I acknowledge the Traditional Owners and Custodians of the Darkinjung lands, waters, and seas, on which I work and live, paying respects to Elders, past, present and emerging.
Sharon Rundle and Meenakshi Bharat
Dr Sharon Rundle is a writer, editor, mentor, and academic who has taught at the University of Technology Sydney, Nottingham Trent University (UK), James Cook University in North Queensland and the University of Delhi (lndia). Her numerous contributions to the writing community span across a range of areas encouraging international understanding and discourse. She has been particularly active in building cultural and literary bridges between Australia and India over the past decade. She has organised writing workshops and presented at a variety of Indian institutions, introducing opportunities in Australia to Indian academics and promoting Australian literature in India.
Sharon has edited several published books of fiction and nonfiction, and co-edited five Indo-Australian anthologies of short fiction, with Forewords by HE, the Australian High Commissioner to India, Mr Barry O’Farrell AO, and Mr Amit Dasgupta AO. These include Relatively True, stories of Truth, Deception and Post Truth, Fear Factor: Terror Incognito, Alien Shores: Asylum Seekers and Refugees, Only Connect: Technology and Us, Glass Walls: Stories of Tolerance and Intolerance. She was Co-creator and co-editor of the online Agathokakological Aussie Summer Mosaic of Stories with Foreword by HE, the Australian High Commissioner to India, Mr Barry O’Farrell AO, and Introduction by the Consul General of India in Sydney Mr Manish Gupta. She was a script editor for the Australian Documentary Movie 2020 The Oneness. Her stories, essays, book reviews and articles have been published in a range of books, anthologies, journals and magazines, including: Confluence UK South Asian Perspectives; ‘Feminine Fluidity: New Horizon in the Fiction of Chandani Lokugé’ in Claiming Space: Australian Women Writers; ‘India is like Saffron’ in Transnational Literature; ‘Tackling the Topic of Terrorism’ in Southerly; ‘Kalpana Downunder’ in Indo-Australian Relations: Retrospective and Prospective; ‘Cherryulla‘ in Encounters Modern Australian Short Stories; ‘Room Six‘, recorded in London by the Commonwealth Broadcasting Association, published and broadcast around the Commonwealth, was awarded a Commonwealth (Regional Oceania) Short Story prize. She edited the UTS Writers’ Alumni magazine Writers Connect and the Society of Women Writers NSW magazine Women’s Ink.
Acknowledgements in fiction and non-fiction books and film include: A Lyrebird’s Cry by Samantha Sirimanne Hyde, One Bright Moon, Dr Andrew Kwong – winner of National Biography Award, for debut autobiography. The Oneness – An Australian Documentary movie. The House and Other Stories, Amit Dasgupta, India, 2017; The Permanent Resident, Roanna Gonsalves (UWAP, 2017) awarded the Prime Minister’s Multicultural Book Award. Dog and the long winter, translation by Shokufeh Kavani of a book by Shahrnush Parsipur. The Lantern of Imagination: Omar Khayyam, Ali Taghvai. film script, 2017; Troubled Testimonies: Terrorism and the English Novel in India, Dr Meenakshi Bharat, Routledge, 2016; Labels and Locations: Gender, Family, Class and Caste – The Short Narratives of South Asian Diaspora in Australia, Dr Amit Sarwal, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2015; 44: A Tale of Survival, Graham Rundle, The 5 Mile Press, 2014; Toxic Relationships, Avril Carruthers, Allen & Unwin. 2011; A Simpler Time, Peter FitzSimons, HarperCollins, 2010; Doing Life: A biography of Elizabeth Jolley, Dr Brian Dibble, University of West Australia Press (UWAP) 2008; The Longman Annotated Edition of George Eliot’s The Mill on the Floss, Dr Meenakshi Bharat, Longman, 2008; Iron Cradles, Carol Mara, Allen & Unwin, 1999.
