>Mitch Ames at 03:04, 10 July 2021

2021-07-10T03:04:36Z

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{{short description|British-Indian-Australian author (born 1964)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2018}}
{{Use Indian English|date=October 2018}}
{{Infobox person
|name = Bem Le Hunte
|image =
|caption =
|birth_date = {{birth year and age|1964}}
|birth_place = Calcutta, India
|death_date =
|death_place =
|other_names =
|known_for = ''The Seduction of Silence'' (2001)
|occupation = Author
|nationality = Indian
}}

'''Bem Le Hunte''' (born 1964) is a British-Indian-Australian author whose internationally published novels, ''The Seduction of Silence'' (2001) and ''There, Where the Pepper Grows'' (2006) have gained her numerous positive reviews and a wide, appreciative readership in the [[Eastern world|Eastern]] and the [[Western world]]. Her first novel was shortlisted for the 2001 [[Commonwealth Writers' Prize]].

==Life and career==

===Before 1989===
Bem Le Hunte was born in [[Kolkata]], the fourth child in a family with an Indian mother and English father. She grew up in India and England, receiving her education at [[Godolphin and Latymer School]] in [[Hammersmith]], [[West (London sub region)|West London]]. She then spent a year studying journalism before continuing on to [[Fitzwilliam College]], [[University of Cambridge|Cambridge]], from which she graduated with a BA in [[Social Anthropology]] and a doctorate in [[English Literature]].<ref>[http://fitz.cam.ac.uk/mi-client/media/import/documents/Optima_18_v12LR.pdf ''Three of a Kind'', Optima (p. 10-12)]{{dead link|date=October 2016 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> She subsequently traveled the world, living in Japan and the United States, where she spent time in [[Chicago]]. She then returned to India, living in [[Delhi]] and working on short films for the [[United Nations]] during the International Decade of Women's Development.

===Move to Australia in 1989 and start of writing career===
At the age of 25, she moved to Australia and, within a few weeks, was lecturing full-time in the Humanities Department of [[Sydney University]]. Her first novel, ''The Seduction of Silence'', published in 2001,<ref>{{Cite book|last=Le Hunte, Bem, 1964-|title=The seduction of silence|date=2004|publisher=HarperSanFrancisco|isbn=0-06-057368-6|edition=1st HarperCollins pbk.|location=[San Francisco]|oclc=57534752}}</ref> unfolds the story of an Indian family and the monumental changes it undergoes through love and loss over a period of a hundred years. The book's prose was described by [[Geraldine Brooks (writer)|Geraldine Brooks]] as "vivid and arresting" and by [[Thomas Keneally]] as "ample and fascinating". The book, published by [[HarperCollins]] in U.S. and Australia and by [[Penguin Group]] in India, achieved wide success and was shortlisted for the 2001 [[Commonwealth Writers' Prize]]. It was translated into [[Polish language|Polish]] under the title ''Kuszące Wołanie Ciszy'' and published by Kameleon.<ref>[http://www.allegro.pl/item640180247_bem_le_hunte_kuszace_wolanie_ciszy_kameleon.html ''Kuszące Wołanie Ciszy'', Polish edition of ''The Seduction of Silence'']{{dead link|date=October 2016 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> In 2006, her second novel, ''There, Where the Pepper Grows'', a tale about a Polish-[[Jewish]] family which disembarks in Kolkata while en route to [[Palestine (region)|Palestine]] during [[World War II]], was published internationally by HarperCollins.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Le Hunte, Bem, 1964-|title=There, where the pepper grows|date=2006|publisher=Harper Perennial|isbn=978-0-7322-7992-9|location=Pymble, N.S.W.|oclc=225333295}}</ref> Her third novel, ''Elephants with Headlights'', was published in March 2020.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Le Hunte, Bem, 1964-|title=Elephants with headlights|date=March 2020|isbn=978-1-925760-48-4|location=Melbourne|oclc=1131764308}}</ref>

Le Hunte currently lives in Sydney with her husband Jan and sons Taliesin, Rishi and Kashi, and works at the Centre for Journalism and Media at the [[University of New South Wales]].

She is currently pioneering the new Bachelor of Creative Intelligence and Innovation at UTS (University of Technology Sydney).

==References==
{{reflist}}

== External links ==
*[http://www.bemlehunte.com/bemlehunte/Home.html Personal website of Bem Le Hunte (includes photographs and biographical details)]

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Le Hunte, Bem}}
[[Category:1964 births]]
[[Category:21st-century Australian novelists]]
[[Category:Alumni of Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge]]
[[Category:Australian women novelists]]
[[Category:Date of birth missing (living people)]]
[[Category:Indian women novelists]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:People educated at Godolphin and Latymer School]]
[[Category:Writers from Kolkata]]
[[Category:People from Sydney]]
[[Category:University of New South Wales faculty]]
[[Category:University of Sydney faculty]]
[[Category:21st-century Indian women writers]]
[[Category:21st-century Indian writers]]
[[Category:21st-century Australian women writers]]

Bem Le Hunte - Revision history

>Mitch Ames at 03:04, 10 July 2021