Aidan Singh

Aidan Singh Bhati is a famous poet and critic in Rajasthani and Hindi. His collection of Rajasthani poemsHanstoda Hothan Ro Sanch and Rat Kasumbal have widely been appreciated among readers and literary circles. Apart from his creative work, he has contributed a number of articles on Rajasthani folk culture and life of the desert. At present he is Head of the Dept. in Govt. College, Jaisalmer.

Ajay Navaria

Ajay Navaria, 37, is the author of a collection of short stories (Patkatha aur anya Kahaniyan, 2006) and the novel (Udhar Ke Log, 2008). Navaria has been involved with the premier literary journal Hans as a guest editor for special issues. He was bestowed with the Sahitiyik Kriti Award in 2008 by the Hindi Academy, Delhi. Navaria teaches ‘Hindu Ethics' at Jamia Milia Islamia University, Delhi. Unlike the first generation of Dalit writers who were preoccupied with autobiography as a form, Navaria has expanded the boundaries of dalit writing with his explorations of issues of identity and sexuality, in the process creating "casteless characters". As a piece on him in Tehelka noted: "Navaria is one of the first dalit writers to write without any traces of nostalgia for the village left behind." A collection of his short stories translated into English by Laura Brueck is due from Navayana by mid-2011.

Alain Mabanckou

Alain Mabanckou is a Congolese writer born in 1966 in Congo-Brazaville. He studied law in Brazaville and Paris, worked in this sector but concurrently wrote books of poetry and novels which won many prizes. He resides in the USA where he is teaching literature at UCLA.

Alexander McCall Smith

Alexander McCall Smith is one of the world's most prolific and most popular authors. His career has been a varied one: for many years he was a professor of Medical Law and worked in universities in the United Kingdom and abroad.

Then, after the publication of his highly successfulNo 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series, which has sold over twenty million copies, he devoted his time to the writing of fiction and has seen his various series of books translated into over forty languages and become bestsellers through the world.The series include the Scotland Street novels, first published as a serial novel in The Scotsman, the Isabel Dalhousie novels, the Von Igelfeld series and now a new series, Corduroy Mansions, published first as a serial novel on the website of the Telegraph media group.
He has received numerous awards for his writing, including the British Book Awards Author of the Year Award in 2004 and a CBE for service to literature in 2007. He holds honorary doctorates from nine universities in Europe and North America.

Alexander McCall Smith lives in Edinburgh. He is married to a doctor and has two daughters.

Ali Sethi

Ali Sethi was born in Lahore in 1984 and grew up there. In 2002 he left to attend college in the United States and graduated in 2006. He has since written reviews and articles for several publications, local and international, and has co-produced and narrated a documentary on student politics in Pakistan. He lived in New York City for a year and now lives in Lahore, where he is making music.

Alka Pande

An  independent  curator, Dr Alka Pande is also prolific writer on Indology and art history and is the author of several books, with a special interest in Ancient Indian Erotic literature and art. Recipient of the Charles Wallace Award in 1999-2000, Dr Pande completed her post-doctoral studies in critical art theory from Goldsmith College, University of London. She has been awarded the Chevalier dans l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres - Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters - award by the French government, to recognise significant contributions in the fields of art and literature. She has been responsible for curating several significant and perceptive exhibitions in India and abroad. She is currently an art  consultant  and  curator   at  the  India  Habitat  Centre. Another of her publications awaiting release is Shringara  the  Many  Emotions  of  Indian  Beauty.
For more: www. alkapande.com

Ameen Merchant

Ameen Merchant was born in Mumbai and raised in Chennai. The Silent Raga is his first novel and  was short-listed for the Commonwealth Writers' Prize 2008. He lives in Vancouver, Canada, where he is working on his next novel and programming a new Bollywood audio channel for the CBC.

