Devapriya Roy

Devapriya Roy is an Indian author best known for her books, Friends from College, Indira and The Heat and Dust Project. She lives in New Delhi with her husband and cat.

Devapriya Roy
Born24 May
Kolkata
NationalityIndian
OccupationAuthor
Spouse(s)Saurav Jha

Early life and education

Roy was born in Calcutta and studied in Calcutta Girl's High School.

She earned her bachelor's degree and master's degree in English literature from Presidency College and Jawaharlal Nehru University respectively. She obtained a PhD on Bharata’s Natyashastra from Jawaharlal Nehru University under the supervision of award-winning poet and playwright H.S. Shivaprakash, and her co-supervisor was Prof Katia Legeret of the University of Paris VIII.[1]

Career

Roy began her career with The Vague Woman’s Handbook, a quirky novel that was published by HarperCollins[2][3] in March 2011 and subsequently appeared on the India Today Bestseller List.[4]

Her second book was The Weight Loss Club: The Curious Experiments of Nancy Housing Cooperative, yet another quirky novel published by Rupa & Co.[5] in July 2013.

Her 2015 book, The Heat and Dust Project[6][7][8][9] (written along with husband Saurav Jha) chronicles the story of travelling through India on local buses "on a very very tight budget" which debuted at no.1 on the Hindustan Times-AC Nielsen list and also got excellent reviews.[10][11] The Heat and Dust Project is also a first-of-its-kind dynamic book as the couple used Facebook to document their journey even as it was underway.[12][13][14]

A teaser for the sequel of The Heat and Dust Project, called Man. Woman. Road., was published in Indian Express recently.[15]

In 2017, Roy authored a graphic biography of Indira Gandhi, Indira, with artist Priya Kuriyan[16] – a unique book about a young student, Indira Thapa (named after Indira Gandhi), who is set an unusual assignment by her favourite teacher: to write an essay around her name. The book, published by Westland's imprint, Contxt, alternates between chapters of fictional prose and graphic biography.[17]

In June 2018, she started the publication of a serialised novel, The Romantics of College Street, in The Telegraph India.[18] It was then consolidated as a book, and published by Westland under the title Friends from College a year later. A love letter to College Street in Calcutta, it follows various characters returning to Calcutta more than twenty years after college.

References
  1. "How the Natyashastra was born". Scroll.in.
  2. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 22 August 2011. Retrieved 4 July 2012.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  3. "Crystal Clear". www.outlookindia.com/.
  4. December 21; December 26, 2011 ISSUE DATE; December 22, 2011UPDATED; Ist, 2011 14:40. "Bestsellers for December 2011". India Today.CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  5. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 17 August 2013. Retrieved 14 August 2013.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  6. "Discovery of India - Indian Express". archive.indianexpress.com.
  7. "Archive News". The Hindu.
  8. "Hindustan Times - Archive News". www.hindustantimes.com/.
  9. "Discovery of India". www.theweekendleader.com.
  10. Unudurti, Jaideep (20 July 2015). "On a Bus to Bharat: A wife-husband team take off on a wanderjahr". The Indian Express. Retrieved 27 October 2018.
  11. "Book Review : The Heat and Dust Project". The Times of India.
  12. says, How to Hack Facebook. "Inspired by India: Couple Uses Facebook To Guide Their Journey, Write Book".
  13. "Photos/Videos of the heat and dust project: a book in motion - Facebook". www.facebook.com.
  14. "6 unconventional uses of Facebook!". Archived from the original on 3 September 2012. Retrieved 4 July 2012.
  15. "You Are Rich, When The Story is Your Currency". The Indian Express.
  16. Gill, Harsimran. "What will Westland's new politically-engaged literary imprint bring? Ask publisher Karthika VK". Scroll.in. Retrieved 17 June 2018.
  17. "Indira, the legend and the life". @businessline. Retrieved 14 June 2018.
  18. "Helen of Troy". The Telegraph. Retrieved 14 June 2018.
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