Crafting stories that cross borders, bridging languages & cultures through the power of words.
Chaitali Sengupta is an accomplished writer and translator, skilled in crafting fiction, poetry, and non-fiction. She studied (undergraduate and postgraduate) English Literature and Language in the prestigious University of Calcutta. She holds a degree in Journalism and Mass communications as well as a Bachelors in Finance.
About Me
The journey of words, languages, and the stories that connect us all
The Art of Literary Translation & Storytelling
As a reviewer and journalist, she garnered recognition for her debut collection of prose poems, “Cross Stitched Words,” which earned the ‘Honorable Mention’ award at the New England Book Festival in 2021. Her expertise in translation is evident in her notable work, “Timeless Tales in Translation,” which received the special jury award at the Panorama International Literature Festival in 2023.
With three translation books to her name, Chaitali has been a consistent contributor to both online and print media. Her second book, “The Crossings,” delves into poems centred on themes of war, migration, and survival. She is the founder of her own company where she gives Dutch language classes.
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The Art of Literary Translation & Storytelling
As a reviewer and journalist, she garnered recognition for her debut collection of prose poems, “Cross Stitched Words,” which earned the ‘Honorable Mention’ award at the New England Book Festival in 2021. Her expertise in translation is evident in her notable work, “Timeless Tales in Translation,” which received the special jury award at the Panorama International Literature Festival in 2023.
With three translation books to her name, Chaitali has been a consistent contributor to both online and print media. Her second book, “The Crossings,” delves into poems centred on themes of war, migration, and survival. She is the founder of her own company where she gives Dutch language classes.
Published Books
0
+
Awards
0
+
Languages
0
+
My Books
A collection of award-winning works exploring the human condition through poetry and prose
- Honorable Mention award
- New England Book Festival
Cross Stitched Words
Poetry Collection
A collection of prose poems that earned the 'Honorable Mention' award at the New England Book Festival in 2021.
“Cross-Stitched words” is a collection of 45 short, free- verses that attempt to connect and engage the inner life of our hearts, through words, through poetry. The verses address themes such as love, loss, passage of time, impermanence, human frailties, empathy, sorrows, in short, life in its varied existential struggle. The verses are introspective in nature, attempting to translate these encounters into words, that tend to celebrate greater connections. The verses at times rely on vignettes, a series of images, appreciate such simple things, as the world around us and will inspire to contemplate upon life's deeper meanings.
- Runners-Up award
- London Book Festival 2024
The Crossings
War, Migration & Survival
A powerful collection of poems exploring themes of war, migration, and human survival with profound sensitivity.
When individuals trod on tightropes with either side brimming with void, living becomes an alias for death. In that process, when a person is dislocated, the perception of home furthers into annulment. Migrating through spaces creates fear and instills a sense of being constantly on the run. Chaitali Sengupta’s The Crossings: poems on war, migration, and survival is a collection of poems that ideates the voice of migrants after their lives are trampled by war. Sengupta traces the historical topographic spheres battered by war—which, after coming to a standstill, continues to agonize the individual who’s been in that dire situation. These poems work on the refugee chaos and seek haven in quietude from war and persecution.
- Special jury award
- Panorama Literature award festival 2023
- IPPL Translation Book Award 2024
Timeless Tales in Translation
Translation Work
A masterful translation work that received the special jury award at the Panorama International Literature Festival in 2023.
'Timeless Tales in translation' brings together selected short stories (in translation) of the various Bengali and Hindi/Urdu writers from the Indian subcontinent. It includes the notable works of the most well-known Indian writers- Swarnakumari Devi, Rabindranath Tagore, Munshi Premchand, Jaishankar Prasad, Sarat Chandra Chatterjee and others. The stories selected contain some of the most groundbreaking, progressive, and thought-provoking writing in Indian Literature from 1855 to 1955, considered as an important period in the literary history of the subcontinent. A complex body of literature emerged in India during this period. The stories, chosen from that interesting period, cover a wide variety of subjects from historical to social to moral and they give us a glimpse of an intimate portrait of life, bringing out a meticulous picture of rural, semi-feudal India, in the colonial times.
