NRI PULSE STAFF REPORT
Athens, GA, April 7, 2026: Penguin Random House’s Modern Library imprint has acquired World English rights to The Smell of Bamboo Blossoms, a short story collection by acclaimed Indian writer Yeshe Dorjee Thongchi. The book will be translated into English by Aruni Kashyap, director of the Creative Writing Program at the University of Georgia.
The deal was brokered by Lucy Cleland of Frances Goldin, with acquiring editor Leila Tejani at Modern Library, an imprint of Penguin Random House.
Thongchi, a leading literary voice from India’s northeastern state of Arunachal Pradesh, has long been regarded as one of the country’s most distinguished writers. Once described as “Assam’s Chinua Achebe” in Satsori magazine, his body of work—spanning novels, short stories, and essays—has been widely read across the Indian subcontinent and examined in numerous academic studies.
The Smell of Bamboo Blossoms was previously shortlisted for the Armory Square Prize for South Asian Literature in translation in 2022, signaling its growing international recognition.
Thongchi is the recipient of several major honors, including the Sahitya Akademi Award, the Kalaguru Bishnu Rabha Award from Asom Sahitya Sabha, and the Padma Shri, India’s fourth-highest civilian award. Notably, he is among a small group of writers from Arunachal Pradesh who continue to write in Assamese, an Indo-Aryan language, despite the region’s linguistic diversity.
His fiction is known for its vivid portrayal of indigenous tribal life in Arunachal Pradesh and its nuanced exploration of how these communities navigate the pressures of modernity.
Kashyap, who will translate the collection, described Thongchi as “a hidden gem whose work will be a staple of Global Literature,” adding that his writing offers global readers a fresh perspective on South Asia while challenging prevailing stereotypes.
Agent Lucy Cleland said the collection “will open the window to a culture never seen before in English fiction,” while Tejani went further, calling Thongchi “International Booker material.”
The forthcoming English translation is expected to introduce Thongchi’s work to a wider global readership, marking a significant milestone for literature from India’s Northeast.
