Ajay Kamalakaran is a writer, primarily based in Mumbai. Colombo is his home away from home. Ajay’s cultural writings about Sri Lanka have appeared in Scroll.in, OnManorama and The Friday Times.

Geet Chaturvedi is one of the most widely read contemporary Hindi authors. He has written twelve books including the critically acclaimed poetry collections Nyoonatam Main and Khushiyon Ke Guptchar. His latest book is Simsim. Its English translation by Anita Gopalan has won the prestigious ‘PEN/Heim Translation Grant’, awarded by PEN America. Simsim was longlisted for ‘The JCB Prize for Literature 2023’. The recipient of numerous literary prizes, including the Raza Fellowship for fiction writing, Geet Chaturvedi was named among the ‘Ten Best Young Writers of India’ by The Indian Express. He won the 2021 Vatayan-UK Literary Award for his contribution to Hindi literature. His works have been translated into twenty-four languages.

Subhashree Beeman is a US-based multilingual translator. A native of Chennai, she translates from Spanish, French and English into English and Tamil. Her Tamil translation of the Spanish novel Largo Pétalo de Mar by Isabelle Allende will be published in 2025 by Kalachuvadu Publications. Her English translation of the Tamil novel Pettai is forthcoming with Westland Books in 2025. She received the 2024 PEN-Heim Translation Grant for her English translation of the French novel Le Testament Russe by Shumona Sinha. She was also the 2024 ALTA/SALT Emerging Literary Translators Mentee who was mentored by Mr. Kalyan Raman. Under his mentorship, she translated the Tamil novel Saigon Puducherry by Nagarathinam Krishna, for which she is seeking publishers. She can be reached at www.subhashree-translator.com.

Two of Rohit Manchanda‘s novels, A Speck of Coal Dust and The Enclave, were published in 2024.  He has written a history of the institute where he works, titled Monastery, Sanctuary, Laboratory: 50 Years of IIT Bombay.

Geet Chaturvedi is one of the most widely read contemporary Hindi authors. He has written twelve books including the critically acclaimed poetry collections Nyoonatam Main and Khushiyon Ke Guptchar. His latest book is Simsim. Its English translation by Anita Gopalan has won the prestigious ‘PEN/Heim Translation Grant’, awarded by PEN America. Simsim was longlisted for ‘The JCB Prize for Literature 2023’. The recipient of numerous literary prizes, including the Raza Fellowship for fiction writing, Geet Chaturvedi was named among the ‘Ten Best Young Writers of India’ by The Indian Express. He won the 2021 Vatayan-UK Literary Award for his contribution to Hindi literature. His works have been translated into twenty-four languages.

Abhishek Jha is an author in Bangla Vasha Literature and photographer. He captures stories and moments with equal passion. Originally from Malda, he now resides in Jalpaiguri, where his creative pursuits continue to flourish.

Sarabjeet Garcha is a poet, editor, and translator. His five books of poems include All We Have and A Clock in the Far Past, in addition to a volume each of poems translated from Marathi and prose translated from Hindi. His translation of the Marathi playwright Mahesh Elkunchwar’s three long essays appeared as The Necropolis Trilogy. He has received the Fellowship for Outstanding Artists from the Government of India, the International Publishing Fellowship from the British Council, and the inaugural Godyo Podyo Probondho Award. His poems have been translated into German, Spanish, Russian, Slovak, Lithuanian, Malayalam, Kannada, Marathi, Punjabi and Hindi. He is the founder and editorial director of Copper Coin (www.coppercoin.co.in), a multilingual publishing company based in Delhi NCR.

Pujarinee Mitra is a Doctoral Candidate and Graduate Instructor at the Department of English, Texas A&M University, College Station. She has published her poetry in the literary magazine, Last Leaves, in their 7th issue (published 2023). She has also published literary academic essays in journals like Journal of Comparative Literature and Aesthetics, Feminist Encounters, and Humanities. The subject of her doctoral dissertation is the operation of anti-fascist emotions in South Asian English Literature and Hindi commercial films from the 1990-present. Mitra holds a B.A. in English with a minor in History from Jadavpur University, Kolkata, India. She earned her first M.A. in English from Jadavpur University and her second M.A. in English from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

Amlanjyoti Goswami has written two widely reviewed books of poetry, River Wedding and Vital Signs, both published by Poetrywala. River Wedding was shortlisted for the Sahitya Akademi award. Published in journals and anthologies across the world, including Poetry, The Poetry Review, Penguin Vintage, Rattle and Sahitya Akademi, he is also a Best of the Net and Pushcart nominee. He has reviewed poetry for The Hindu, Frontline, Review 31 and Modern Poetry in Translation among others. He has read at various places, including Delhi, Mumbai, New York, Chandigarh, Boston and Bangalore. He grew up in Guwahati and lives in Delhi.

Abhishek Jha is an author in Bangla Vasha Literature and photographer. He captures stories and moments with equal passion. Originally from Malda, he now resides in Jalpaiguri, where his creative pursuits continue to flourish.

Dr. Rudrajit Paul is a consultant physician based in Kolkata. He is a connoisseur of Bengali food and his other passion is Bengali literature. He is the author of poems, short and long stories in both English and Bengali. His first book of children’s poems appeared in September 2024 from Penprints. It is titled “Honumaner hoi hoi Kando”. His poems, stories and short fiction have been published in many magazines including Anandamela, Reader’s Digest, Shuktara and the Setu magazine. He has also written review articles on literary characters like Feluda and Tintin. His most recent publication is a research article on the relation between Rudyard Kipling and Calcutta published in Bichitropitro magazine.

Samim Akter Sheikh is a political cartoonist, illustrator, and theatre artist. After studying at Aligarh Muslim University, Sheikh recently completed a Masters’ Degree in Theatre Arts from Hyderabad Central University. He is also a passionate archivist through performance and visual art.

Geet Chaturvedi is one of the most widely read contemporary Hindi authors. He has written twelve books including the critically acclaimed poetry collections Nyoonatam Main and Khushiyon Ke Guptchar. His latest book is Simsim. Its English translation by Anita Gopalan has won the prestigious ‘PEN/Heim Translation Grant’, awarded by PEN America. Simsim was longlisted for ‘The JCB Prize for Literature 2023’. The recipient of numerous literary prizes, including the Raza Fellowship for fiction writing, Geet Chaturvedi was named among the ‘Ten Best Young Writers of India’ by The Indian Express. He won the 2021 Vatayan-UK Literary Award for his contribution to Hindi literature. His works have been translated into twenty-four languages.

