Amarjit Chandan

Amarjit Chandan (born 1946) is a Punjabi writer, editor, translator and activist. He has written eight collections of poetry and five collections of essays in Punjabi. He has been called "the global face of modern Punjabi poetry".

He has published over 25 books of poetry and essays. He has edited over 15 books of poetry and essays. His work has been translated into many languages including Arabic, Brazilian-Portuguese, Greek, Italian, and Turkish.

Initial years in Kenya and life in India

He was born in Nairobi, Kenya in 1946 where his father Gopal Singh Chandan, also a leader of the Kenyan Ghadar Party, worked in the railways and later on took up photography as full-time profession. He moved to his ancestral town Nakodar in Punjab, India at the age of 8. He pursued higher studies at Panjab University, Chandigarh. He joined the Maoist movement in Punjab in the late 1960s and started editing 'Lokyudh' and 'Bhagwat' magazines. In 1969, he started publishing 'Dastavez', an underground literary journal, as its founder editor. In August 1971, he was arrested by the police and consequently spent two years in solitary confinement.

Migration to UK

In 1980, he moved to UKwhere has been living ever since. He went on to join a corporation in the local government where He has translated works of Bertolt Brecht, Pablo Neruda, Yiannis Ritsos, Nazim Hikmet, John Berger and others into Punjabi.

Chandan formed a long-term association with John Berger. In 2016, he co-edited A Jar of Wild Flowers: Essays in Celebration of John Berger.

Works in Gurmukhi Punjabi

Poetry

• Kaun Nahin Chahega (1975)
• Kavitavan (1984)
• Jarhan (1995)
• Beejak (1996)
• Chhanna (1998)
• Gurhti (2000)
• Paintee (2009)
• Prem Kavitavan (2012)
• Pardesi Dhola (2013)
• Lammi Lammi Nadi Vahe (2014)
• Sachi Taksaal (2016)
• Sandook (2017)
• Eh kāaad nahin hai: Ghadar virasat diān likhtān (2020)

Essays

• Failsufian (1990)
• Nishani (1997)
• Hun Khin: Conversations with Sohan Qadri (2001)
• Annjall (2006)
• Potli (2009)
• Likhat Parhat

Translated and edited works

• Mera Nam Tera Nam Vietnam, anthology of Vietnamese poetry, (1968)
• Mitti da Rung (1971)
• Do Kināré(1982)
• Apneaap ton dur (1984)
• Vilaytiye (1986)
• Meri Aap-Beeti, Autobiography of Baba Sohan Singh Bhakna. (2014)
• Unni sau churasi: Harbhajan Singh’s Poems and Essays on 1984 (2017)
• San Santali: Punjab de Ujarhey di shayri (2017)
• 20veen sadee de nibandh (20th Century Punjabi Essays), National Book Trust India (2020)
• Kanchan Kaya: Ajoki Punjabi Prem Kavita (Modern Punjabi Love Poetry) , National Book Trust India (2020)

Works in Shahmukhi Punjabi

Poetry

• Guthli (1999)
• AnaraN vala Vehrha (2001)
• Nuqta (2007)

Essays

• Likhtam Parhtam (2009) (2013, Reprint 2014)

Works in English

• The Parrot, the Horse and the Man (2017)
• Sonata For Four Hands (2010)
• Indians in Britain (1986)

Edited works

• A Jar of Wild Flowers: Essays in Celebration of John Berger (2016), co-edited with Yasmin Gunaratnam, London: Zed Books
• The Long White Thread of Words: Poems for John Berger (2016), co-edited with Gareth Evans and Yasmin Gunaratnam. Ripon: Smokestack Books

Works translated in other languages

• ΦΟΡΕΣΕΜΕ (2015) - translation in Greek by Christina Linardaki & Andreas Pitsillides

• Lifetime Achievement Award - Languages Department, Punjab, India
• Anād Kāv Sanmān in 2009
• Lifetime Achievement Award from the Punjabis in Britain, All-Party Parliamentary Group, London in 2006

• Awazzan (2019) - a documentary film by Gurvinder Singh.