The Sharpest Literature Festival in India

A.R. Venkatachalapathy

VENKATACHALAPATHY A. R. historian, author and translator, is Professor at the Madras Institute of Development Studies, Chennai. He has taught at universities in Tirunelveli, Chennai, Chicago, and Singapore. Chalapathy writes in Tamil and English and has published widely on the social, cultural and intellectual history of colonial Tamilnadu. His publications include In Those Days There Was No Coffee: Writings in Cultural History; The Province of the Book: Scholars, Scribes, and Scribblers in Colonial Tamilnadu; (ed.) Chennai, Not Madras, (ed.), and In the Tracks of the Mahatma: The Making of a Documentary. He has translated Sundara Ramaswamy’s J.J.: Some Jottings and, in collaboration with M.L. Thangappa, has published two volumes of classical Tamil poetry in the Penguin classics: Love Stands Alone and Red Lilies and Frightened Birds. He is the winner of the V.K.R.V. Rao Prize (2007).

A.S. Panneerselvan

Amandeep Sandhu

Amandeep Sandhu hails from Odisha and is the author of two novels: Sepia Leaves (2008 Rupa) and Roll of Honour (2012, Rupa). His non-fiction work, Panjab: Journeys Through Fault Lines (Westland/Amazon, 2019) 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. His essays and short stories have appeared in various anthologies, magazines and websites. Amandeep was a Fellow, Akademie Schloss Solitude, Stuttgart, Germany (2013 to 2015) and is currently a Homi Bhabha Fellow (2022-24) working on a book tentatively titled The Outliers: Sikhs Who Live Outside Panjab, In India. He lives in Bengaluru and writes for Caravan, Scroll, The Hindu and The Hindu BussinessLine.

AMRUTA PATIL

AMRUTA PATIL is a writer and painter with an MFA from School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. She is the author of graphic novels Kari (HarperCollins) and Adi Parva (HarperCollins). Adi Parva is the first part of a mytho-historical trilogy based on the Mahabharata. Live Mint has described hers as “the most original comic strip work...seen in India”. Amruta’s books have been translated into French and Italian, and her short works of graphic fiction have appeared in international magazines such as Art Review, TimeOut, Internazionale and Tehelka. View Amruta’s writing and artwork at amrutapatil.blogspot.com.

Anita R. Ratnam

RATNAM, ANITA (www.anitaratnam.com) is an internationally respected dancer, choreographer, writer, and advocate of Contemporary Indian dance. She is a sought-after speaker and conducts workshops in academic, corporate and youth forums. Anita has a Ph.D in Women’s Studies from Mother Theresa University (Chennai), and an MA in Theatre Arts from the University of New Orleans. She developed www.narthaki.com to pioneer the usage of online technology for a global perspective on the ever-changing world of Indian dance. The site contains reviews, interviews, feature articles on Indian dance and more. In addition, she co-founded and co-curated ‘The Other Festival,’ India’s first annual contemporary dance festival. She has also played a key role in the revival and restoration of Kaisiki Natakam, a 13th century Tamil temple theatre ritual recreated in her ancestral village in Tamil Nadu. Anita is an Executive Member of the Sangeet Natak Akademi. She lives in Chennai.

Aruna Sairam

Aruna Sairam is a Carnatic vocalist, composer, collaborator, humanitarian, and speaker. In addition to her performances in India, Aruna has taken Carnatic music to the global arena at prestigious venues including the Royal Albert Hall and Carnegie Hall. Currently Vice-Chairperson of the Sangeet Natak Akademi, Delhi, she was appointed as Advisor to the State Department of Culture in 2008 by the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu. Aruna works for the musical education of underprivileged students, through the Nadayogam Trust, which she founded in 2011. Aruna was the first to incorporate abhang, a Western Indian musical form, into a traditional, South Indian concert. By interacting with national and international musicians, Aruna communicates beyond regional contexts, using melody as a language of human expression. Her many awards include the Padma Shri and the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award.