Madhulika Liddle is a novelist and short story writer, as also an alumnus of the Institute of Hotel Management, Pusa (New Delhi). She has written on food for National Geographic Traveller (India), Open: The Magazine, the India International Centre Quarterly, and other publications.

Prasanna K Varma has an identity confusion switching between languages, keyboards, hobbies, interests, and persons. Her published translations include Manu. S. Pillai’s The Ivory Throne, The Courtesan, the Mahatma and the Italian Brahmin, False Allies, Yuval Noah Harari’s Homo Deus which won a state award, Tony Joseph’s Early Indians and Shehan Karunatilaka’s The Seven Moons of Mali Almeida.

Geet Chaturvedi is one of the most widely read contemporary Hindi authors. He has written twelve books including the critically acclaimed poetry collections Nyoonatam Main and Khushiyon Ke Guptchar. His latest book is Simsim. Its English translation by Anita Gopalan has won the prestigious ‘PEN/Heim Translation Grant’, awarded by PEN America. Simsim was longlisted for ‘The JCB Prize for Literature 2023’. The recipient of numerous literary prizes, including the Raza Fellowship for fiction writing, Geet Chaturvedi was named among the ‘Ten Best Young Writers of India’ by The Indian Express. He won the 2021 Vatayan-UK Literary Award for his contribution to Hindi literature. His works have been translated into twenty-four languages.

Appadurai Muttulingam was born in Sri Lanka and has published numerous books in Tamil, including novels, short story collections, interviews, and essays. Stories translated into English have been published in three collections. They have also appeared in anthologies – Many Roads Through Paradise (Penguin Books, 2014) and Uprooting the Pumpkin (Oxford University Press, 2016). Among his honours are Sahitya Award 1998 (Sri Lanka) and SRM University Literary Award 2013 (India). His stories have appeared in magazines in USA, UK, and Canada. One of his short stories was published in the Narrative Magazine, USA (Nov 2021) and another selected as finalist in Armory Square Prize (2023) USA. He lives with his wife in Toronto.

Thila Varghese lives in Canada, where she works part-time as a senior writing adviser at Western University. Her translations of Tamil literary works have been published in international journals and magazines. Thila’s translation entry was shortlisted in the 2023 Armory Square Prize for South Asian Literature in Translation. In 2024, Thila was awarded a translation mentorship in poetry with Khairani Barokka by the American Literary Translators Association.

Rashmy (Mohamed Rashmy Ahamed) was born in Akkaraipattu, on the eastern coast of Sri Lanka. He is a poet, painter, short story writer and designer. So far, he has designed jackets for more than a hundred books including Tamil, Sinhala, and Malayalam. Five collections of his poetry and a collection of short stories have been published. His collection of short stories has received Canada’s “Iyal” award in 2023. He now lives in the United Kingdom.

Geet Chaturvedi is one of the most widely read contemporary Hindi authors. He has written twelve books including the critically acclaimed poetry collections Nyoonatam Main and Khushiyon Ke Guptchar. His latest book is Simsim. Its English translation by Anita Gopalan has won the prestigious ‘PEN/Heim Translation Grant’, awarded by PEN America. Simsim was longlisted for ‘The JCB Prize for Literature 2023’. The recipient of numerous literary prizes, including the Raza Fellowship for fiction writing, Geet Chaturvedi was named among the ‘Ten Best Young Writers of India’ by The Indian Express. He won the 2021 Vatayan-UK Literary Award for his contribution to Hindi literature. His works have been translated into twenty-four languages.

Sangeetha Bhaskaran is a freelance content writer based in Dubai. She is currently working on a collection of short stories.

Debmalya Bandyopadhyay is a writer and mathematician based in Birmingham, UK. His poems, translations, and essays have appeared or are forthcoming in Ghost City Review, LEON Literary Review, Couplet Poetry, Ballast, Indigenous, and Anthropocene Poetry, among other literary journals. His work has been selected for the Yearbook of Indian Poetry in English (2023) and the Propel Magazine Anthology, and he was a finalist for SweetLit’s 2024 Poetry Prize. He can often be found in parks confabulating with local birds.

Babli Yadav is a freelance journalist based in Bengaluru, India. Apart from attempting essays and unpublished poetry, she also writes feature articles. For her, to be inspired, is to reflect upon nature, slowness, people, arts & culture and the simplicity, complexity, and audacity of interconnected living.

Srijita Biswas is a PhD Research Scholar and Teaching Assistant in the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Bhopal (IISER Bhopal). She completed her MA from Banaras Hindu University in English Literature. She is working on the gastronomic evolution of Calcutta for her doctoral project. Her research interests lie at the intersection of food, city space and literature. Currently, she is serving as a member of the Graduate Association for Food Studies (GAFS). Apart from research, she enjoys cooking, exploring food trails and creative writing.

Geet Chaturvedi is one of the most widely read contemporary Hindi authors. He has written twelve books including the critically acclaimed poetry collections Nyoonatam Main and Khushiyon Ke Guptchar. His latest book is Simsim. Its English translation by Anita Gopalan has won the prestigious ‘PEN/Heim Translation Grant’, awarded by PEN America. Simsim was longlisted for ‘The JCB Prize for Literature 2023’. The recipient of numerous literary prizes, including the Raza Fellowship for fiction writing, Geet Chaturvedi was named among the ‘Ten Best Young Writers of India’ by The Indian Express. He won the 2021 Vatayan-UK Literary Award for his contribution to Hindi literature. His works have been translated into twenty-four languages.

Debopriya Roy is a PhD student (UGC-SRF) at Tezpur University’s Department of Mass Communication and Journalism in Assam, India. Her doctoral research explores the intricacies of identity performance, self-representation, and the labour dynamics among Indian female lifestyle vloggers. She has presented research papers at esteemed national and international conferences. Her research interests revolve around digital culture, internet celebrity studies, and gender studies.

Nakshatra Chatterjee is a Doctoral Fellow and Teaching Assistant at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Bhopal. He completed his MA at Banaras Hindu University. His research, based upon literary sound studies, approaches visual epistemology from a critical and interdisciplinary perspective. He had co-authored a chapter titled “Listening to the Hustle and the Hush: Sound, City, and the Pandemic” in the book Sounds of the Pandemic: Accounts, Experiences, Perspectives in Times of COVID-19. He has published an article in the Journal of Comparative Literature and Aesthetics, titled “Return of the Alternative as the Popular: The Music-making of Moheener Ghoraguli.”

A librarian for over a quarter century, Karpagam Rajagopal loves books, trivia, puzzles, and art. She uses crochet to justify binge- streaming shows, and is easily moved to tears by beauty. Born and raised in India, she and her husband have 2 adult children.