Amit Chaudhuri

Amit Chaudhuri is, according to the Guardian, ‘one of the leading novelists of his generation'. ‘His latest bookThe Immortals is his fifth novel, and was Critics' Choice, Best Books of 2009, for the New Yorker, the Boston Globe, and the Irish Times. He is also an internationally acclaimed essayist and musician. Among the prizes he has won are the Commonwealth Writers Prize, the Encore Award, the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, and the Sahitya Akademi award. He is Professor of Contemporary Literature at the University of East Anglia, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. He was one of the judges of the Man Booker International Prize 2009. He is also the first Indian writer to have had a Guardian editorial written about him, "In Praise of... Amit Chaudhuri".

Amitava Kumar

Amitava Kumar was born in Ara, in Bihar, and grew up in Patna, famous for its poverty, corruption, and delicious mangoes. Kumar's writings on the experience of migration, as well as his poetry and criticism, have been widely published in India and abroad. His latest non-fiction book, A Foreigner Carrying in the Crook of His Arm A Tiny Bomb, was described by the New York Times as a "perceptive and soulful ... meditation on the global war on terror and its cultural and human repercussions." He is a professor of English at Vassar College.

Amraram Gurjar

Amraram Gurjar is a traditional folk artist who specializes in the recitation of Gurjar epic, "Bagdawat Mahagatha" a very popular folk form of Rajasthan, performed with Jantar instrument.

Ananya Vajpeyi

Ananya Vajpeyi was educated at the Jawaharlal University, Delhi, Oxford University, where she read as a Rhodes Scholar, and the University of Chicago. She studied Indian and European literature and literary theory, and trained in Sanskrit philology. She lives in Cambridge, MA and teaches South Asian History at the University of Massachusetts. Her book,Righteous Republic: The Political Foundations of Modern India will be published by Harvard University Press.

Andrew O’Hagan

Andrew O'Hagan was born in Glasgow in 1968

In 1999 he published his first novel, OUR FATHERS, which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize, the Whitbread First Novel Award, the International Dublin IMPAC Award, the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize, and was winner of the Holtby Prize for Fiction.

His second novel PERSONALITY was published in 2003. He won the E.M.Forster Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and was named one of Granta's Best of Young British Novelists.
His third novel BE NEAR ME was long-listed for the Booker Prize, and became a stage play in London's West End.

Since 2000, Andrew O'Hagan has been a Unicef Ambassador.

Anjum Hasan

Anjum Hasan is the author of the novels Neti, Neti(short-listed for the Hindu Best Fiction Award, long-listed for the DSC Literature Prize and the Man Asian Literary Prize) and Lunatic in my Head (short-listed for the Crossword Book Award). She has also written the book of poems Street on the Hill. Anjum's essays, reviews, short stories and poems have appeared in various Indian and international publications. She is Books Editor, The Caravan and lives in Bangalore.

Anne Applebaum

Anne Applebaum is an American historian and journalist, now resident in Poland.  As Warsaw correspondent for the Economist in 1989, as Foreign Editor of the Spectator magazine, and as a columnist for the Daily Telegraph and now the Washington Post she has written extensively on US and international politics,focusing in particular on central Europe and Russia. Her most recent book Gulag: A History won the 2004 Pulitzer Prize for non-fiction and has appeared in more than two dozen translations.

Anne Enright

Anne Enright's first novel, ‘The Wig My Father Wore', was published in 1995 and explores themes that continue to occupy her in much of her later work, such as family tensions, Catholicism and sex. Her fourth novel, ‘The Gathering', was published in 2007 and won the Booker that year.

Arunava Sinha

Arunava Sinha is a translator of classic and contemporary Bengali fiction. His latest published translations are The Chieftain's Daughter(Bankimchandra Chattopadhyay) and Three Women (Rabindranath Tagore) - both part of the Random House Bengali Classics Series, of which he is the series editor. His earlier translations includeWhat Really Happened and Other Stories(Banaphool), By The Tungabhadra (Saradindu Bandyopadhyay), Striker Stopper (Moti Nandy), and My Kind of Girl (Buddhadeva Bose). His translation of Sankar's Chowringhee won the Vodafone-Crossword translation prize for 2007, and was shortlisted for the Independent Best Foreign Fiction prize in the UK for 2009.

