Temsüla Ao (25 October 1945 – 9 October 2022) was an Indian poet, fiction writer, and ethnographer. She was a professor of English at North Eastern Hill University (NEHU) from where she retired in 2010. She served as the director of the North East Zone Cultural Centre between 1992 and 1997 on deputation from NEHU. She was awarded the Padma Shri award for her contribution to literature and education. Her book Laburnum For My Head received the Sahitya Akademi Award for English writing in the short story category."Poets dominate Sahitya Akademi Awards 2013" . Sahitya Akademi. 18 December 2013. Retrieved 18 December 2013. Her works have been translated into Assamese, Bengali, French, German, Hindi, and Kannada.

Early life and education On 25 October 1945, Temsüla was born to Imnamütongba Changkiri and Nokintemla Longkumer in Jorhat. She had five siblings. When her youngest brother was only beginning to crawl, her parents died within nine months of each other. Thereafter, her youngest two siblings were taken to their ancestral village Changki village in Mokokchung district to live with their father's younger brother. The four eldest siblings–Khari, Tajen, Temsüla, and Along–stayed at Jorhat under the guardianship of Khari who was temporarily employed in Jorhat Mission Hospital. Soon, the youngest among the four, Along, was also taken to Changki. When Tajen got appointed as an assistant teacher in the village primary school, she took on the responsibilities of the younger siblings at Changki. Ao summarises her difficult childhood and adolescence in her memoir Once upon a Life as 'fractured childhood.' Her ancestral family were involved in the early settlement of Changki village and her visits and affinity to the village helped her "reaffirm the sensibilities that have given me my intrinsic identity."

She studied in Golaghat Girls' Mission for six years as a boarder. She studied in Assamese-medium there until class 6. For her matriculation exam later, she even wrote two papers in the Assamese language. She spoke the language fluently. She completed her matriculation from Ridgeway Girls' High School in Golaghat. She received her B.A. with distinction from Fazl Ali College, Mokokchung, Nagaland, and M.A. in English from Gauhati University, Assam. From English and Foreign Languages University, Hyderabad, she received her Post Graduate Diploma in the Teaching of English and PhD from NEHU.

Teaching Ao began teaching English in NEHU as a lecturer from December 1975. She completed her PhD in May 1983 under the guidance of Dr. D. P. Singh. Titled The Heroines of Henry James, her thesis examined female protagonists in James' stories who emerge victorious in their sophisticated and civilised society. For this, Ao analysed the following works of Henry James: The Madonna of the Future, Daisy Miller, Madame de Mauves, Washington Square, The Portrait of a Lady, The Wings of the Dove, and The Golden Bowl.

From 1992 to 1997 she served as Director, North East Zone Cultural Centre, Dimapur on Deputation from NEHU, and was a Fulbright Fellow at the University of Minnesota 1985–86. In 2010, Ao retired as a professor and dean of the English Department at NEHU.

Ao received the Padma Shri Award in 2007. She is the recipient of the Governor's Gold Medal 2009 from the government of Meghalaya. She was widely respected as one of the major literary voices in English to emerge from Northeast India along with Mitra Phukan and Mamang Dai. Her works have been translated into German, French, Assamese, Bengali and Hindi.

Writings Ao conceded to Paulo Coelho's reflection in The Zahir that writing can be a lonely endeavour. However, "there are also times when words are flowing and seem to offer themselves happily to articulate one's thought." The resulting mood of exhilaration and joy, Ao suggests, lends a strange feeling of not being alone. It provides a sense of completeness similar to a fellowship felt in the company of equally happy people. Ao stated that she wrote for such rare moments of "completeness." This inner urge compels her to write along with her need "to probe, to question, and also to acknowledge that I exist in the one-ness with my fellow human beings." Reflecting on writings from Northeast India, Ao explained,It is about the life we know, and want to share with our fellow citizens who have somehow always looked at us through the prism of 'otherness' and suspicion. Accepting the difference can also mean transcending the 'local' to discover the 'universal.' In that sense, these writings deserve more than the cursory perusals as 'categories' that they are subjected to at the moment.She resisted clubbing of the Northeast as a composite identity. She called the North-eastern identity as a misnomer "because the region is home to a multitude of people with diverse languages, cultures, costumes." Using the term, "defaces the real identity" of the communities and people living in the region. Therefore, the term has relevance only as a geographical and geo-political indicator. In the same interview, she noted that Nagaland's Hornbill Festival is only the commercial face of Naga identity and not Naga identity itself. Journalist Patricia Mukhim reaffirmed Ao's conviction, "[She] was quietly confident about her purpose in life which is to rectify the lenses through which her people, the Nagas, were viewed by the rest of the world."