Padmaja Narayanan is a writer, poet and translator. She has recently retired from the State Bank of India. She has published 3 books of poetry in Tamil and translated many titles. She has been awarded the Kavithai Uravu award for her poems and Thisai Ettum award for best translation for Naan Malala and Vasaga Salai award for Kadaisi Viceroyin Manaivi. She has also translated Thirupaavai and Nachiyar Thirumozhi into English which are to be published soon.

Vandana Rag is a bi-lingual author, translator and literary activist. She has published four books of short stories in Hindi. Her recently published Hindi novel, Bisat par Jugnu – a saga of dreams traversing across India and China is receiving much critical acclaim. She has translated poetry and prose into Hindi and English.

Tanishqa Vaish is a soon to graduate English Major from Shiv Nadar University. She is currently exploring the domains of food, culture, and media for her research. Her hobbies include whipping up a storm in the kitchen for her family and friends.

Guruprasad D N quit his job as a senior software engineer in 2010 to start Aakruti Books, a brick-and-mortar bookstore in Bengaluru which stocks both Kannada and English books – new, used, and rare. A culturally active place, Aakruti Books has hosted more than 100 literary events and is growing as a progressive community of book lovers. Guruprasad has also published over 50 books in Kannada. A film critic too, he regularly reviews Kannada films. After working as a coordinator with the publishing unit of Bengaluru Central University for a short period, he joined the team of naanugauri.com and Nyayapatha weekly. He has been editing Nyayapatha and naanugauri.com since last 3 years.

Sanchit Toor is broadly interested in the questions of language, literature, religion, translation, and performance. He graduated with an MA in English from Ashoka University and currently works with the Ashoka Centre for Translation.

Uma Gowrishankar is a writer and artist from Chennai, South India. Her poems have appeared in online and print journals that include Yearbook of Indian Poetry in English, Poetry at Sangam, City: A Journal Of South Asian Literature, Qarrtsiluni, Vayavya, Buddhist Poetry Review, Silver Birch Press, Entropy, Feral: A Journal of Poetry and Art, Hakara. Her full-length collection of poetry ‘Birthing History’ was published by Leaky Boot Press.

Nileena Sunil is a lover of all things literary. She has previously published her work in York Literary Review, Borderless Journal, The Chakkar, Setu, Kitaab, and other publications.

Rahul Singh is a Data Scientist and lives in Bengaluru. He runs a weekly newsletter ‘Mehfil’. His work has been published in Usawa Literary Review, The Hooghly Review, The Pine Cone Review, and Indian Review.

Vaishnavi Ramesh is an artist and designer who completed a BFA from the Govt. College of Fine Art, Thrissur. She is interested in experimenting with different styles of sketching, illustrations and 2D Animation.

Purvi Rajpuria is a freelance writer, illustrator, and graphic designer. At present, she works at a design studio in Bengaluru.

Manjima Gupta is a 23-year-old teacher and artist. They studied Philosophy at Ashoka University and are currently a Teach for India fellow, teaching 10th graders English and Social Science. They spend as much of their time in creative pursuits as possible, including writing, art, and singing. They’re an avid reader with a penchant for slice-of-life stories.

Manjari Chakravarti works with personal and social histories, transforming found, often recycled materials into narratives. Researching and journaling histories into books, boxes, and shrine like papier mache installations, layered with text, she draws upon indigenous art sources, kitsch and, increasingly, the written word. The written word is an essential part of her work, allowing her to expand her vision alongside the visual. She enjoys writing and creating picture books as well. Manjari has had seven solo shows to her credit, in Kolkata, Delhi and France. She has participated in shows at the Galerie Neumeister in Munich, the Indian Embassy in Berlin, International Art Summit on Women’s Issues in Kathmandu, India Art Summit in Delhi; Emerging India-Royal College of Art, London, and at the Khoj International Artists’ Workshop in New Delhi among many others. Manjari lives and works in Shantiniketan, India.

Samim Akter Sheikh is a Bengali Muslim Student Activist ,Political Cartoonist & Theatre Artist. He is presently pursuing MPA in Theatre Arts from Hyderabad Central University.  He is the elected Cultural Secretary of University ‘Student’s Union’ and also the Vice President of ‘Ambedkar Student’s Association’ . He completed his school education in Nadia, West Bengal. Travel Sketching is one of his hobbies . Samim is also engaged in children’s book illustrations and explores several mediums of art  to represent Bengali Muslim identity. He started working on Marginalized  Identity and  Cultures while pursuing a Bachelor’s Degree at the Aligarh Muslim University.

Farishta Anjirbag is a writer and artist from Bombay, pursuing her graduate studies at the Department of English at Ashoka University. She loves learning about local environments and all the lives that inhabit them. Her present research is located in the Environmental Humanities, focused primarily on the city of Bombay. Her writing and comics have appeared in LiveWire, Room 16, and Memories on a Plate: Stories of food from Indian kitchens across the globe. Through all her works, she explores the enchantment in everyday life.

Shashi Tharoor is an author, politician, and former international civil servant. He straddles several worlds of experience. Currently a third-term Lok Sabha MP representing the Thiruvananthapuram constituency and Chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Information Technology, he has previously served as Minister of State for Human Resource Development and Minister of State for External Affairs in the Government of India. During his nearly three-decade long prior career at the United Nations, he served as a peacekeeper, refugee worker, and administrator at the highest levels, serving as Under-Secretary General during Kofi Annan’s leadership of the organisation. He is the author of several non-fiction and fiction books and hundreds of articles, op-eds, and book reviews in a wide range of publications.

Geet Chaturvedi is one of the most widely read contemporary Hindi authors. He has written twelve books including the critically acclaimed poetry collections Nyoonatam Main and Khushiyon Ke Guptchar. His latest book is Simsim. Its English translation by Anita Gopalan has won the prestigious ‘PEN/Heim Translation Grant’, awarded by PEN America. Simsim was longlisted for ‘The JCB Prize for Literature 2023’. The recipient of numerous literary prizes, including the Raza Fellowship for fiction writing, Geet Chaturvedi was named among the ‘Ten Best Young Writers of India’ by The Indian Express. He won the 2021 Vatayan-UK Literary Award for his contribution to Hindi literature. His works have been translated into twenty-four languages.

Prasanna K Varma has an identity confusion switching between languages, keyboards, hobbies, interests, and persons. Her published translations include Manu. S. Pillai’s The Ivory Throne, The Courtesan, the Mahatma and the Italian Brahmin, False Allies, Yuval Noah Harari’s Homo Deus which won a state award, Tony Joseph’s Early Indians and Shehan Karunatilaka’s The Seven Moons of Mali Almeida.