Arvind Krishna Mehrotra

Arvind Krishna Mehrotra is the author of four books of poems, the most recent of which is The Transfiguring Places (1998). His edited books include The Oxford India Anthology of Twelve Modern Indian Poets (1992), An Illustrated History of Indian Literature in English (2003),The Last Bungalow: Writings on Allahabad(2007), and The Boatride and Other Poems (2009) by Arun Kolatkar. The Absent Traveller: Prākrit Love Poetry from the Gāthāsaptaśatī of Sātavāhana Hāla (1991), a volume of translations, has recently been reprinted in Penguin Classics. He is currently working on a translation of Kabir to be published by NYRB. He lives in Allahabad and Dehra Dun.

Ashi Dorji Wangmo Wangchuck

The Queen, Ashi Dorji Wangmo Wangchuck, runs the Tarayana Foundation, which provides medical, educational and social support to people living in the most remote parts of Bhutan. Her work for her foundation has taken her on long and gruelling journeys on foot to these remote areas, some of which she has described in her book. She was educated in Darjeeling district, West Bengal, has two children- and has just become a grandmother.

Asma Jahangir

Asma Jahangir is a lawyer by profession and practices in the Supreme and High Courts in Pakistan. She is closely associated with women and human rights organisations in the region. At present she is the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Freedom of religion or belief of the Council on Human Rights. She has authored two books: Divine Sanction and The Hadood Ordinance 1988 andChild Prisoners of Pakistan. She is a recipient of number of international and national awards. Amongst these is the Ramon Magsaysay award in 1995.

Atul Kanak

Atul Kanak is a Hindi and Rajasthani writer. He was the Senior editor of a Hindi daily called-"Des ki Dharti" and has written a Rajasthani play along with a number of poems.
He currently resides in Kota Rajasthan.

Barkha Dutt

Barkha Dutt is an Indian TV journalist and columnist. She is currently Group Editor, English News at NDTV.
Dutt gained prominence for her reportage of the Kargil War. She has won many national and international awards, including the Padma Shri, India's fourth highest civilian honour. She writes a popular column for The Hindustan Times, called "Third Eye."

Basharat Peer

Basharat Peer was born in Kashmir in 1977. He studied journalism and politics at Columbia University, worked as a reporter in India and as an editor at Foreign Affairs in New York. He is a Fellow at Open Society Institute, New York. His first book,Curfewed Night, an account of the Kashmir conflict won the Vodaphone Crossword Award for Non-fiction and was chosen among the Books of the Year by the New Yorker, The Economist, Sunday Times, and Daily Telegraph. His work has appeared in Granta, Financial Times magazine, Guardian, Foreign Affairs, N+1, The Caravan, Open, and Outlook magazines. His is working on a book on India's Muslims.

Bhagwan Atlani

Bhagwan Atlani is a Sindhi and Hindi fiction writer and playwright. He was born in Larkana, Sindh (now in Pakistan) and now resides in Jaipur. He was the Chairman of Rajasthan Sindhi Academy. His major works include Pattoo, Bhandero, Alvida (plays), Kandan Ji Bij (short story), Pahini Pahinj Ranj (novel). He has also edited a number of journals.

Bharat Ola

Dr. Bharat Ola was born in 1963 in district Hanumangarh, Rajasthan. He writes poetry, short fiction and novels in Rajasthani. One of his short stories - Jiv Ri Jaat - is part of the senior school curriculum. He received the prestigious Sahitya Akademi Award for this short story in 2002. His works have been translated into several Indian languages

Brigid Keenan

Brigid Keenan was born in India and began her career in journalism on a provincial newspaper in Britain. She has worked with the Sunday Times, the iconic magazine Nova, & The Observer.