Poetry She has published seven poetic works. Songs that Tell (1988), Songs that Try to Say (1992), Songs of Many Moods (1995), Songs from Here and There (2003), Songs From The Other Life (2007). Book of Songs: Collected Poems 1988-2007 (2013). Songs along the Way Home (2019).

Her first two poetry collections were published from Writers Workshop, Kolkata. The third, fourth, and fifth poetry collections were published by Kohima Sahitya Sabha, North Eastern Hill University and Grasswork Books respectively. The last two were published by Heritage Publishing House, Dimapur.

Journalist Aheli Moitra describes the 50-poem collection Songs along the Way Home as "a deep philosophical exploration of life–personal, social, political–as it has passed her [Ao] by. The poems are heavy, laden with layers of lament, written with the skill of a songbird singing its favourite dusk song." Moitra points that Ao is candid in her poems, registering life and wisdom, and never shy of showing emotions necessary.

Ethnography When she was in the University of Minnesota as a Fulbright fellow, she came in contact with the Native Americans. She learned about their culture, heritage and especially their oral tradition. This exposure inspired her to record the oral tradition of her own community, Ao Naga. After returning from the University of Minnesota, she worked on the oral tradition for about twelve years. She collected the myths, folktales, folklore, rituals, law, custom, belief system. This ethnographic work was published in 1999 as the Ao-Naga oral tradition from Bhasha Publications, Baroda. This book is the most authentic document about the Ao-Naga community.

Short story Temsüla Ao has published three short story collections. These Hills Called Home: Stories from the War Zone, Zubaan (2005), Laburnum for my Head, Penguin India (2009) and The Tombstone in my Garden: Stories from Nagaland, Speaking Tiger Books (2022).

These Hills Called Home consists of ten short stories and deals with insurgency in Nagaland fired by right to self-determination of the Naga people.

Speaking Tiger published her last book of short stories The Tombstone in my Garden: Stories from Nagaland in early 2022. The book blurb on the back cover describes the collection of five stories as holding 'a mirror to the lives of everyday people beyond the headlines.'

On 9 April 2022, Nagaland Director General of Police, T John Longkumer, released the book in Dimapur.

Pradip Phanjoubam found the book peculiarly 'dark' compared to her debut collection These Hills Called Home. He summarises the book as 'a subconscious sketch of the Naga nostalgia for a traditional world being left behind.' Author Rupa Gulab summarises the central thread of the five stories as, "we are brutally reminded of a universal truth: Love hurts, and death is a release." Advising against presuming that the small book is cosy bedtime book, she points that the stories are 'disconcerting' with endings of each often open pushing the readers to keep guessing.

Literary criticism She published a book of literary criticism Henry James' Quest for an Ideal Heroine. It was published in 1989 from Writers Workshop.

Online works Essay: When in doubt

Books Laburnum for My Head (Penguin, 2009) These Hills Called Home: Stories From A War Zone (Penguin, 2005 / Zubaan, 2013) Ao-Naga Oral Tradition (2000)

Memoir

Once Upon a Life: Burnt Curry And Bloody Rags (2014)

Nagaland State Commission for Women In January 2013, she was appointed as the Chairperson of the Nagaland State Commission for Women. As the chairperson, Ao was very vocal for women's rights in the state often challenging traditional status quo and legal stalemate.

Naga Customary Law