Vaishnavi Ramesh is an artist and designer who completed a BFA from the Govt. College of Fine Art, Thrissur. She is interested in experimenting with different styles of sketching, illustrations and 2D Animation.

Ashok Gopal is the author of A Part Apart (New Delhi: Navayana, 2023), a voluminous biography of B.R. Ambedkar which has received critical acclaim. He has worked as a journalist, consultant for NGOs and education content developer.

Avadhoot Dongare is a writer and translator.

Vandana Rag is a bi-lingual author, translator and literary activist. She has published four books of short stories in Hindi. Her recently published Hindi novel, Bisat par Jugnu – a saga of dreams traversing across India and China is receiving much critical acclaim. She has translated poetry and prose into Hindi and English.

Vikrant Bhise is a visual artist who lives and works in Mumbai, India. At the forefront of the struggle against caste-based domination and its vertiginous implications on land, liberty and labour, Vikrant’s artistic practice iterates his commitment to the revolutionary spirit inherent in the Ambedkarite consciousness. An alumnus of L.S. Raheja School of Art (Graduate Diploma in Visual Arts, 2010) and J.J. School of Art (D.P.EAD, 2011), Mumbai, Vikrant has exhibited in many group and solo projects.

Priti Saxena, employed as a content writer at Exly, is also a freelancer exploring the confluence of travel and cultural history. The frequent relocations prompted by her husband’s job have deepened her understanding of India’s diverse cultures. Starting her career as a government teacher in Delhi, Priti embraced a footloose life, trying various vocations—from volunteering as a rural school teacher in Jharkhand to earning a yoga teacher certification from the Bihar School of Yoga. As a full-time parent, Priti delves into diverse areas through online platforms like Coursera and edX, also serving as a mentor in selected courses. Armed with a postgraduate degree in History from JNU and later an MPhil, Priti explores both tangible and intangible aspects of places, enriching her writings with a more informed narrative.

Takbeer Salati was born and raised in Srinagar, Kashmir. She is a doctoral student working in the field of South Asian Partition studies and is also a creative writer. Her short stories have featured in Samyukta Fiction, Nether Quarterly, Muse India, Outlook India, Café Dissensus among others. Her writing was also short listed in 20 under 30 best Short Story Writers 20 under 30 in The Bombay Review, 2021.

Lalhriatzuali “Zuali” Bungsut is a current student of English and Creative Writing at Ashoka University, hailing from Aizawl, Mizoram. Apart from essays, she enjoys writing poetry and translates from Mizo to English. Her interests include surrealist literature, thriller films, and the works of Asian-American poets.

Gita Viswanath is the author of two novels, Twice it Happened (2019) and A Journey Gone Wrong (2022), a non-fiction book, The ‘Nation’ in War: A Study of Military Literature and Hindi War Cinema (2014) and a children’s book, Chidiya. Her poems, essays and short stories have been published in several print and online journals. Her short films Family Across the Atlantic and Safezonerz are available on YouTube. She is also the co-founder of an online film club called Talking Films Online.

Kanak Agrawal is a writer and photographer based in Mumbai.

Kotesh Devulapally is an independent scholar based in Hyderabad, India. He writes and speaks on different aspects of the emergence of regions and regionalisms in modern India. His work aims at retrieving the rational egalitarian, and hence liberative articulations in History and Culture of Indian sub-continent, particularly of the Telugu people.

Mallika Sarabhai has been one of India’s leading choreographers and dancers for over four decades. In constant demand as a soloist and with her own dance company, Darpana, she has been creating and performing both classical and contemporary works. She has also produced over 3000 hours of television work talking about issues of the environment, women, communal harmony, and violence, using the most popular genres of TV. She has a Ph.D. in Organisational Behaviour and has been honorary Director of Darpana Academy of Performing Arts for 40 years. The Government of Kerala has appointed Mallika Sarabhai as the Chancellor of Kerala Kalamandalam, deemed to be university for art and culture based in Thrissur. She was honored by the Government of India with the Padma Bhushan, the third highest civilian award in India, in 2010 in recognition of her invaluable contribution to the arts.

K.K.Bhaskaran Payyanur is a poet, novelist, translator, editor, and teacher. He worked as Assistant Administrative Officer in National Institute of Design(NID), Ahmedabad for 32 years. He taught Malayalam and served as Head of the Department for 13 years in Gujarat Vidyapeeth, Ahmedabad. He has translated 83 English novels of James Hadley Chase into Malayalam. He also publishes a Malayalam weekly titled Kerala Samachar (now digital monthly).

Vandana Rag is a bi-lingual author, translator and literary activist. She has published four books of short stories in Hindi. Her recently published Hindi novel, Bisat par Jugnu – a saga of dreams traversing across India and China is receiving much critical acclaim. She has translated poetry and prose into Hindi and English.

Born in Patna in 1974,  Siddharth Chowdhury is the author of  Patna Roughcut [ Picador:2005]; Day Scholar[ Picador:2010], shortlisted for the Man Asian Prize and  the  DSC Jaipur prize; The Patna Manual of Style[ Aleph:2015], shortlisted for the Hindu Prize for Fiction. An Omnibus edition of his work, Ritwik & Hriday: Tales from the City, Tales  from the Town was brought out by Picador in 2016.  His short novel The Time of the Peacock ( Aleph :2021) is now out in the world.

Farah Ahamed’s writing has been published in The White Review, Ploughshares, The Mechanics’ Institute Review, The LA Review, The Markaz Review, The Massachusetts Review amongst others. Her stories were shortlisted for the 2022 Bridport and Commonwealth Prize. She is the editor of Period Matters: Menstruation Experiences in South Asia, Pan Macmillan India, 2022, (periodmattersbook.com.) You can read more of her work at: farahahamed.com.

Vijayalakshmi Sridhar writes from Chennai, a metropolis in South India. Stories have always been part of Vijayalakshmi’s life. Her writing can be found in JaggeryLit, Spark Magazine, Exposition Review, Vestal Review among others.

Manjima Gupta is a 23-year-old teacher and artist. They studied Philosophy at Ashoka University and are currently a Teach for India fellow, teaching 10th graders English and Social Science. They spend as much of their time in creative pursuits as possible, including writing, art, and singing. They’re an avid reader with a penchant for slice-of-life stories.

