The Sharpest Literature Festival in India

A.R. Venkatachalapathy

A.R. VENKATACHALAPATHY, Professor at the Madras Institute of Development Studies, Chennai, has taught at universities in Tirunelveli, Chennai, Singapore and Chicago. Apart from the V.K.R.V. Rao Prize (History, 2007), he has received the Vilakku Pudumaippithan Award (2018) and Iyal Virudhu (2021), both for lifetime contribution to Tamil. He has published widely on the social, cultural and intellectual history of colonial Tamil Nadu. Apart from his scholarly writings in English, he has written/edited over 30 books in Tamil. His publications in English include The Brief History of a Very Big Book: The Making of the Tamil Encyclopaedia, Tamil Characters: Personalities, Politics, Culture; Who Owns That Song?: The Battle for Subramania Bharati’s Copyright; The Province of the Book: Scholars, Scribes, and Scribblers in Colonial Tamilnadu; In Those Days There Was No Coffee: Writings in Cultural History. Presently he is working on biographies of Periyar and V.O. Chidambaram Pillai. 

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

ANITA RATNAM is a celebrated performer of dance and theatre. As choreographer, writer, speaker and mentor her impact on the Indian performing arts has been recognised with awards and honours. As a culture catalyst, Anita’s work traverses a wide range — academia, youth outreach, motivational speaking and digital creation. 

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.