Among the titles she has published are a biography of Christian Dior, a fashion history entitled The Women we wanted to look like, and works on Damascus and Kashmir. Her book, Diplomatic Baggage tells the trailing spouse's story. A best-seller in Britain it has been translated into six languages.

Catherine Clément

Catherine Clément is a French writer and philosopher born in 1939. After graduating from the École Normale Supérieure, she became Vladimir Jankélévitch's assistant at the Sorbonne University. Since 2002, she is running the Popular University of the Quai Branly Museum. Her several travels in India also inspired her literary work.

Chetan Bhagat

Chetan Bhagat was born in New Delhi and attended Army Public School, Dhaula Kuan, New Delhi. He studied Mechanical Engineering at The Indian Institute Of Technology (IIT) and then studied at Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad (IIM) where he was named "The Best Outgoing Student". He worked as an Investment Banker with Deutsche bank for eleven years in Hong Kong and moved to Mumbai with his wife Anusha in 2008. Later he gave up his job to devote his entire time to his writings. He is married to Anusha, who was his classmate in IIM.

Chetan Bhagat has written Five Point Someone - What not to do at IIT , One Night @ the Call Center, The Three Mistakes of My Life and 2 States - The Story Of My Marriage. He has also written the script of Hello, the Hindi movie based on One Night @ the Call Center.

Chiki Sarkar

Chiki Sarkar is the editor in chief of Random House India. She had worked in Bloomsbury Publishing, UK for seven years before returning to head up the newly set up Random House India, three years ago. Random House India's authors include Jhumpa Lahiri, Basharat Peer, Mohammed Hanif, Daniyal Mueenuddin, Anita Desai, Namita Devidayal, Geoff Dyer and Rujuta Diwekar.

Christophe Jaffrelot

Christophe Jaffrelot has been Director of CERI (Centre d'Etudes et de Recherches Internationales) at Sciences Po (Paris) between 2000 and 2008. He is Research director at the CNRS (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique) and teaches South Asian politics and history at Sciences Po. His most significant publications are The Hindu Nationalist Movement and Indian Politics, 1925 to the 1990s, Penguin India, 1996 and 1999, India's Silent Revolution. The Rise of the Low Castes in North India, Permanent Black, 2003 and Dr Ambedkar and Untouchability. Analysing and fighting caste, New York, Columbia University Press. He has also edited Pakistan, Nationalism without a Nation?, Delhi, Manohar, 2002.and co-edited with P. Van der Veer, Patterns of Middle Class Consumption in China and India, New Delhi, Sage, 2008.

Claire Tomalin

Claire Tomalin is the author of highly acclaimed biographies of Jane Austen, Thomas Hardy, Samuel Pepys, Mary Wollstonecraft and Katherine Mansfield. She has won many prizes like the James Tait Black Memorial Prize (for biography), the NCR Book Award and the Hawthornden Prize. Her biography of the 17th-century diarist Samuel Pepys won the 2002 Whitbread Book of the Year. Her book Thomas Hardy: The Time-Torn Man was shortlisted for the British Book Awards Biography of the Year.

Daisy Hasan

Daisy Hasan's first novel, The To-Let House, Tara Books 2010, was longlisted for the 2008, Man Asian Literary Prize and will be released at the festival. Daisy has held many prestigious fellowships which have allowed her to research and write about the cultures of North-East India. She holds a PhD from Swansea University, UK. She is currently engaged in a study of South Asian women's art in conflict situations at the University of Leeds, UK and is working on her second novel to be set in Britain.

Desraj kali

Desraj kali was born in 1971 and lives in Jalandhar. His short stories include Chanan Di Leek, Kath-Kali, Phaqiri & Chup Kitey (under publication). Novels by Desraj include Parneshwari, Antheen, Paratham Pauran, Shanti Para amongst others. Under publication are Nar Natak & Thumri.Gadari Shahid Banta Singh Sanghwal, Gadari Bhai Randhir Singh are a few of the history books authored by him. Other works include a documentary film Kite Mil Ve Mahi and has edited a magazine on Dalit issues called  Pancham.