Across the Luminous Realms and Other Tales from Legends, Myths & Fantasy
From Legends, Myths & Fantasy
Chaitali Sengupta has produced a fluent and easy-to-read translation of two collections of stories that have long remained in the shadows, even among Dutch readers. Without adopting all of Couperus’ archaic turns of phrase, her translation nowhere feels forcedly modern. In doing so, she has done Couperus’ text full justice, making a number of relatively unknown but culturally historically very interesting stories accessible to a wide English-reading readers. Mary G. Kemperink
Legends Speak (Bengali Women's Narratives In Translation)
(Paperback, Amita Roy, Chaitali Sengupta, Lopamudra Banerjee)
Chaitali Sengupta has produced a fluent and easy-to-read translation of two collections of stories that have long remained in the shadows, even among Dutch readers. Without adopting all of Couperus’ archaic turns of phrase, her translation nowhere feels forcedly modern. In doing so, she has done Couperus’ text full justice, making a number of relatively unknown but culturally historically very interesting stories accessible to a wide English-reading readers. Mary G. Kemperink
Lappa Kids - Lappa kleurt de stad
(Nederlands - Hindi)
Het is een sombere dag, de stad ziet er treurig en grijs uit. Tot plots de zon doorbreekt, die alle kleuren weer tevoorschijn tovert. Ook Lappa tovert met kleur. Hij maakt nieuwe kleuren en in zijn droom kleurt hij de hele stad. Ontdek alle kleuren van de regenboog in dit nieuwe avontuur van Lappa en Hondje Wof.
De serie Lappa Kids bestaat uit interactieve (meertalige) kleuterboeken (prentenboeken) voor kinderen van 3 tot 6 jaar.
De Lappa Kids prentenboeken sluiten aan op Lappa Little en stimuleren spelenderwijs het taalbegrip van kleuters. De tweetalige versies bevatten de Nederlandse taal en een thuistaal, waardoor de kennis van beide talen gestimuleerd wordt.
Awards & Recognition
Celebrating literary excellence and international recognition
Honorable Mention
New England Book Festival
2021 - Cross Stitched Words
Runner-Up Award
London Book Festival
2024 - The Crossings
Special Jury Award
Panorama Literature Festival
2023 - Timeless Tales in Translation
What Critics Say
Professional reviews and testimonials from the literary community
"The Crossings are a collection of Chaitali Sengupta's deeply sensitive poems. The fifty poems dwell beautifully on the reality of war and the problems that come up after wars end."
Navamalati Neog Chakravarti
Literary Critic
"Chaitali Sengupta's The Crossings covers the related worlds of war, migration and survival. These are worlds that she traverses through her imagination and experience."
Anjana Basu
Literary Reviewer
"Chaitali Sengupta's The Crossings focuses largely on the pity that war entails. It presents war as having an intersectional trajectory of destruction, displacement, and dispossession."
Shyamasri Maji
World Literature Today
"Poems that map the complex historical, mythical, and ideological trajectory of power and powerlessness. A remarkable collection that deserves wide readership."
Aparna Singh
MUSE INDIA
Get In Touch
For speaking invitations, book reviews, and marketing inquiries
Let's Connect
I'm always excited to connect with fellow readers, writers, and literary enthusiasts. Whether you're interested in book reviews, speaking engagements, or collaboration opportunities, I'd love to hear from you.
- [email protected]
- Netherlands
Services Available
- Speaking Invitations
- Book Reviews
- Literary Translations
- Dutch Language Classes
- Marketing Collaborations
Blogs
- Across the luminous realms
- Aging
- All that Jazz
- Bangaldesh
- Bibhuti Bhushan Bandopadhyay
- Captivating tales
- Chaitali
- Crossings
- dailyprompt
- dailyprompt-1884
- Displaced people
- displacement
- Disrobed
- Draupadi
- Dutch
- Early Morning
- Fall
- Fantasy
- Forced migration
- Hindi short stories
- Horrors of War
- Indian classic tales
- Indian classics
- IPPL
- Kaikeyi
- Kolkata camp
- Lipika
- Lopa Banerjee
- Louis Couperus
- Mahabharat
- metaphors
- Migration
- Myths
- Nature
- Netherlands
- Noakhali
- Old age
- Partition of India
- Path
- Pathbreaking Tales
- Prose-Poems
- Quiet
- Refugees
- rhythmic rustling
- Sarat Chandra Chatterjee
- Season of Fall
- Seema Jain
- Separation
- Short stories
- Short stories collection
- Silence
- Survival
- survival of refugees
- Tagore
- The Ramayan
- The Vanquished Queen
- Timeless Tales in Translation
- Translated stories
- Translation
- Trials of women
- violence
- Voice of flute
- War
- War of 1971
- Women
- Words
By Navamalati Neog Chakravarti The Crossings are a collection of Chaitali Sengupta’s deeply sensitive poems. The fifty poems sorted into three groups dwell beautifully on the reality of war and the...
Poems that map the complex historical, mythical, and ideological trajectory of power and powerlessness A review by Aparna Singh in the literary journal MUSE INDIA Chaitali Sengupta writes and translates...
Winner of Runners-Up award at the London Book Festival 2024 Reviewed by Anjana Basu Chaitali Sengupta’s The Crossings covers therelated worlds of war. Migration andsurvival – the sections into which...