Sampurna Chattarji was born in Africa in 1970, grew up in Darjeeling, went to college in New Delhi and worked for seven years in advertising in Kolkata and Mumbai before becoming a full-time writer. Her work has been translated into a number of languages, including Welsh, with translations forthcoming in a special volume by the Writers’ Chain poets to be published in 2013.

Sampurna is a poet, novelist, writer for children and translator with eight books to her credit, including poetry collections Sight May Strike You Blind (2007) and Absent Muses (2010), novel Rupture (2009). She has been included in The Bloodaxe Book of Contemporary Indian Poets (Bloodaxe, UK) and The HarperCollins Book of Modern English Poetry by Indians (forthcoming, HarperCollins). Her translation from Bengali of Sukumar Ray’s poetry and prose Abol Tabol: The Nonsense World of Sukumar Ray into English was reissued in 2008 as a Puffin Classic entitled Wordygurdyboom! She started translating into Bengali as a result of her participation in Literature Across Frontiers workshops in 2009 and 2010 and participated in the Writers’ Chain project organised by Wales Arts International and Wales Literature Exchange.