He has also published many research papers on the Ghadar Movement and Revolutionary Movement, literature and culture of Punjab and Dalit issues.

Devdutt Pattanaik

Devdutt Pattanaik is a medical doctor by education, a leadership consultant by profession, and a mythologist by passion. He has written and lectured extensively on the nature of sacred stories, symbols and rituals and their relevance in modern times. His books include The Book of Ram, Myth=Mithya: A Handbook of Hindu Mythology and The Pregnant King (all by Penguin India). The Book of Kali (Viking India) is based on his talks. Devdutt's unconventional approach and engaging style is evident in his lectures, books and articles.

Dilip Simeon

Dilip Simeon studied in Delhi in the late 60's; and was a political activist. From 1974 till 1994 he taught at Ramjas College. In 1984 he joined a campaign for justice for victims of the Delhi carnage. He is now chairperson of the Aman Trust, which works to reduce violent conflict.

Dinesh Panchal

Dinesh Panchal was born in 1965. He writes in Rajasthani and has been published by the National Book Trust, Haryana Sahitya Akademi and the prestigious Rajasthani Bhasha Sahitya evam Sanskriti Academy, Bikaner. His works have been translated into Oriya, Punjabi, Kashmiri and Dogri. He was awarded the Sahitya Akademi Award for Rajasthani in 2008. His stories and essays have been regularly broadcast on Rajasthan TV and All India Radio. He is a teacher by profession.

Esther Freud

Esther Freud was born in London in 1963. She trained as an actress before writing her first novel Hideous Kinky, published in 1991. Hideous Kinky was shortlisted for the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize and was made into a film starring Kate Winslet. She has since written six more novels, the most recent of which, Lucky Break, will be published in June 2010. She lives in London with her husband and three children.

Fiona Caufield

Creator of the Love Travel brand of guidebooks, designed for luxury vagabonds, Fiona also has a high profile career as a futurist and is a contributing writer to leading travel magazines. An avid traveller and explorer, Fiona is a self-confessed luxury vagabond with a discerning eye for the singular experiences that set a destination apart. www.lovetravelguides.com

Frances Osborne

Frances Osborne is the author of Lilla's Feast, a Kiriyama Prize Notable Book and an Editor's Choice in the New York Times. Her second book, The Bolter, topped the Sunday Times bestseller list, was shortlisted for Best Read in Britain and has been a bestseller in the United States. Frances is working on her debut novel.

François Roca

François Roca is a French illustrator born in Lyon in 1971. In 1996, he published the album La Reine des fourmis a disparu, which opened to him the doors of many publishing houses. He is now considered as one of the most important French illustrator for children books and has published more than twenty ones with his friend Fred Bernard.

Geoff Dyer

Geoff Dyer's many books include  But Beautiful,Yoga For People Who Can't Be Bothered To Do It, The Ongoing Moment and, most recently, a novel, Jeff in Venice, Death in Varanasi.   His many awards  include a Somersert Maugham Prize, the E. M. Forster Award and a Lannan Literary Fellowship. He lives in London.

Gillian Wright

Gillian Wright studied Urdu and Hindi at London University's School of Oriental and African Studies. She has lived in India for thirty years and has translated Hindi novels by Srilal Shukla and Rahi Masoom Reza and short stories by Bhisham Sahni. She has also written books on travel and wildlife, and collaborated with Mark Tully on his various books, particularly "India in Slow Motion."

