imported>OwenBlacker: /* Career */ Copied paragraph I just added to Monisha Rajesh about the controversy around Kate Clanchy's book Some Kids I Taught and What They Taught Me

2021-08-30T13:09:14Z

Career: Copied paragraph I just added to Monisha Rajesh about the controversy around Kate Clanchy's book Some Kids I Taught and What They Taught Me

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{{About|the writer|other people|Sunny Singh (disambiguation){{!}}Sunny Singh}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2014}}
{{Infobox academic
| name = Sunny Singh
| image =
| alma_mater = [[Brandeis University]]<br />[[Jawaharlal Nehru University]]<br />[[University of Barcelona]]
| birth_date = {{Birth date and age|df=yes|1969|5|20}}
| title = Professor of Creative Writing and Inclusion in the Arts
| workplaces = [[London Metropolitan University]]
}}

'''Sunny Singh''' (born 20 May 1969) is an academic and [[writer]] of [[fiction]] and creative non-fiction. She is [[Professor]] of Creative Writing and Inclusion in the Arts at [[London Metropolitan University]].

== Early life and education ==

Sunny Singh was born in [[Varanasi]], India. Her father's work with the government meant that the family regularly moved, living in cantonments and outposts including [[Dehradun]], [[Dibrugarh]], [[Along, Arunachal Pradesh|Along]] and [[Tezu|Teju]]. The family also followed her father's assignments abroad, living in [[Pakistan]],<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ub.edu/dpfilsa/Tricontinental_Lectures/sunny.pdf|title=Indian Culture in an Era of Global Transformations|first=Sunny|last=Singh|accessdate=13 May 2020|date=23 May 2018|work=The Centre for Australian and Transnational Studies}}</ref> the [[United States]] and [[Namibia]].

Singh attended [[Brandeis University]] where she majored in English and American Literature. She holds a master's degree in Spanish Language, Literature and Culture from the [[Jawaharlal Nehru University]] and a PhD from the [[University of Barcelona]], Spain.<ref>{{Cite news|title=Sunny Singh |url=http://www.thesusijnagency.com/SunnySingh.htm | work= thesusijanagency.com}}</ref>

== Career ==

Singh worked as a journalist and management executive in Mexico, Chile, and South Africa before returning to India in 1995 to focus on writing. She worked as a freelance writer and journalist until 2002 in [[New Delhi]], publishing her first two books in that period. She moved to [[Barcelona]] in 2002 to work on her PhD and published her second novel in 2006.

Before her appointment as Professor in 2020, Singh was Senior Lecturer and Course Leader in Creative Writing at the [[London Metropolitan University]].<ref>{{Cite news|title=London Metrolpolitan University – Sunny Singh |url=http://www.londonmet.ac.uk/faculties/faculty-of-social-sciences-and-humanities/people/surnames-n-to-s/sunny-singh |work= londonmet.ac.uk}}</ref>

Singh is the Chairperson of the [[Authors' Club]]. In 2016, Singh co-founded the [[Jhalak Prize]] for Book of the Year by a Writer of Colour. The award supports British writers with a one-thousand pound prize. It was initiated by Singh, [[Nikesh Shukla]] and [[Media Diversified]], with support from The Authors’ Club and funds donated by an anonymous benefactor.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Jhalak Prize - Book of the Year by a Writer of Colour|url=https://www.jhalakprize.com/|website=Jhalak Prize|language=en|access-date=2020-05-15}}</ref> Judges of the prize include Nikesh Shukla, [[Anita Sethi]], Kerry Young, and Roy McFarlane. Previous winners include [[Guy Gunaratne]] (''In Our Mad and Furious City,'' 2019), [[Reni Eddo-Lodge]] (''Why I’m No Longer Talking To White People About Race'', 2018), and [[Jacob Ross]] (''The Bone Readers'', 2017).

