Uma Parameswaran was born in Madras, India and was raised in Jabalpur. She completed her undergraduate studies at Jabalpur University, received an M.A. in English from Napgur Univeristy, an M.A. in Creative Writing from Indiana University and a Ph.D. in English from Michigan State University. Uma Parameswaran immigrated to Canada in 1966 and settled in Winnipeg, Manitoba where she continues to live. She is a retired professor of English at the University of Winnipeg and has a special interest in the area of South Asian Canadian literature. She has also written biographies of C.V. Raman, Nobel Prize winning scientist and his spouse, Lady Lokosundarai Raman, both published in India.
Fiction
A Cycle of the Moon: A Novel
Toronto: TSAR, 2010.
PS8581 .A688 C92 2010
Publisher’s Synopsis
Using a deceptively simple and intimate style, Parameswaran explores the subtleties of love, marriage, sex, and family life in a changing South Indian environment.
Fiction (Short stories)
Fighter Pilots Never Die
Winnipeg: Larkuma, 2007.
Fiction
Mangoes on the Maple Tree
Fredericton, N.B.: Broken Jaw Press, 2002.
PS8581 .A688 M36 2002
Publisher’s Synopsis
Set in Winnipeg against the 1997 “flood of the century”, this novel spans twenty days in the life of an Indo-Canadian family–the Bhaves and their cousins, the Moghes. … [In the novel], members of this extended family face their individual crises, and emerge with a better understanding of themselves as they take [sic] establish roots in Canada.
Fiction (Short stories)
Pinto Sees the Light: Stories
Winnipeg: Larkuma, 2013.
Fiction (Short stories)
Riding High With Krishna and a Baseball Bay & Other Stories
Bloomington, IN: iUniverse, 2006.
Fiction (Novella)
The Sweet Smell of Mother’s Milk-wet Bodice
Fredericton, N.B.: Broken Jaw Press, 2001.
PS8581 .A688 S94 2001
Synopsis
Inspired by real stories, the novella tells the tale of a sponsored wife of a landed immigrant, who soon experiences abuse followed by divorce with no spousal support from the husband that betrayed her.
Fiction (Short stories)
What Was Always Hers
Fredericton, N.B.: Broken Jaw Press, 1999.
PS8581 .A688 W42 1999
Publisher’s Synopsis
Enlightened, compassionate and humorous, these stories and a novella explore relationships, especially women-oriented relationships, and the experiences of Indo-Canadians
Awards and Honours
1999 New Muse Award (Winner)
2000 Canadian Authors’ Association Jubilee Award for short fiction (Winner)
Anthology
Reading Writers Reading: Canadian Authors’ Reflections
Parameswaran, Uma. “Shifting Gears.” In Reading Writers Reading: Canadian Authors’ Reflections. Danielle Schaub, photographer and ed. Edmonton: University of Alberta Press, 2006, 292-293.
Anthology (Short stories)
Write Across Canada: Mapping the Country in 19 Chapters
Warriar, Nalini. “Winnipeg.” In Write Across Canada, commissioned by the Ottawa International Writers Festival. Roberts Creek, BC: Nightwood Editions, 2004.
Drama
Rootless but Green are the Boulevard Trees
Toronto: TSAR, 1987.
PS8581 .A688 R66 1987
This three act play explores the interpersonal relations of members of the Indo-Canadian Hindu community living in Winnipeg, Manitoba.
Drama
Sons Must Die and Other Plays
New Delhi, India: Prestige, 1998.
PS8581 .A688 A19 1998
Publisher’s Synopsis
Sons Must Die and Other Plays reflects both the evolution of the Indo-Canadian community and the evolution of the writer. At one level, these plays deal with the demands and experiences of such universals as motherhood, bhakti, transplantation etc. while at the level of specifics, they delinieate the growth of theatre in the Indo-Canadian community.
Poetry (Chapbook)
Cyclic Hope, Cyclic Pain
Calcutta: Writers Workshop, 1974.
Selected Criticism and Interpretation
Blackburn, Di Gan. “Uma Parameswaran.” In Asian American Poets: A Bio-Bibliographical Critical Sourcebook, ed. Guiyou Huang, [267]-270. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 2002.
PS153 .A84 A826 2002
Diddi, Deepa. “Uma Parameswaran’s Preoccupation with Feminist Concerns in Mangoes on the Maple Tree.” In Canadian Studies Today: Responses from the Asia-Pacific, ed. by Stewart Gill, R.K. Dhawan, [170]-179. Delhi: Prestige, 2009.
FC155 .P36 2008
Kandiuk, Mary. “Uma Parameswaran.” In Caribbean and South Asian Writers in Canada: A Bibliography of Their Works and of English-language Criticism. Lanham: Scarecrow Press, 2007, 193-195.
PS8089.5 .C37 K36 2007
Meenakumari,V. “Being and Becoming: A Study of Uma Parameswaran’s Meera.” In (Ad)dressing the Words of ‘the Other’: Studies in Canadian Women’s Writing, ed. D. Parameswari. Chennai, India: Emerald Publishers, 2008, 139-147.
PS8089.5 .A33 2008
Links
Publisher Broken Jaw Press website
Uma Parameswaran personal page at the University of Winnipeg
Uma Parameswaran page by Sonja Maria Thomas at VG: Voices from the Gaps: Women Writers of Color