Ira Pandey

Ira Pande started her career as a University lecturer and taught for about 16 years in the Panjab University in Chandigarh. After a short stint with the Indian Express she worked for some years as the Assistant Editor of Seminar.

Later, she was the Editor of a book review journal called Bilbao, from where she moved on to be Managing Editor at Dorling-Kindersley, a publishing house well-known for its illustrated knowledge books and travel guides before she became the Chief Editor of Roil Books, India’s best known publishing house for illustrated books.

Ira often writes article and book reviews for journals and newspapers. Her memoir of her mother, the famous Hindi writer Shivani, published by Penguin-India in 2005, was shortlisted in the best non-fiction category of the Crossword-Vodaphone award in 2006.

She has also translated Manohar Sham Joshi’s Hindi novella, T-ta Professor, which was awarded both the Crossword-Vodaphone award and the Sahitya Akademie award for the best translated work into English for 2010.

 Her latest book, Shivani’s Aradhana: Women Without Men is a translation of her mother’s writings on women. Published by HarperCollins-India, it is a collection of interviews with jailed women, along with some portraits and short stories of women who lived life on their own terms.

Ira recently retired from the position of a Chief Editor of the Publications Division of the India International Centre, New Delhi.