Story /poem / interview of the week

Two Questions with the Canadian Explorer, Nature Writer and Photographer Kate Harris

By Swapan K Banerjee

Of all the wild places you visited, which one, according to you, was the most interesting?

The most amazing experience, I’d say, would be Antarctica, for sure. It’s so inhospitable. You feel your own pulse, because there’s that quiet space and harshness in everything there. You feel your life much more acutely. But the scariest experience was the mountain expedition in Ladakh. Every step in the climb there was vulnerable to falling from the rock, the ice. We got to a mountain called Pinnacle Peak in Nun-Kun massif near Kargil. It was the first all-women expedition there. There were just three of us on our own.

About Swapan K Banerjee

Swapan K Banerjee is a freelance writer specialising in literary features. Banerjee realised his calling as a writer when the author Ruskin Bond sent his articles and poems to Boston University’s Special Collection Library. His literary write-ups have been featured in several anthologies. Swapan K Banerjee is known for his books Rusty & I: Up-close with Ruskin Bond (RUPA) & People Who Meet People: Interviews with the Stars (Tranquebar).

Travel writers Hugh & Colleen Gantzer

You got us to open doors which we thought had been rusted shut many years ago.

Hugh Gantzer

Relationships matter for me more than poetry that brought you over to Cuttack. Am grateful for your inherent goodness. That is perhaps why you see the 'good' in others.

Jayanta Mahapatra
Poet Jayanta Mahapatra
Author David Davidar

I've seen a copy of your interview, which I think is excellent.

David Davidar

Thank you for your kind email and the lovely poem (published in Poetry Society of India). Always follow your dreams and fight for them with faith.

Paulo Coelho
Author Paulo Coelho
Author Bill Aitken

Your articles as always make for interesting reading. Wish you continued success with your lively interviews. You have the knack of elicitating the deeper layer of a writer’s urges. You remain a fond memory to us all.

Bill Aitken from Mussoorie

Thank you for your nice words!

Acclaim from Nobel Laureate Mme Wislawa Szymborska (1996)
Mme Wislawa Szymborska
Author Ruskin Bond with Swapan K Banerjee at Ivy Cottage

Swapan K Banerjee is a Boswell of sorts - a Boswell not just to one writer, such as a Dr. Johnson, but to many men of letters, musicians and others.

Ruskin Bond

You have a keen eye and a voyager's heart. I like your work. You are so attentive. All power to your pen.

I Allan Sealy
Author I Allan Sealy with Swapan K Banerjee
Swapan K Banerjee at First Mussoorie Writers Festival

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