Meghna Pant
Born in Shimla, Pant is the sister of stand-up comedian Sorabh Pant.
One & a Half Wife (Westland, 2012) – her debut novel – won the national Muse India Young Writer Award (2014) and was shortlisted for several other awards, including the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award.
Pant’s debut collection of short stories Happy Birthday (Random House, 2013) was long-listed for the Frank O’Connor International Award (2014).
Her second short story collection The Trouble Book with Women (Juggernaut, 2016) is considered by one commentator to be a landmark in feminist writing and was described as ‘the best book from Juggernaut’ by The Hindu Business Line.
Pant published her first non-fiction book Feminist Rani (Penguin Random House, 2018) that features interviews with Kalki Koechlin, Gurmehar Kaur, Tanmay Bhat, Gul Panag and Aditi Mittal, among others. Her second non-fiction book How To Get Published in India (Bloomsbury, 2019) is a guide to publishing in India. Pant also wrote THE HOLY 100 (Rupa, 2018).
Pant’s short stories have been published in Avatar Review, Wasafari, Eclectica, and QLRS., as well as in several anthologies including Namita Gokhale’s The Himalayan Arc.
Feminism
Among India’s five gutsy women making powerful personal statements – The Hindustan Times
25 witty, sharp and fearless women to follow on Twitter – SheThePeople
An honest, intelligent, insightful and downright feminist – GirlHQ
Pant curates a monthly panel discussion called ‘Feminist Rani’ and anchors women-centric shows for news portal FirstPost.
She has been a speaker and moderator at events where she interviews women who have reportedly broken glass ceilings.
She has written on issues including consent, rape, domestic violence, miscarriage, surrogacy, body-shaming and public safety for women for various prominent publications.
She chaired India’s first #MeToo summit in 2018.
Journalist
Pant has worked as a business news anchor with Times Now, NDTV and Bloomberg-UTV in Mumbai and New York. Her articles have been published in publications including The Hindustan Times and The Huffington Post.
In 2020, Pant became a podcaster with a show about personal finance called SHOW ME THE MONEY, for Amazon’s Audible.
Speaker
Pant has spoken at literary festivals and conferences, including the Jaipur Literature Festival, Tata Literature Live!, Kala Ghoda Literature Festival, Pune International Literary Festival, Young Makers Conclave, #RiseWithTwitter, The UN Feminist Conference, as well as TEDx.
In 2019, she appeared as an expert on the show Kaun Banega Crorepati with Amitabh Bachchan.
Awards and achievements
- FICCI Young Achiever’s Award (2019) – Winner
- TLJ Women Achiever’s Award (2019) – Winner
- Laadli Media Award (2018) – Winner
- Bharat Nirman Award (2017) – Winner
- FON (Fellows of Nature) South Asia Short Story Award (2016) – Winner
- Muse India Young Writer Award (2013) – Winner
- Commonwealth Short Story Prize (2018) – Longlist
- Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award (2014) – Longlist
- The Cinnamon Press Novel Writing Award (2012) – Shortlist
- 10 Indian Achievers Make It Big
- 25 Women To Follow on Twitter
- Best Female Authors
- 19 Badass Indian Ladies Everyone Should Look Up To
Pant abridged the world’s longest epic, The Mahabharata, into one hundred tweets that The Guardian (UK) called “wonderfully descriptive and paced”.
Bibliography
Novels
- One & A Half Wife (2012). New Delhi: Westland.
- The Terrible, Horrible, Very Bad Good News (2021). Penguin Random House.
Short Stories
- Happy Birthday! (2013). London: Random House.
- The Trouble With Women (2016).
Non-fiction
- Feminist Rani (2018). Penguin Random House.
- How to Get Published in India (2019). Bloomsbury.
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