Pratibha Ray

Pratibha Ray is an Odia writer of novels, short stories, travelogues and essays, and one of the best-known names in Odisha. She was named for the Padma Bhushan in 2022 in the field of literature and education, from Odisha ^[1]. She had received the Padma Shri in 2007 ^[2].

Teacher and researcher

Ray was born on 15 January 1944 ^[2]. She studied life sciences, took a postgraduate degree in education and a PhD in educational psychology, and did postdoctoral research among the Bonda, a tribal community of the Odisha highlands ^[2]. She began as a schoolteacher and taught in government colleges for thirty years, then took voluntary retirement as a professor of education to serve six years on the Odisha Public Service Commission ^[2].

Forty-five years of fiction

For about 45 years she has written fiction in Odia, depicting the city life of Odisha and also the lives of tribal communities, weaving together history, myth and reality ^[2]. She has published 22 novels, 26 short story collections, eleven travelogues, nine books for children and ten for new readers, along with essays, poems, lyrics and tribal research ^[2]. Her autobiography is Life on a Lotus Leaf ^[2].

Her novel Yajnaseni, retelling the story of Draupadi, won the Bharatiya Jnanpith’s Moortidevi Award ^[2]. In 2011 she received the Jnanpith Award, the first Odia woman writer to do so ^[2]. She has also received the Sahitya Akademi Award and the Sarala Puraskar, and honorary DLitts from Utkal University of Culture and Ravenshaw University ^[2].