Writer Subrata Kumar Das helps bring Canadian literature to Bengali readers

By MATTHEW STEPHENS

What do Margaret Atwood, Alice Munro, Yann Martel, and Robertson Davies all have in common? For one, they’re just some of the most renowned names in Canadian literature. Second, their works have inspired local East York resident and author Subrata Kumar Das to craft his own novel highlighting Canadian literature for Bengali readers, which has now been published in the International Kolkata Book Fair in India.

“There are many Bengalis in India, but I was not associated with the Indian Bengali community. But this year, I have been able to publish the book from Kolkata,” said Das.

“I wanted to publish my book, and have it reach many people, many readers outside of Bangladesh, and this dream has been fulfilled.”

Titled Kanadian Sahityo (Canadian Literature in Bengali), this is Das’ second book focusing on popular Canadian literary figures . His previous 2019 Bengali book on Canadian literature amassed acclaim by Bengali readers living in Canada and Bangladesh. For Das, bringing Bengali attention to historic Canadian writers was an overarching goal behind his work.

“I started studying Canadian literature in 2014. In my country, and in many other countries, although we have studied English literature, Canadian writers were not very commonplace in our country. The students, the teachers, they are not very aware of the names of the great Canadian writers,” said Das. “I wanted to make it available to the Bengali writers living in Canada and in my homeland of Bangladesh. I also wanted to make them interested in Canadian literature.”

Das is a writer, curator, TV anchor and organizer who works as a member of the Writers’ Union of Canada and the Literary Translators’ Association of Canada. He is also the initiator of Bangladeshi Novels: the first website on Bengali literature published back in 2003. In his previous works, he has joined and led teams of Bengali writers in the International Festival of Authors (TIFA) in 2020, 2022 & 2023.

For Das, writing books on Canadian literature has been a project 10 years in the making. Since 2014, he has expressed a keen interest in Canadian literary compositions and would often purchase or borrow books written by famous Canadian authors from Toronto libraries.

“I started reading and learning the literature and going through the history of Canadian literature. As I studied all these things, I gradually developed a concrete idea about Canadian literature,” he said.

At his home apartment near Victoria Park and Danforth avenues, Das has collected more than 1,300 books. As much as he’s done his research to uncover the roots of Canada’s literary world, Das has also made it a priority to establish himself within that community and make connections with Canadian authors of this generation.

“What I have been able to do is become associated with many major Canadian writers like Anne Michaels, who was awarded a Giller Prize this year and served as Toronto’s Poet Laureate, as well as many other writers and poets of the Canadian writing circles. I’ve been able to become friends with them and work with them closely,” said Das.

“It was my personal initiative to learn about Canadian literature, but what was more important was to include many of the Bengali writers who are good with English – I wanted to get them interested in Canadian literature.”

For more information about Das and his latest book, go to https://www.writersunion.ca/member/subrata-das