Dr Rakhshanda Jalil is a multi-award-winning translator, writer, and literary historian. She has published over 25 books and written over 50 academic papers and essays. Some of her books include: Liking Progress, Loving Change: A Literary History of the Progressive Writers Movement in Urdu (OUP, 2014); a biography of Urdu feminist writer Dr Rashid Jahan: A Rebel and her Cause (Women Unlimited, 2014); a translation of The Sea Lies Ahead, Intizar Husain’s seminal novel on Karachi (Harper Collins, 2015) and Krishan Chandar’s partition novel Ghaddar (Westland, 2017), among others. She runs an organization called Hindustani Awaaz, devoted to the popularization of Hindi-Urdu literature and culture.

Kirtana Kumar is an actor, director, and film-maker, who loves writing on the intersections between gender and culture. She lives by a hill and forest, outside Bangalore, with animals, trees and flowers who leave her no option but to join the dots between life, nature, and human expression. Her first book is Bangalore Blues.

Vighnesh Hampapura recently graduated from Ashoka University with a degree in literature. He is heading to the University of Oxford for further studies, where he is supported by a Rhodes Scholarship. His English translation of Kannada writer Vasudhendra’s short stories is forthcoming from Penguin Random House.

Sanchit Toor is broadly interested in the questions of language, literature, religion, translation, and performance. He graduated with an MA in English from Ashoka University and currently works with the Ashoka Centre for Translation.

Peeyush Sekhsaria is an amateur naturalist and occasional writer. He paints to slow down. Some of his photography and writing work can be seen at www.peeyushsekhsaria.com. He is mainly interested in spending time in the wild and is now finding ways to do that in professional capacity as a natural resources management professional. An architect by training, he did a Masters in Mud Architecture from CRATerre in France and followed it up with an M. Phil in Geography from the Sorbonne during which he worked with the Dogon, in Mali, West Africa. He divides his time between Delhi and Pune.

Sarbani Sarbashree Mohanty is deeply invested in writing poetry, novels, translations and editing projects when she can spare time from her research work. She has translated two Odia autobiographies: Reminiscences of a Nobody (2022) by Beena Dei, Odisha’s first female surgeon and I am Sumani (2023) by Sumani Jhodia, the tribal activist leader from Mayurbhanj. She has also edited a Bibliography of Biographies in Odisha (2022) and an Annotated Bibliography of Autobiographies in Odisha (2023) on which she got an opportunity to work during her stint with the “Centre of Excellence for Translation and Life Writing” at Rama Devi Women’s University. She has two published anthologies of poetry called ‘Voyage of the Soul’ and ‘Trimukta’ which include poems in Odia, Hindi, and English. Currently she is engaged as a research scholar in English Literature at Sri Sri University, Cuttack.

Sanchit Toor is broadly interested in the questions of language, literature, religion, translation, and performance. He graduated with an MA in English from Ashoka University and currently works with the Ashoka Centre for Translation.

Joanne Nezi was born in Montreal to Greek parents who moved the family to Greece when she was ten. The memory of Indian ladies in saris walking in Montreal’s Botanical Gardens was the beginning of a lifelong interest in India which led her to a degree in South Asian Studies at SOAS. Retired now from a career in the European Union, she lives in Athens and Isthmia, near the Corinth Canal.

CB Mohandas teaches literature and film. He writes on these subjects in Malayalam.

Kanak Agrawal is a writer and photographer based in Mumbai.

Nabanita Sengupta is a translator, creative writer, and academician. She teaches in an undergraduate college in Kolkata. She has co-edited an anthology of critical essays on Understanding Women’s Experiences of Displacement. Her published translations are Chambal Revisited and A Bengali Lady in England. She also has an e-book of fiction, The Ghumi Days and a collaborative anthology of poetry to her name. She has been published in multiple anthologies, journals and e-zines.

Rituparna Sengupta is a writer, translator, and academic. She researches and teaches literature and popular culture, writes essays on cinema and literature for popular and academic publications, and translates poetry and short fiction. In summers, she works as a full-time mango-picker-and-disposer for her family.

Rupayan Mukherjee teaches at the Dept. of English, University B.T. & Evening College, Cooch Behar. He is the co-editor of Partition Literature and Cinema: A Critical Introduction (Routledge, 2020) and Popular Literature: Texts, Contexts, Contestations (ibidem-Verlag, 2022). His literary writings have featured in Café Dissensus, Livewire, The CQ Magazine, among others.

Gautam Pemmaraju is a Mumbai based filmmaker, writer, and researcher, working in the areas of history, literature, and art. He has a special interest in the cultural history of the Deccan & Hyderabad, and 20th century anti-colonialism.

Kotesh Devulapally is an independent scholar based in Hyderabad, India. He writes and speaks on different aspects of the emergence of regions and regionalisms in modern India. His work aims at retrieving the rational egalitarian, and hence liberative articulations in History and Culture of Indian sub-continent, particularly of the Telugu people.

Vandana Rag is a bi-lingual author, translator and literary activist. She has published four books of short stories in Hindi. Her recently published Hindi novel, Bisat par Jugnu – a saga of dreams traversing across India and China is receiving much critical acclaim. She has translated poetry and prose into Hindi and English.

Michelle D’costa is a writer, editor, creative writing mentor, and podcaster from Mumbai. Her fiction and poetry have appeared in Litro, Berfrois, Out Of Print, Economic & Political Weekly, and many other journals. She is the author of the poetry chapbook Gulf (Yavanika Press, 2021).  Most recently, her short story appeared in Four Palaces Publishing’s Fall anthology.

Krupali Naik  is an Assistant Professor of Konkani at Goa University. She is the sub editor of Jag Konkani Monthly and has translated Suraj aur Mor from Hindi to Konkani for Sahitya Akademi, New Delhi. She has also contributed for the PLSI Volume on Canacona variety of Konkani and presented research papers at various national level seminars organized by Sahitya Akademi and other institutions.

Kanak Agrawal is a writer and photographer based in Mumbai.

Siddhi Vartak is an artist and storyteller from Mumbai. She holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Animation Film Design from NID, Ahmedabad.  She writes, paints, illustrates and animates to express herself. She has been working as a freelancer in the field of film-making, storytelling, and visual art. She aspires to present authentic and raw stories in their most honest form, in the mediums that suit them the most.

Shashi Deshpande is a novelist and short story writer who has also written for children. She has done some translations from Kannada and Marathi into English. She is the recipient of the Sahitya Akademi award for her novel, That Long Silence as well as the Padma Shri. Shashi Deshpande has lectured in many universities both in India and abroad. She now lives a reclusive life in Bangalore.

Kanak Agrawal is a writer and photographer based in Mumbai.

