Yashodhara Ray Chaudhuri

Yashodhara Ray Chaudhuri (born 1965) is a poet residing in Kolkata, West Bengal, India. She produced collections of Bengali poetry. She was awarded the Krittibas Puroskar in 1998 by the Krittibas Patrika.

Her first published work was Panyasamhita (Psalms on Commodities) (1996, Kabita Pakshik). This was followed by Pisachinikabya (The She–Demonic Verses) (1998, Kabita Pakshik). She won the “Krittibas Puraskar” literary award in 1998. It is a book of love poems centering on alienation, distorted relationships and loneliness.

Chaudhuri authored two works in 1999, Chirantan Galpomala (Timeless Tales) and Radio-Bitan (The Radio Garden).

Abar Prothom theke Poro (Read Anew from A) (2001 Ananda Publishers) featured themes of the creation of life—especially childbirth—as well as childhood and society. Meyeder Projatantra ( The Republic of Women) (2005, Saptarshi Prakashan) brought the poet the Anita-Sunil Basu Smriti Puroskar of Paschimbanga Bangla Akademi of 2006. Themes include relationships between women. She wrote in the voice of the womb, which compares itself to the womb of the grandmother and the mother. Another section, “Dharabahik Uponyas” ( Serialized Novelette), tells about the ongoing journey of communication between women, across time, space and generations.

She published one collection of stories, "Meyeder Kichhu Ekta Hoyechhe", (2007, Deep Prokashan) include ten stories written between 1989 and 2006.

A collection of poetry, Kurukshetra, On-Line (2008, Saptarshi Prakashan), was seen by reviewers as a departure from her usual style, as the book relates to the recent killings and political unrest in Bengal, especially the Nandigram carnage. Recent publications include 'Chhaya-Shoririni'(2009, Pratibhas), a collection of three novellas. It deals with characters bordering on virtual reality, whose professional and personal life is submerged in a plethora of complex identities created by social networking sites, reality TV and news shows.

Yashodhara also is a translator from original French language. She has translated Leonardo Da Vinci by Serge Bremley in 2008.

Yashodhara studied philosophy at Presidency College, Kolkata, then affiliated with the University of Calcutta, from 1984 to 1989.