Urban Voice 4: New Indian Writing
CONTRIBUTING WRITERS
Priti Aisola has written a novel, See Paris for Me (Penguin, 2009). She is also a poet and has written a travelogue about her journeys to different temple towns in South India. She lives in Hyderabad. Contact pritiaisola@hotmail.com
Advertising consultant by profession, Anjana Basu writes short stories and poems. Her novel Curses in Ivory (HarperCollins) was awarded the Hawthornden Fellowship in 2004. Her second and third novels are Black Tongue and Chinku and the Wolfboy (both Roli). She also works with filmmaker Rituparno Ghosh from time to time. Contact: anjanaorama@gmail.com
Kankana Basu is a Bombay-based writer whose published works of fiction include Vinegar Sunday, a collection of short stories, and Cappuccino Dusk, a novel Long Listed for the 2007 Man Asian Literary Prize. She illustrates children’s fiction and assists in translating the works of her grandfather, the late Bengali author Saradindu Bandopadhyay. Contact: kankanabasu@hotmail.com
Priya Sarukkai Chabria is a poet, writer and translator. Her publications include the novels Generation 14 (Penguin) and The Other Garden (Rupa) and the poetry collections Not Springtime Yet (HarperCollins) and Dialogue and Other Poems (Sahitya Akademi). She is currently translating the poems of eighty century Tamil mystic, Aandaal, and working on a collection of short fiction. She lives in Pune and is at www.priyawriting.com
Malini Chib holds two masters degrees, one in women’s studies and the second one in information management. She is the Co-Chairperson of Adapt Rights Group that fights for the rights of people with disabilities, and works as Senior Events Manager, Oxford Bookshop, Bombay. Her book One Little Finger was recently published by Sage. Contact: mchib66@gmail.com
Gouri Dange is a columnist and family counselor, and the author of two novels: 3 Zakia Mansion and The Counsel of Strangers. She lives in Pune. Contact: gouri.dange@gmail.com
Tishani Doshi is the author of two books — Countries of the Body, which won the Forward Poetry Prize for Best First Collection in 2006, and more recently, The Pleasure Seekers, a novel, which has been translated into several languages. Since 2001 she has worked as a contemporary dancer with the Chandralekha Group in Madras. Contact: tishani@gmail.com
Divya Dubey is an author and the publisher of Gyaana Books, New Delhi. Contact: divya@gyaanabooks.com
Ramachandra Guha is a celebrated Indian historian. He was named as one of the 100 most influential intellectuals in the world. His latest book, Makers of Modern India, has garnered worldwide acclaim. He is based in Bangalore. Contact: ramguha@vsnl.com
Manu Joseph’s first novel, Serious Men, is the winner of The Hindu Best Fiction Award. It is one of Huffington Post’s 10 Best Books of 2010, and has been shortlisted for the Man Asian Literary Prize 2010. He is the editor of Open and now lives in New Delhi. Contact: josephmanu@gmail.com
Parsa Venkateshwar Rao Jr is a New Delhi-based journalist working as senior assistant editor with the DNA. His book, Mullah Omar and Robespierre: The Politics of Ideas (Rupa), a collection of his columns, was published in 2005. Contact: parsa69@hotmail.com
Meena Kandasamy is a poet, writer, activist and translator. Her work maintains a focus on caste annihilation, linguistic identity and feminism. She has published two collections of poetry, Touch (2006) and Ms Militancy (2010). She lives in Madras. Contact: meena84@gmail.com
Acclaimed novelist, poet and critic, Tabish Khair’s latest novel, The Thing About Thugs, has been short-listed for the Hindu Best Fiction Prize and the Man Asian Literary Prize. He lives and works in Aarhus, Denmark. Homepage: www.tabishkhair.co.uk
Sashi Kumar is a journalist, broadcaster and filmmaker. He is Chairman, Media Development Foundation and the Asian College of Journalism (asianmedia.org), Madras. He founded the Malayalam satellite and cable channel, Asianet. His feature film, Kaya Taran, was showcased in festivals in India and abroad. Contact: sashi.acj@gmail.com
T Padmanabhan is an acclaimed Malayalam short story writer. His stories have been translated in almost every Indian language and into the Russian, French and the English. He received the prestigious Vayalar Award in 2001 and is also the recipient of the Vallathol Award and Lalithambika Andharganam Smaraka Puraskaram. He lives in Kannur, Kerala.
