Uma Parameswaran

Uma Parameswaran was born and raised in India and currently lives in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Uma received a Master of Arts degree and Diploma in Journalism from Nagpur University, a Master of Arts degree in Creative Writing from Indiana University and a Ph.D. from Michigan State University. She started as a newspaper reporter in India and joined the faculty of the University of Winnipeg upon arrival in Winnipeg. She has written plays that were produced in Winnipeg and published in Toronto and India. She has written or edited ten scholarly books in post colonial literature and women focused research. Her poems have appeared in various journals and having been at the University of Winnipeg for three decades, she has published a great many articles and essays over the years. She has also been active in The Writers Union of Canada, serving on the National Council in various capacities throughout the 1990s, a past president of The Manitoba Writers' Guild and a board member on various women's organizations. As founder of the Performing Arts and Literature of India (PALI), she has been involved in organizing instruction in the classical dances of India in Winnipeg (the first to do so in 1978) and producing a weekly show (1978-1990) on India and Indians in Canada on community television.
Awards
Winner, What was Always Hers, Jubilee Award, 2000. Winner, What was Always Hers, New Muse Award, 1999. Winner, Caribe Playwriting Competition, 1980. Winner, The Door I Shut Behind Me, Lady Eaton Award, 1967.
Bibliography of published books
Mangoes on the Maple Tree. Set in Winnipeg against the flood of 1997, the novel spans twenty days in the life of an Indo-Canadian family. Broken Jaw Press;1-896647-79-0; 2002; Fiction.
Sisters at the Well. Opens with the Kanishka Cycle of poems for the 15th anniversary of the crash of Air India flight 182, and contains new poems in addition to previously published ones. Indialog Publications. 81-87981-14-8; 2002. Poetry.
The Sweet Smell of Mother's Milk-Wet Bodice. Broken Jaw Press; 1-896647-72-3; 2001. Fiction.
What was Always Hers. Two novellas and three short stories; half of them are humorous and the others are intense stories of women's relationships. Broken Jaw Press; 1-896647-12-X; 1999. Short Stories.
Sons Must Die and Other Plays. Several dance dramas (written for Indo-Canadian stage productions) and one full length play. The title play is set against the Indo-Pakistani
war of 1947-48. Prestige Books; 81-7551-020-X; 1998. Drama.
Trishanku and Other Writings. There are about eighty poems, in about fifteen voices, which together delineate the Indo-Canadian experience of the 1970s. Prestige; 81-7551-019-6; 1998. Poetry and Short Stories.
Trishanku. TSAR Books; 0-920661-04-1; 1998. Poetry.
The Door I Shut Behind Me. The title story is a short story set in Winnipeg in the late 1960s. East-West Books; 81-85336-35-0; 1990. Poetry.
Rootless but Green are the Boulevard Trees. A play set in Winnipeg where the protagonist is a whole family, reinforcing the concept of family in Indo-Canadian culture. TSAR Books; 1987; Drama.