Easterine Kire Profile

It’s better to say ‘I forgot, rather than make up an excuse...The Book of Mouse says , be ye kind to each other..(from my book, The Matthew Mouse Book of Quotes) Easterine Kire

Profile

The lines above, reflect what the author wants to convey, through her children’s books.

Easterine feels it is important to let children know the importance of being kind to others and of being honest when they have made mistakes. The other reason she writes is because children’s literature allows her to be playful and give free rein to her imagination.

A poet, short story writer and novelist from Nagaland, Easterine has the distinction of being the first Naga writer whose novel, A Naga Village Remembered’ (2003), is the first English novel in her state. It is now a Speaking Tiger imprint entitled ‘Sky is my Father’. Her second novel ’A Terrible Matriarchy’, (Zubaan 2007), has been translated into Norwegian, German and Marathi. Apart from focussing on the vibrant Naga culture, Kire’s work has also brought out the realities which have changed the lives of Naga women.

In 2011, she was awarded the Governor’s medal for excellence in Naga literature. Two years later, in 2013, Kire was awarded the ‘Free Word” by Catalan PEN, Barcelona. Her book ‘When the River Sleeps’ won the Hindu Literature Prize in 2015. For her book’ Son of the Thundrcloud,’ Kire won the Tata Book of the Year Award as well as the Bal Sahitya Puraskar (2018).Interestingly, her first children’s book, ‘The Lion in the Refrigerator’ was in Norwegian. She has since written four more books for children. Kire holds a doctoral degree from Pune University.