With a bang, Jayanthi Sankar the author of ‘Misplaced Heads’ began sharing with Literature Times, “Unlike writing non-fiction or personal essays, writing fiction can expand the scope endlessly for creativity because I live hundreds of lives through writing and thousands of lives through reading. That is where my storytelling brings in a better scope to create a memorable reading experience. With equal participation, my reader perceives the world with the same awareness I have created it, with all unpredictables. Lack of that awareness might perhaps prevent any reader from even entering the world.”
‘Misplaced Heads’ was on the Eyelands Book Awards 2020 final list of historical fiction in Greece. It made its mark as an outstanding postmodern historical fiction.
Jayanthi Sankar has been published in zines including the indianruminations, museindia, The Wagon, inOpinion, and her short stories have been included in various anthologies. A few of her poems have been published recently in anthologies and ezines.
With the manuscript of her third book, the second novel undergoing the publishing process, the title, and the book cover reveal planned for next month, Jayanthi Sankar has already resumed her initial work for the next socio-psychological fiction. Her upcoming novel is historical fiction, Singapore-centric. She is also planning to experiment with magical realism in the future.
Grew up in various states of India, she lives in Singapore since 1990. Creatively active since then, she has been a freelance editor and translator for more than a decade and a half, with three years of experience in journalism.
Jayanthi Sankar continued to say, “I’ve always loved the feel of avoiding any common artificial hooks to pull my readers in or to hold them with a grip of some predictable formulae or some flowery language. Even if I have to throw away some of my ideas to restructure them later on, I like to go towards the unconventional ways of storytelling, for I strive towards originality and freshness in my fiction.” She believes staunchly that a novel should never be ‘I give, you consume.’
Her critically acclaimed short stories collection – Dangling Gandhi, was the winner out of the seven finalists in the fiction category: short story in 2020 International Book Award American book fest. Literary Titan award is another international award it was bestowed with apart from several nominations. She has been in the panels of literary festivals including (Asia Pacific Writers & Translators) APWT 2018 at Gold Coast, Singapore Writers Festival, Seemanchal International Literary Festival, and ASEAN- India Pravasi Bharatiya Divas Writers Festival.
When Jayanthi Sankar is not reading, writing, or editing, you can find her exploring nature reserves or playing with her brushes. She is a self-taught hobby artist. Although she’s tried some acrylics and yet to try oils, she’s derived immense joy from her forte of abstract themes with watercolour. A lover of nature, huge aged trees, she is also compiling her Memoir. She attributes all her growth and progress to her reading that the National Library Board of Singapore generously feeds. “I live more in my own fictional world than the real world,” she concluded with a laugh, “I am more lively there.”
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