Meghna Pant


Meghna Pant is an Indian author, journalist and speaker. She has won awards for her contribution to literature, gender issues and journalism, including the Frank O’Connor International Award and the Commonwealth Short Story Prize.

Biography

Born in Shimla, Pant is the sister of stand-up comedian Sorabh Pant.

Career

One & a Half Wife – her debut novel – won the national Muse India Young Writer Award and was shortlisted for several other awards, including the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award.
Pant's debut collection of short stories Happy Birthday was long-listed for the Frank O'Connor International Award.
Her second short story collection The Trouble Book with Women is considered by one commentator to be a landmark in feminist writing and was described as 'the best book from Juggernaut' by The Hindu Business Line.
Pant published her first non-fiction book Feminist Rani that features interviews with Kalki Koechlin, Gurmehar Kaur, Tanmay Bhat, Gul Panag and Aditi Mittal, among others. Her second non-fiction book How To Get Published In India is India's first and only guide to publishing in India. It was reviewed favourably by major publications like the Times of India, Hindu, Free Press Journal, Indian Express and Mumbai Mirror. Pant has a forthcoming book: THE HOLY 100.
Pant's short stories have been published in Avatar Review, Wasafari, Eclectica, and QLRS., as well as in several anthologies including Namita Gokhale's The Himalayan Arc, where her story Boongthing was critically praised by many publications like The Hindu and Hindustan Times.

Feminism

Among India’s five gutsy women making powerful personal statements - The Hindustan Times
25 witty, sharp and fearless women to follow on Twitter - SheThePeople
An honest, intelligent, insightful and downright feminist - GirlHQ
Pant curates a monthly panel discussion in Mumbai called 'Feminist Rani' and anchors various women-centric shows for the news portal FirstPost.
Pant has been a speaker and moderator at events where she interviews women who have reportedly broken glass ceilings in various walks of life. She has ostensibly taken a strong feminist stance in her writing.
Pant has written on issues including consent, rape, domestic violence, miscarriage, surrogacy, body-shaming and public safety for women for various prominent publications. A physical abuse survivor, she has spoken at several platforms, including TEDx, on her personal experience, urging women to speak out against domestic violence. She is credited for having popularised the phrase “Stop The Silence. Stop The Violence.”
Pant chaired India's first #MeToo summit in 2018.

Journalist

Pant has previously worked as a business news anchor with Times Now, NDTV and Bloomberg-UTV in Mumbai and New York. She was reporting from the New York Stock Exchange during the 2008 financial crisis.
Her articles have been published in all major publications, including The Hindustan Times and The Huffington Post.
In 2020, Pant became a podcaster with a show about personal finance called SHOW ME THE MONEY, for Amazon's Audible.

Speaker

Pant has spoken at literary festivals and conferences, including the Jaipur Literature Festival, Tata Literature Live!, Kala Ghoda Literature Festival, Pune International Literary Festival, Young Makers Conclave, #RiseWithTwitter, The UN Feminist Conference, as well as TEDx.
In 2019, Pant appeared as an expert on the show Kaun Banega Crorepati with Amitabh Bachchan.

Awards and Achievements

Pant abridged the world’s longest epic, The Mahabharata, into one hundred tweets that The Guardian called "wonderfully descriptive and paced".