Suman Shah

Suman Shah (Gujarati:સુમન શાહ) is a Gujarati language critic, short story writer, novelist, essayist, editor and translator from Gujarat, India. He won the Sahitya Akademi Award in 2008 for his short story collection Fatfatiyun. He has written both in the modern and in the postmodern eras in Gujarati literature. He has authored more than 74 books, including 2 novels, 6 short story collections, 4 collections of creative essays, 6 translations into Gujarati from English and Hindi, 22 books on literary criticism and around 23 edited works of literary theory and modern Gujarati short stories and poems. He was honorary editor of Shabdasrishti from 1983 to 1986 and an editor of Khevna, a literary journal, from 1987 to 2009. Shah was born on 1 November 1939 in Dabhoi, Vadodara district, Gujarat, to Govindlal and Kundanbahen. He took his primary education in Dabhoi Prathamik Shala. He finished his secondary education from Vibhag High School, Dabhoi in 1957. He joined M. S. University to obtain a Bachelor of Commerce, but left it for the Arts College in Dabhoi in 1959. He was graduated in 1962 with a major in Gujarati literature and a minor in Sanskrit. In 1964, he completed his Master of Arts in Gujarati and Sanskrit literature from M. S. University in Vadodara. Under the guidance of Mohanbhai Shankarbhai Patel, he obtained a PhD degree for his thesis Suresh Joshi: His Literature and its Impact upon Modern Gujarati Literature in 1978 from Gujarat Vidyapith.