 June 2017.
  4. "HACHETTE". www.hachetteindia.com. Retrieved 28 June 2017.
  5. "Juggernaut Books". www.juggernaut.in. Retrieved 28 June 2017.
  6. Dutta-Asane, Sucharita. "The Best Asian Speculative Fiction". kitaab. Retrieved 27 February 2020.
  7. "Indian Author Shweta's Short Story Wins Editor's Choice Award". indianobserverpost.com. Retrieved 27 February 2020.
  8. Birnie-Scott, Xavier. "Sommaire de la revue Galaxie 58 SF". Galaxies-SF (in French). Retrieved 27 February 2020.
  9. "Grand Prix de l'Imaginaire 2020 – Grand Prix de l'Imaginaire" (in French). Retrieved 27 February 2020.
  10. "Holy Cow Entertainment | The Skull Rosary". www.holycow.in. Retrieved 28 June 2017.
  11. "Krishna: Defender of Dharma". Campfire. Retrieved 10 March 2015.
  12. "Shweta's articles for Mint".
  13. "Shweta Taneja | Scroll.in". scroll.in. Retrieved 29 July 2016.
  14. "Shweta's articles for Huffington Post India".
  15. "CBSE Reading Promotion, SNo 94" (PDF).
  16. "'I became a writer by chance!': Swetha Padmanabhan - Citizen Matters, Bangalore News". Bangalore.citizenmatters.in. Retrieved 10 March 2015.
  17. Bhumika K. (10 December 2013). "Kids crack a whodunnit". The Hindu. Retrieved 10 March 2015.
  18. "Comic Con India Awards 2013 Nominees Announced: Special Awards for Pran Kumar Sharma and Tinkle Studio". AnimationXpress. 16 January 2014. Retrieved 10 March 2015.
  19. Mini Anthikad-Chhibber (23 February 2015). "Fast, furious and completely magical". The Hindu. Retrieved 10 March 2015.
  20. - Rohini Nair (10 February 2015). "A supernatural detective thriller". The Asian Age. Retrieved 10 March 2015.
  21. Sravasti Datta (4 February 2015). "The thrill in occult". The Hindu. Retrieved 10 March 2015.
  22. "Power of the unknown". asianage.com/. 19 October 2016. Retrieved 28 June 2017.
  23. Chhibber, Mini Anthikad. "Seamlessly moving between worlds". The Hindu. Retrieved 28 June 2017.
  24. Anjum, Zafar (25 January 2016). "The Lounge Chair Interview: 10 Questions with Shweta Taneja". Retrieved 29 July 2016.
  25. "Shweta Taneja's short story in Grand Prix de l'Imaginaire Awards's shortlist". The Indian Express. 9 February 2020. Retrieved 10 February 2020.
  26. Iyengar, Vidya (10 February 2020). "Shweta Taneja: Forging a French connection". The New Indian Express. Retrieved 10 February 2020.
Shweta Taneja Twitter Page
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