Vighnesh Hampapura recently graduated from Ashoka University with a degree in literature. He is heading to the University of Oxford for further studies, where he is supported by a Rhodes Scholarship. His English translation of Kannada writer Vasudhendra’s short stories is forthcoming from Penguin Random House.

Ustad Mohi Bahauddin Dagar has had his initial training on the sitar under the tutelage of his mother Smt Pramila Mohiuddin Dagar. At age 16, he began his training under his father, the Rudraveena maestro Ustad Zia Mohiuddin Dagar and also learnt vocals from his uncle Ustad Zia Fariduddin Dagar, a Dhrupad vocalist.  He now continues to get able guidance under Pandit Pushpraj Koshti. Mohi Bahauddin has played concerts in India and abroad.  He is a recipient of the the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award. He presently resides at Dhrupad Gurukul, a residential training space where he teaches students for voice, veena and other instruments in the Guru Shishya Parampara method.

Kanak Agrawal is a writer and photographer based in Mumbai.

Kalyani Jha is a Marathi lecturer at the undergraduate level. She also teaches Marathi to non-Marathi speakers. She has a Doctorate in Marathi Literature. Research, translation, culture, gender, child education and music are her areas of interest. She lives in Pune.

Gayatri is a therapist, poet and author. Her previous works include Anitya, Sit Your Self Down, and Who Me, Poor? Her latest title is Devi & The Battle of Meghadhanush, a children’s fantasy adventure which is also a mental health tool for emotional self-regulation. Her medium for both writing and therapeutic practice is applied Buddhist mind studies. Her poetry has been shortlisted for the Bridport Prize 2021 and has featured in the Converse Anthology in 2022, among others. She is the founder of Shamah | शम: a mind-body-spirit alignment practice.

Siddharth Dasgupta writes poetry and fiction from lost hometowns. His A Moveable East arrived in early ’21. A fifth book and third collection of poetry—All These Streets We’ve Known By Heart—has emerged in October ’22 via the independent publisher Red River. Siddharth’s writing has appeared in Epiphany, Rogue Agent, Lunch Ticket, Prairie Fire, Kyoto Journal, and elsewhere. He serves as Editor, Visual Narratives with The Bombay Literary Magazine, but calls the city of Poona home.

Suranjana Choudhury teaches literature at North Eastern Hill University, Shillong. Her essays and translations have appeared  in Biblio, The Wire, Scroll.in, Café Dissensus, Humanities Underground, among other places.

Anshu Chhetri is a final year M. Phil student in English Literature. She is also a freelance content writer and translator. Some of her works have appeared in Terribly Tiny Tales, LiveWire, Parcham, Youth Ki Awaz and others. She also runs a blog called Humans of the Margin where she documents stories of people whose voices often go unheard. Her passion lies in reading, writing and styling clothes and shoes.

Kanak Agrawal is a writer and photographer based in Mumbai.

Barnali Ray Shukla is a filmmaker and poet. Her writing has featured in Sunflower Collective, OutOfPrint, Kitaab.org, OUTCAST, Madras Courier, Bengaluru Review, Indian Ruminations, Vayavya, The Brown Critique, Kaurab, Usawa Literary Review, Portside Review. Anthology of Contemporary Indian Poetry II, indianculturalforum.in, Indian Quarterly, The Punch Magazine, Modern English Poetry by Younger Indians  [Sahitya Akademi], The World That Belongs to Us [Harper Collins, India], Have a Safe Journey [Amaryllis, India] Side Effects of Living [Speaking Tiger], Hibiscus [Hawakal Publishers], Open Your Eyes [Hawakal Publishers], Converse [ PippaRann Books &Media], The Kali Project [Indie Blu-e Publishing], Borderless [Singapore], Voice & Verse [Hong Kong], UCityReview [USA], A Portrait in Blues [UK], Centre for Stories [Australia]. She has two feature films to her credit as writer director, three documentaries and two short films, photo essays and a book of poems, Apostrophe. [RLFPA 2016]. Her new Hindi Feature film ‘Joon’ premiered at Bolivia, earlier this month, selections are already in for festivals in Romania, Sweden and Ecuador. She lives with her plants, books and a husband in Mumbai.

Amit Kumar is a film enthusiast particularly interested in the stories set in rural India. He teaches a co-curricular course titled ‘Filming the Ordinary’ at Ashoka University. He has studied Film Direction at State Institute of Film and Television, Rohtak and Liberal Studies under the Performing Arts Department, Ashoka University.

Neelam Mansingh Chowdhry is a Chandigarh-based theatre artist and director who has worked around the world. She was awarded the 2003 Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in the Theatre Direction category. She was the recipient of the 2011 Padma Shri Award. She is Professor Emeritus at Punjab University.

Surjit Patar is a Punjabi language writer and poet. His poems enjoy immense popularity with the general public and have won high acclaim from critics. Among his works of poetry are “Hawa Vich Likhe Harf” (Words written in the Air), Birkh Arz Kare (Thus Spake the Tree), Hanere Vich Sulagdi Varnmala (Words Smouldering in the Dark), Lafzaan Di Dargah (Shrine of Words), Patjhar Di Pazeb (Anklet of Autumn) and Surzameen (Music Land). He is the recipient of the Sahitya Akademi Award (1993), Saraswati Samman (2009) and Padmashri (2012).

Geet Chaturvedi is a poet, novelist, and essayist. He is one of the most widely read contemporary Hindi authors. The recipient of numerous literary prizes, including the Syed Haidar Raza Fellowship for fiction writing, he was named among the Ten Best Young Writers of India by The Indian Express. He recently won the 2021 Vatayan-UK Literary Award for his contribution to Hindi literature. His works have been translated into twenty-two languages.

Arathi Devandran curates personal experiences through prose and poetry. She explores themes of inter-generational familial relationships, women’s issues, and navigating the complexities of self-growth. Her work has been featured on various online platforms including RIC Journal, Huffington Post, Burning House Press and in print. She is currently working on her full-length manuscript.

Latha Arunachalam is a Tamil poet and translator. Her debut poetry collection named ‘Udalaadum Nadhi‘ was published  in 2018  and thereafter she has translated several works. Her Tamil translation of a famous Nigerian novel, Season of Crimson Blossoms by Abubakkar Adam Ibrahim has been  widely appreciated for its diction , eloquence and a novel theme. She has received the Ananda Vikatan Award for Best Translation (2019) and Vasaga Salai Literary Organisation Award for her work.