In mid-2021 she, with [[Monisha Rajesh]] and [[Chimene Suleyman]], received racist abuse on social media as a result of raising concerns about depictions of autism and of students of colour in [[Kate Clanchy]]'s book ''Some Kids I Taught and What They Taught Me'',<ref name="Campbell Guardian">{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/aug/10/kate-clanchy-to-rewrite-memoir-after-criticism-of-racist-and-ableist-tropes |title=Kate Clanchy to rewrite memoir amid criticism of ‘racist and ableist tropes’ |last=Campbell |first=Lucy |date=10 August 2021 |work=[[The Guardian]] |access-date=30 August 2021}}</ref> with Rajesh characterising some of Clanchy's prose as "dehumanising", "racist", "anti-Black", "[[antisemitism|antisemitic]]" and "more like something a eugenicist might observe than a trusted teacher".<ref name="Rajesh Guardian">{{cite web |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/aug/13/pointing-out-racism-in-books-is-not-an-attack-kate-clanchy |title=Pointing out racism in books is not an ‘attack’ – it’s a call for industry reform |last=Rajesh |first=Monisha |author-link=Monisha Rajesh |date=13 August 2021 |work=[[The Guardian]] |access-date=30 August 2021}}</ref> The discussion prompted a reaction, including from authors such as [[Philip Pullman]] and [[Amanda Craig]],<ref name="Campbell Guardian"/> that Rajesh characterised as racist, writing in ''[[The Guardian]]'' that "a sinister realisation dawned as they closed ranks and appeared to reply to white critics only",<ref name="Rajesh Guardian"/> with "a group of white women authors pointedly demean[ing]" the women of colour "as 'activists' who were 'attacking' Clanchy".<ref name="Rajesh Guardian"/> Rajesh also wrote that the 3 women of colour were "under a coordinated racist attack from the '[[alt-right]]' which targeted our emails and social media".<ref name="Rajesh Guardian"/>

== Literary works ==

Singh has published three novels, two non-fiction books and numerous short stories and essays.

Singh's debut novel, ''Nani's Book of Suicides'', won the Mar De Letras Prize in Spain in 2003.<ref>{{Cite news|title=La India eterna es presentada por la mirada de Singh en reciente novela |first=Juan Pedro |last=Yaniz |url=http://www.abc.es/hemeroteca/historico-28-06-2005/abc/Catalunya/la-india-eterna-es-presentada-por-la-mirada-de-singh-en-reciente-novela_203434115488.html |date=28 June 2005|work= abc.es (in Spanish)}}</ref> Her latest novel, ''Hotel Arcadia'', was published by Quartet Books.

=== Books ===

* ''Nani's Book of Suicides'', HarperCollins Publishers India (2000) {{ISBN|978-81-7223-397-6}}
* ''Single in the City'', Penguin Books Australia (2000) {{ISBN|978-0-14-100024-4}}
* ''With Krishna's Eyes'', Rupa & Co (2006) {{ISBN|978-81-291-0966-8}}
* ''Hotel Arcadia'', Quartet Books (2015) {{ISBN|978-0704373792}}
* ''Amitabh Bachchan'', British Film Institute (2017) {{ISBN|978-1844576319}}

== Personal life ==
Singh lives in London.

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

== External links ==
* [http://www.sunnysingh.net/ Official website]
*Staff Profile Page, London Metropolitan University: https://www.londonmet.ac.uk/profiles/staff/sunny-singh/
*'Sunny Singh in Conversation with Jacob Ross, Lit Fest Online 2020': https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eyHPPF4Drn0&feature=youtu.be
*Book Trailer for ''Hotel Arcadia'': https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7a5XxgqgkX8&rel=0&width=720&height=480

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Singh, Sunny}}
[[Category:1969 births]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:Writers from Varanasi]]
[[Category:Indian women novelists]]
[[Category:English-language writers from India]]
[[Category:Brandeis University alumni]]
[[Category:University of Barcelona alumni]]
[[Category:Jawaharlal Nehru University alumni]]
[[Category:21st-century Indian novelists]]
[[Category:21st-century Indian women writers]]
[[Category:Women writers from Uttar Pradesh]]
[[Category:Novelists from Uttar Pradesh]]
[[Category:Indian expatriates in Pakistan]]

Sunny Singh (writer) - Revision history

imported>OwenBlacker: /* Career */ Copied paragraph I just added to Monisha Rajesh about the controversy around Kate Clanchy's book Some Kids I Taught and What They Taught Me