Jayashree Kasaravalli

Bio

Jayashree Kasaravalli was born at Kasaravalli, a remote village in Karnataka. After graduating from a college in Shivamogga, she did her post graduation from the University of Mysore. A long-time resident of Chennai, she taught at the Bharath Senior Secondary School. At present she lives in Bangalore.

Acclaimed as a highly sensitive writer, Jayashree published her first collection Tanthi beeliya onti kaake in 2000. Her second collection Dinachariya kade putadinda was brought out in 2014. Chitraguptana Sannidhiyalli was her third collection. Mother Teresa is a biographical sketch of Mother Teresa’s life and work. Higondu Aerospace Purana is her travelogue.

Her special love for children’s literature induced her to translate children’s stories of many nations into Kannada and these were collected in the book Tolaraayana thipparalaaga. She has translated more than thirty children’s books for Tulika Publications, New Delhi. With her husband, she also translated and brought out a collection of stories of Gabriel Garcia Marquez into Kannada, Ee urinalli kallare ilia. She has translated German writer Michael Ende’s novel, Momo, into Kannada. An accomplished translator, Jayashree has introduced to Kannada readers the short fiction of Maria Dermont, Jamaica Kincaid, Oliver Senior, Alifa Rifaat, Isabel Allende and Carson McCullers.

Jayashree has won many prestigious awards including the Karnataka Sahitya Academy Award; the Infosys Award established by Sudha Murty given by the North Karnataka Women Writers Association, Dharwad; and the Savitramma Dattinidhi Prashasti, an award given annually for the best book of the year by the Karnataka Women Writers Association, Bangalore, among others.