Sangeeta Ray is currently the Vamberry Distinguished Professor of Comparative Literature at the University of Maryland. She is also a Professor in the English department where she teaches Anglophone Postcolonial Literature, South Asian Literature, Literature from the Black Diaspora, and Asian American Literature. Her work is always attuned to questions of gender and sexuality. Her current interests include environmental studies as well the field of refugee studies. She is primarily a literary scholar engaged in questions of form and genre, postcolonial reading practices and the relationship between aesthetics, ethics and politics. She has published two books, Engendering India: Woman and Nation in Colonial and Postcolonial Narratives (Duke UP 2000) and Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak: In other Words (Wiley-Blackwell, 2009). She has co-edited the Companion To Postcolonial Studies (Blackwell, 2000) and the 3 volume Encyclopedia of Postcolonial Studies (Wiley-Blackwell, 2016). She is currently working on two book projects, Form Fitted: Postcolonial Aesthetics, Ethics, Politics and a book on South Asian refugee literature in Bengali, English, Hindi and in translation. She has published widely in key journals and given talks nationally and internationally. She is the recipient of several grants and serves on the editorial boards of important journals in the field. She was one of the founders of the Postcolonial Discussion Group now a Forum at the MLA. She has served as President of a few divisions in the MLA as well as on various committees for the MLA and ACLA. She has been a past President of the Cultural Studies Association and has served two terms on the supervisory Board of the English Institute. She was President of ACLA from 2020-2021. At the University of Maryland, she has, in the past, been the Director of the Asian American Studies Certificate Program, Director of the Cultures of the Americas in the College Park Scholars Program as well as the Director of Graduate Studies in the English department.

Chirodip Naha is from Cumilla, a small city in Bangladesh. He is a Post Graduate student at Ashoka University. He was invited to participate in the University of Iowa’s prestigious international writing program summer institute. He prefers to write fiction, especially historical fiction. Currently, he is interested in the 1971 Bangladesh Pakistan war and is writing a novel on this theme. His short stories have been published in the Collision Literary Magazine.

Aranya is a poet, and editor of the digital newsletter ‘Poetly’. Poetly is a space that curates Indian and international poetry, along with critical commentaries that contextualise the works within contemporary socio-cultural discourses and artistic practice. He is currently based out of Delhi, a place to which he does not belong.

Poornima Laxmeshwar resides in Bangalore, India. Her books of poetry include ‘Anything but Poetry’ (Writers Workshop), ‘Thirteen’ – a chapbook (Yavanika Press) and ‘Strings Attached’ (Red River).

Ritoshree Chatterjee pursues her undergraduate degree in English literature and struggles to locate herself through writing amidst the chaos. Her works have appeared in Café Dissensus (Issue 60), Madras Courier, The Punch Magazine (The Poetry Issue 2022), Outlook, The Chakkar, and the Joao Roque Review amongst others.

Satya Dash is the recipient of the 2020 Srinivas Rayaprol Poetry Prize and a finalist for the 2020 Broken River Prize. His poems appear in Poet Lore, ANMLY, Waxwing, Rhino Poetry, Cincinnati Review, and Diagram, among others. Apart from having a degree in electronics from BITS Pilani-Goa, he has been a cricket commentator. He has been nominated previously for Pushcart, Best of the Net, Orison Anthology and Best New Poets. He grew up in Cuttack and now lives in Bangalore, India.

Winner of the Deepankar Khiwani Memorial Prize 2022, Tuhin Bhowal’s poems and translations appear or are forthcoming in nether Quarterly, adda (Commonwealth Writers UK), Parentheses Journal, Ovenbird Poetry, and elsewhere. He currently serves as a Poetry Editor at Bengaluru Review, Sonic Boom Journal and Yavanika Press.

Nishi Pulugurtha is an academic and writer based in Kolkata. Her publications include a monograph on Derozio (2010), a collection of essays on travel, Out in the Open (2019), an edited volume of essays on travel, Across and Beyond (2020), a volume of poems, The Real and the Unreal and Other Poems (2020), a collection of short stories, The Window Sill (2021) and co-edited a volume of poems Voices and Vision The First IPPL Anthology (2021). A second volume of poems is forthcoming from Writers Workshop, Kolkata. She is working on a book project that brings together recipes from the Telugu kitchen in Calcutta with tales of growing up in Calcutta/Kolkata. She also writes on Alzheimer’s Disease.

Dr. Sarabjeet Dhody Natesan is an Associate Professor of Economics at the School of Interwoven Arts and Sciences, Krea University. She writes about growing up in Lajpat Nagar, a refugee resettlement colony of Delhi. Her academic research lies at the intersection of macroeconomics and public policy implementation. Her current research is on the ‘Bazaars of Post-Partition India’ and ‘The Economics of Religion’. She lives in Chennai with her family. In her free time, she can be found at the beach.

Yamini Krishna Bandlamudi is from Vijayawada.  She did M.A English and MSW and has been into teaching English, Translation, English media & social work for the past 12 years.

Amandeep Kaur is an assistant professor of English at Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar.

Kalyani Dutta is a writer and translator. She co-authored with Meena Bhargava ‘ Women, Education and Politics’: The Women’s Movement and Delhi’s Indraprastha College ‘, OUP (2005). A recipient of Katha Translation Award, her translation of Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain’s Freedom Fables: Satires and Political Writings (2019) was nominated for the Crossword Translation Prize.  There are also Abanindranath Tagore’s   Rajkahini in English (2005) and three contributions in The Essential Tagore, Ed Radha Chakravarty, Fakhrul Alam, Harvard.  ‘Sobuj Card’ by Trishna Bosak, for ‘Bangladesh- Writings on 1971, Orient Longman, (2022) is the most recent.

Vandana Rag is a bi-lingual author, translator and literary activist. She has published four books of short stories in Hindi. Her recently published Hindi novel, Bisat par Jugnu – a saga of dreams traversing across India and China is receiving much critical acclaim. She has translated poetry and prose into Hindi and English.

Amandeep Sandhu was born in Rourkela, Odisha, and studied at the University of Hyderabad. He lives in Bangalore.

Aman is the author of two novels: Sepia Leaves (2008, Rupa) is about a family living under the shadow of schizophrenia from a young boy’s point of view during the Emergency. Roll of Honour (2012, Rupa) is about the split loyalties of a Sikh boy in a military boarding school in Panjab during the Khalistan movement, based on the events of the year 1984. The novel was nominated for The Hindu Prize 2013.

In late 2019, Aman published his non-fiction book, PANJAB Journeys Through Fault Lines (Westland/Amazon, 2019) which is part-reportage, part-memoir, part-contextual history. The book was long-listed for the NIF-Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay Award 2020 and short-listed for the Atta Galatta-BLF Non Fiction Prize 2020. Aman’s e-Book on India’s mental health in the times of coronavirus outbreak is: Bravado to Fear to Abandonment: Mental Health and COVID-19 Lockdown available on Amazon. His essays and short stories have appeared in various anthologies, magazines and websites. He also writes for Caravan, Scroll, The Hindu, The Hindu Businessline and others.