Sharon is a professional registered member of The Institute of Professional Editors (IPEd) and Society of Editors (NSW); a University of Technology Sydney Friend of Distinction; Chair of UTS Alumni Writers’ Network; Founding member of Asia Pacific Writers & Translators; Life Member of the Indian Association for the Study of Australia; Fellow of the Fellowship of Australian Writers. Member of South Asian Diaspora Research International Network; South Asian-Australian Writers’ Network; Sydney Mechanics School of Arts, Australasian Association of Writing Programs, British Council Alumni, and Society of Women Writers NSW (former Editor for SWWNSW and regular judge for the SWWNSW Di Yerbury Residency). She has served on the Board of Directors of the NSW Writers’ Centre.
Sharon was awarded the University of Technology Sydney, Sydney Mechanics School of Arts Medal 2001 for Superior Achievement; and received the UTS Alumni Award for Excellence 2010. Sharon was the recipient of a University of Technology Sydney Australian Postgraduate Award (APA) 2012. Her Doctor of Creative Arts thesis (UTS) examined the local production of Australian-South Asian authors publishing novels in Australia. She was made a UTS Friend of Distinction 2022. She was a finalist in the 2022 IABCA Australia India Impact Award
Sharon acknowledges the support of the Australia-India Council which is part of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade; Copyright Agency Limited Cultural Fund and the University of Technology Sydney.
Writing Fellows | Fellowship of Australian Writers New South Wales (fawnsw.org.au)
Confluence February 2023 Issue – Confluence South Asian Perspectives
Confluence 20th Anniversary Special Issue December 2022 – Confluence South Asian Perspectives
May 2020 – Confluence South Asian Perspectives
February 2020 – Confluence South Asian Perspectives
ALIF Participants – Writing and Society Research Centre | Western Sydney University
Us And Them -The Heady Elixir Of Power – FemAsia Magazine
Transnation and Feminine Fluidity: New Horizon in the Fiction of Chandani Lokugé | SpringerLink
WritingElearning.com (helenwhitehead.com)
Dr Sharon Rundle | Asia Pacific Writers & Translators || APWT (apwriters.org)
Meenakshi Bharat is a published writer, translator, reviewer and cultural theorist, she is a Professor and Head of Department at the University of Delhi where she teaches Australian Literature. She was part of the syllabus committee at the Indira Gandhi National Open University for Australian Literature, drawing up lessons for distance learners, the connection with Australia has been constant, including speaking at various Universities in Cairns, Wollongong, Sydney and Melbourne.
Her wide and variegated writing, both creative and critical, is spurred by contemporary concerns. Her love of the short story form took her to co-editing four successful Indo-Australian Short Fiction anthologies, Fear Factor: Terror Incognito, Alien Shores: Asylum Seekers and Refugees, Only Connect: Technology and Us, Glass Walls: Stories of Tolerance and Intolerance, which have variously taken on the burning issues of terrorism, asylum seekers, technology and us and tolerance and intolerance. In line with her alertness to contemporary issues, her most recent critical writing include two monographs, Troubled Testimonies: Terrorism and the English Novel in India, and Shooting Terror: Terrorism and the Hindi Film, and an edited volume, Representing the Familiar and the Exotic. She also has a children’s book Little Elephant throws a Party. She has served the cause of literatures and languages as the President of the International Federation of Modern Languages and Literatures (FILLM, UNESCO).
http://www.routledge.com/products/9781138962576
by Meenakshi Bharat, Routledge.
President International Federation of Modern Languages and Literatures (FILLM, UNESCO) 2014-2017
Executive Member Indian Association for the Study of Australia (IASA) 2016 onwards. Treasurer, 2012-2016
Bureau Member International Council of Philosophy and the Human Sciences (CIPSH, UNESCO)
Life Member Association for British Scholars
Member Asia Pacific Writers and Translators
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Meenakshi-Bharat
http://Orient Blackswan Private
Book Shelf – Dr Sharon Rundle and Dr Meenakshi Bharat
Contact: sharon.p.rundle@gmail.com