M P Narayana Pillai (1939-98) was one of the most phenomenal fiction writers from Kerala. He had worked with the Indian Central Planning Commission in New Delhi and was Senior Assistant Editor with Far Eastern Economic Review, Hong Kong, before he settled down in Bombay and started writing some of the best journalistic pieces in the Malayalam ever.
Aakar Patel is a writer and journalist. He was Editor, Mid-Day, Bombay, before he started Hill Road Media; he writes a column for Mint Lounge. He lives in Bombay. Contact: aakar@hillroadmedia.com
Margaret Mascarenhas is a novelist, independent curator, consulting editor, and the Director of Goa Centre for the Arts. Author of Skin (Penguin India) and The Disappearance of Irene dos Santos (Hachette USA) she is currently working on her third novel, Just Another Car Bomb, and running a prison writing programme at the Aguada Central Jail, Goa. Contact: margaret.mascarenhas@gmail.com
Thachom Poyil Rajeevan is a Kerala-based bilingual writer and poet. His poems have been translated into fourteen languages including the French, Italian, Polish, Macedonian, Uzbek, Croatian and the Hebrew. He is also an acclaimed novelist in Malayalam — his novel Paleri Manikyam was recently adapted into an acclaimed movie, starring Mammootty. Contact: rthachompoyil@yahoo.com
Kalpish Ratna is the pseudonym under which Kalpana Swaminathan and Ishrat Syed, both award-winning and best-selling authors, write. When not reading and writing they have a joint surgical practice in Bombay. Contact: kalpana.swaminathan@gmail.com & ishrat.syed@gmail.com
K Satchidanandan is a Malayalam poet, dramatist, essayist and translator and a bilingual critic. He has over 50 original in the Malayalam and four originally written in the English, besides several edited and translated works. Winner of 24 awards (including the Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award five times) he was knighted by the Government of Italy. Contact: satchida@gmail.com
Sudeep Sen is widely recognised as a major new generation voice in world literature. His prize-winning books include: Postmarked India: New & Selected Poems, Distracted Geographies, Rain, Aria, Ladakh, and Blue Nude: Poems & Translations. He is the editorial director of Aark Arts and editor of Atlas: A visiting scholar at Harvard University, he lives in New Delhi. Contact: sudeepsen.net@gmail.com
A J Thomas, formerly Editor, Indian Literature of Sahitya Akademi, New Delhi, is a poet, fiction writer, translator and literary editor. He is a winner of the Crossword Book Awards, Katha Award and the AKMG Prize. He taught English at Garyounis University, Benghazi, Libya, until he was evacuated in March 201, following the Libyan revolution. Contact: tomsaj@gmail.com
Shreekumar Varma teaches Creative English at the Chennai Mathematical Institute. He was shortlisted for the Crossword Book Award twice, and his novel Maria’s Room was long-listed for the inaugural Man Asian Literary Prize. He was awarded the Charles Wallace fellowship in 2004. He is the great grandson of artist Raja Ravi Varma, and grandson of Sethu Lakshmi Bayi, the last ruling maharani of Travancore. Contact: varma@shreevarma.com
Farzana Versey is a Bombay-based columnist and author of A Journey Interrupted: Being Indian in Pakistan (Harper Collins). Her columns, feature articles and interviews on subjects ranging from politics, communalism, culture, media, philosophy and feminism have appeared in several publications over a two-decade period. She also writes poetry. Contact: farzanavee@yahoo.com
Shashi Warrier is the much-acclaimed author of Hangman’s Journal, Night of the Krait, and The Homecoming. He is also an avid biker and has travelled around India on his Royal Enfield Thunderbird. He lives in Mangalore, South India. Contact: swarrier9@gmail.com
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