Aman was a Fellow, Akademie Schloss Solitude, Stuttgart, 2013-15. He is now a Homi Bhabha Fellow, 2022-2024, working on a book tentatively titled The Outliers: Sikhs who live Outside Panjab, in India.

Jashanpreet Kaur hails from a village in district Bathinda of Punjab. She has completed her post-graduation in Literature from Panjab University, Chandigarh. At present, she is pursuing Ph.D. on the concept of Punjabiat in Punjabi Poetry of West Punjab. She is a voracious reader. Her areas of interest are poetry, folklore, culture and gender. Her poems have appeared in Punjabi literary magazines. She has also worked as a translator and content writer with TROLLYTIMES & KARTI DHARTI during the farmers’ protests.

Vandana Rag is a bi-lingual author, translator and literary activist. She has published four books of short stories in Hindi. Her recently published Hindi novel, Bisat par Jugnu – a saga of dreams traversing across India and China is receiving much critical acclaim. She has translated poetry and prose into Hindi and English.

Jaskaran Singh Rana is a passionate photographer who is interested in the stories of common people and their struggles.  He is currently based in Jalandhar.

Jaya Jaitly has worked closely, with India’s crafts persons to sustain traditional craft livelihoods and preserve India’s cultural heritage, since 1967 and has travelled widely both in India and abroad for her work. After guiding Design and Marketing at Gurjari for the Gujarat Govt for 11 years she founded the Dastkari Haat Samiti, a national association of craftspeople in 1986. She also created Dilli Haat, a permanent and now iconic crafts marketplace in Delhi in 1994. Jaitly works to link crafts persons to a variety of markets through innovative strategies like creating artistic crafts maps and organising over 15 international workshops with foreign artisans and Indian counterparts to further diplomacy and India’s soft power. She headed a major project with Google Arts & Culture titled Crafted in India to present the largest online exposition of craft stories in the world. Her published works, apart from hundreds of articles, and essays, include the Crafts of Gujarat, Crafts of Jammu, Kashmir & Ladakh, Crafting Nature, Craft Traditions of India, Crafts Atlas of India, The Artistry of Handwork, The Woven Textiles of Varanasi, A Podium on the Pavement, and Viswakarma’s Children.  Crafting Indian Scripts was published in 2015 along with the Akshara exhibition. Her most recent work is Life among the Scorpions – A Memoir of a Woman in Indian Politics. She also writes children’s stories, and gives lectures at educational and cultural institutions.

Adnan Kafeel Darwesh hails from Ballia (U.P). He graduated in Computer Science (Hons.) from Delhi University and went on to acquire a Master’s Degree in Hindi Literature from Jamia Millia Islamia. Currently pursuing a Ph.D from Jamia Millia Islamia, he is a poet, translator and occasional photographer. Darwesh won the noted Bharat Bhushan Agrawal Poetry Award (2018). His first poetry collection, ‘Thithurte Lamp post’ is published by Rajkamal Prakashan, Delhi in 2022.

Vandana Rag is a bi-lingual author, translator and literary activist. She has published four books of short stories in Hindi. Her recently published Hindi novel, Bisat par Jugnu – a saga of dreams traversing across India and China is receiving much critical acclaim. She has translated poetry and prose into Hindi and English.

Kalapini Komkali is endowed with a wholly original, melodious and extremely rich voice. She is widely recognized as one of the finest and well – trained classical vocalists of the younger generation. She is the daughter and disciple of the legendary Pandit Kumar Gandharva and has also been trained by her illustrious mother, Vidushi Vasundhara Komkali. Kalapini learnt from her distinguished parents not only the technique and grammar of her art but also inherited a capacity for creativity and reflection.

While strengthening her hold over her inheritance with a fine sense of understanding, she has evolved her own vision and has emerged in the last decade as a vocalist with a profound degree of sensitivity and intensity. Her performances are marked by youthful imagination, artistic thoughtfulness and a mature command over various aspects of classical vocalism. The improvisations made by her are generally rooted in the Gwalior gayaki, but carry her own distinct identity.

Kalapini’s wide repertoire of ragas and compositions is further supplemented by the presentation of the traditional songs of Malwa representing the folkore and ethnic flavour of the region. The Sagun-Nirgun bhajans (devotional songs) of the various saint poets rendered in her inimitable style provide an ascetic flavour to Kalapini’s music.

Committed to the promotion of art, she organizes music festivals at Dewas to bring together major scholars, performers as well as young artists. A performer of uncommon perception, Kalapini is popular amongst the youth for her lecture- demonstrations of Indian Classical Music.

Kalapini lives in Dewas, Central India. She is an active trustee of the Kumar Gandharva Sangeet Academy. Commercial releases of her studio recordings include, ‘Aarambha’ and ‘Inheritance’, released by HMV; and ‘Dharohar’ released by Times Music. ‘Swar- Manjari’, a live concert recording, was released by Virgin Records. Kalapini has also recorded for sound tracks of the films, ‘Paheli’ and ‘Devi Ahilya’.

Himadri Agarwal (Hima) is a reader and a lover of language. She currently reads Hindi, Urdu, Bengali, and English, and hopes to keep adding more to the list. She loves to play, both with words and with games—an avid Dungeons & Dragons fan, she hopes to spend her life listening to stories, whether they are from people, pages, or the game board.

Kalyani Jha is a Marathi lecturer at the undergraduate level. She also teaches Marathi to non-Marathi speakers. She has a Doctorate in Marathi Literature. Research, translation, culture, gender, child education and music are her areas of interest. She lives in Pune.

Zainab Ummer Farook calls Kozhikode her home, but she loves banana halwa from Mangalore. Her poems have been featured in The Bombay Literary Magazine, nether Quarterly, Narrow Road, and the anthology 14 International Younger Poets.

Yamini Krishnan is a student of English and Creative Writing at Ashoka University, Haryana, India. Her work has been published or is forthcoming in Scroll.in, The Bombay Literary Magazine and Extinction Violin: The Penguin Book of Modern Indian Poets among others. She’s a graduate of the Summer Institute of the International Writing Programme at the University of Iowa. She writes poetry and essays. She lives between Delhi and Pune.

Purvi Rajpuria is a freelance writer and illustrator. She is currently pursuing an MFA in Illustration and Visual Culture at Washington University in St. Louis, USA.