Mercy Margaret

Mercy Margaret
Born	Mercy Margaret Boda (1983-08-23) 23 August 1983 (age 41) Hyderabad (Undivided Andhra Pradesh)
Occupation	Lecturer
Language	Telugu
Education	B.Com. (Osmania), M.Com. (Osmania), M.B.A. (Osmania)
Alma mater	Sardar Patel College, Secunderabad, Dr. B. R. Ambedkar Institute of Management and Technology, Hyderabad
Genre	Dalit literature
Subject	Poetry, Short stories
Literary movement	Humanist
Notable works	Matala Madugu (2015) Kaalam Valiipotunna Vaipu (2019) Dear Zindagi (2022) Uchchala Jaladhi Taranga (2024)
Notable awards	Chamspandana Sahithya Award (2016) Penna Sahithya Award (2016) Sahitya Akademi Yuva Puraskar (2017)

Mercy Margaret is a poet, short story writer and a social worker from Hyderabad, India. She came to light as a poet through her poems published on Facebook and became famous after receiving the Kendra Sahitya Akademi Yuva Puraskar Award ^[1] for her first Telugu poetry book "Matala Madugu" in 2017.

Personal life

Her grandfather fought against Razakars and later joined Indian Military. Her father worked as a duftery in Andhra Bank. Mercy was born, brought up and studied M.Com., M.B.A., in Hyderabad. She grew in Ranga Nagar, Bholakpur, a slum area in Hyderabad. She had Telugu as a medium of instruction in her school. Started writing poetry at Second Intermediate, though she is not clear of what she wrote. Throughout her education, she earned District and State level prizes in debate and essay writing. She won Second Prize in the essay competition conducted by Visalandhra Publications at state level, while she was undergoing Second year of Degree course. She was awarded books worth ₹.3000/-. Viswambhara and Mahaprasthanam written by C. Narayana Reddy and Sri Sri respectively, were among the prize books, which further kindled her interest in poetry. Her poetry was published in several magazines such as Andhrajyothy, Andhra Prabha, Sakshi, Kavita, Sahiti Prasthanam and in Souvenirs like NATA, ATA. Poetry compilations like Kavita -2013, Kavisangamam etc. published her poems. Many online magazines also published her poetry. In 2018, she participated as an independent MLA candidate from Musheerabad constituency for Telangana elections.

Career

Professional Experience: Worked in Citi Bank as process associate from January to August in 2007 after which she has worked as an Assistant professor at Sri Indu College of Engineering and Technology from 2010 July to 2012 May. She later joined as an Assistant professor in Holy Mary Business Management College at Keesara from July 2012 to May 2014 and worked as an Assistant professor at Bharat PG college for Women from August 2015 to November 2018.

Drama writings

• Asamarthudu ^[2]
• Thripura Shapatham ^[3]

Mercy Margaret's Asamarthudu Book Launch

Awards and achievements

She won the first prize in the state level poetry competition conducted by Andhra Pradesh AIDS Control Society. She also won the monthly award for poetry from Sahiti Prasthanam. Received Penna Sahitya Puraskar in the year 2015. ^[4] She was awarded "Kendra Sahitya Akademi Yuva Puraskar" in 2017 ^[5] for her Poetry anthology Maatala Madugu "మాటల మడుగు". ^[6]

Bibliography

Poetry - Compilation of Poems Matala Madugu మాటల మడుగు (2015) Kalam Valipotunna vaipu కాలం వాలిపోతున్న వైపు (2019) Dear Zindagi డియర్ జిందగీ (2022)

(2022)

Short stories

Sunnaalu సున్నాలు Published in Kotta Katha 2017
Mattayi 5:11 మత్తయి 5:11 Published in Kotta Katha 2019
" చీకటిదే మతం " "What religion is Darkness" Published in Saranga web magazine"
సహజ "Natural" This story won the Best Story award, in the category of New Story writers from Vanguri foundation of USA.

References

1. "Mercy Margaret Boda".
2. "Higher footfall, more plays: Theatre is picking up in Hyderabad after COVID-19 gap". The News Minute. 21 October 2021. Retrieved 26 December 2021.
3. "Clipping of Vaartha Telugu daily - Hyderabad City". epaper.vaartha.com. Retrieved 24 March 2022.
4. "Hyderabad Literary Festival 2019: Ninth edition to feature Shabana Azmi, Shashi Deshpande, Sahitya Academy winners from Telangana". Firstpost. 20 January 2019. Retrieved 16 March 2020.
5. Nadadhur, Srivathsan (26 June 2017). "I feel suffocated, can't sleep when I don't write, says Mercy Margaret". The Hindu. ISSN   0971-751X . Retrieved 16 March 2020.
6. "Writing for kids & poetry earn Sahitya Akademi honours for duo from Telangana - Times of India". The Times of India. Retrieved 16 March 2020.