1.Your journey as Sahitya Akademi Yuva Award winner author.

Well, the journey was from New Delhi, where the award ceremony was held, back to Pakur, where I work and live, and that's it➖my life is the same as before. 

2. Tell us about your upcoming book : "A Memorial".

For now, I can only share the cover copy of "A Memorial" from the catalog of Speaking Tiger. Here it is:
"In his new novel Hansda Sowvendra Shekhar spans three generations of a single family to recount the lives of a Santhal father and son bitterly divided by personal animosity and political differences. With these twinned narratives, he brings to vivid life the creation myths of a people, their history, and the politics which shaped their collective destinies and the land they live in."
Apart from this, I can only say that "A Memorial" was quite a difficult novel to write, and editing it is an even bigger pain. I just hope Anurag (Anurag Basnet, my editor at Speaking Tiger and my friend for "The Mysterious Ailment Of Rupi Baskey", "The Adivasi Will Not Dance", and more books to come) and I are able to put the book together for a mid-2017 deadline.

3. Would you like to throw some light on your other two books : "The Mysterious Ailment Of Rupi Baskey" and "The Adivasi Will Not Dance"?

A: Well, not much light, I am afraid. "The Mysterious Ailment Of Rupi Baskey" is a novel, and it is a story that I had wanted to tell for a long time, and it is a very special book because it is my first published book. "The Adivasi Will Not Dance" is a collection of ten short stories, and although at least two stories in this collection are more than a decade old, I would call "The Adivasi Will Not Dance" a more mature work than "The Mysterious Ailment Of Rupi Baskey" because I have not tried to hold myself back in the stories in this collection, plus, the stories in "The Adivasi Will Not Dance" span a number of themes and are almost like reportage/non-fiction/observations told in the garb of fiction.

4. How do you see Jharkhand for the promotion of literature and culture?

Ummm... I never gave this issue much thought. But when I think of promoting something in Jharkhand, this is what I think. I am sorry if I sound rude. So many things - industries, projects, experiments, sports, handicrafts, tourism, whatnot - are being promoted in Jharkhand. Could we, for a change, not promote anything more in Jharkhand? Could we just let Jharkhand be? Could we just leave Jharkhand as it is without seeing ourselves as well-wishers of Jharkhand and thinking up of any more elaborate and "benevolent" plans for Jharkhand? Could we please let Jharkhand breathe?

5. Would you like to convey a message to budding authors?

Be honest, be patient, don't be pushy, but do keep your eyes and ears open. And read. You cannot write without knowing what writing is like, and that you will know only if you read. Also, reading, I think, makes you humble because more you read, more you come to know how many wonderful books and stories have been written or are being written worldwide and that makes you feel that you need to write better to catch up with all the wonderful writing that has been produced or is being produced.