Girish Karnad

Girish Karnad is a playwright, film-maker and actor, who writes in Kannada as well as in English. After graduating from Oxford, where he  was  a Rhodes Scholar, he worked with  Oxford University Press as an editor. Subsequently, he served as Director of the Film and Television Institute of India and Chairman of the Sangeet Natak Akademi, New Delhi. He was at the University of Chicago as Visiting Professor and Fulbright Playwright-in-Residence, and most recently, has served as Director of The Nehru Centre, London.  
His plays have been presented by the Guthrie Theater at Minneapolis, USA and by the Haymarket Theatre, Leicester, UK. He wrote and presented a film on the  Bhagavad Gita on BBC Two.
He has received the Bharatiya Jnanpith, is a Fellow of the Sangeet Natak Akademi and has been awarded the Padma Bhushan by the President of India.

Gulzar

Gulzar is an eminent writer of rare talent, a leading filmmaker, lyricist and script-writer. He was conferred with the Sahitya Akademi Award in 2002 for his collection of short stories, Dhuan. Gulzar is an author of several collections of poems and short stories in Urdu and has to his credit many hauntingly melodious film songs that demonstrate his multi-lingual sensitivity. His creative repertoire also includes books for children, plays, ballets, translations & music albums. He has made some significant television serials on Mirza Ghalib and on the works of Munshi Premchand. His film scripts have been published in a series of books entitled Manzarnama. Gulzar has been honoured with ‘Life Time Achievement Award' for his contribution to Hindi Cinema & with the Padma Bhushan. The most recent honour conferred upon him at the international level are the Oscar (2008) and the Grammy (2010) Awards  for his song written for the film Slumdog Millionaire.

H.M. Naqvi

H.M. Naqvi was born in 1974. Since then he graduated from Georgetown and Boston University, worked in finance, ran a slam venue, and taught creative writing at B.U. He received a Lannan fellowship, a Phelam Prize, and has read verse on NPR, BBC, and at Lollapalooza. Presently, he resides in Karachi.

Hanif Kureishi

Hanif Kureishi is the author of numerous novels, short story collections, screenplays and plays. In 1984 he wrote My Beautiful Laundrette, which received an Oscar nomination for Best Screenplay. His second film, Sammy and Rosie Get Laid, was followed by London Kills Me, which he also directed. The Buddha of Suburbia won the Whitbread Prize for Best First Novel in 1990 and was made into a four-part drama series by the BBC. Intimacy, his third novel, was published in 1998, and was adapted for film in 2001. The film Venus, directed by Roger Michell, won Peter O'Toole a Golden Globe and Oscar nomination. His latest novel, Something To Tell You was published to great critical acclaim in 2008. His work has been translated into 36 languages. He has been awarded the Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts des Lettres and a CBE for services to literature.

Hariram Acharya

Dr. HARI RAM GANESH DUTTA ACHARYA is a Poet - Lyricist - Dramatist and Film Writer. He is a Retired Professor of Sanskrit from the University of Rajasthan, Jaipur
and has been the Chairman of Rajasthan Sanskrit Academy . He has received 3 Awards for Hindi, Sanskrit and Rajasthani.

Hemant Shesh

Hemant Shesh is a distinguished poet, art-critic and columnist of Hindi. More than nine collection of his Hindi poems have been published till date and has participated in various poetic symposium across the country. As a modern artist and painter number of one-man art exhibitions have been arranged on his oil paintings, poster-poems and drawings at various centers and art galleries of all major metro cities. He is an editor of quarterly art journal Kala-Prayojan, published by Western Cultural Center, Udaipur. He has also been awarded for his valuable creative contribution on state and national level. At present he is working as Secretary with Rajasthan Public Service Commission, Ajmer. Contact mobile no. 09314508026

Henry Louis Gates Jr.

Henry Louis Gates, Jr., is the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and the Director of the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research at Harvard University. An influential scholar in the field of African American Studies, he is the author of twelve books and has hosted and produced nine documentaries for PBS and the BBC. He is the recipient of 50 honorary degrees and numerous awards, including the MacArthur Genius Grant. He was named to Time magazine's "25 Most Influential Americans" list in 1997 and to Ebony magazine's "Power 150" list in 2009.

Hetu Bhardwaj

Hetu Bhardwaj is an Indian Hindi fiction writer. Dr Bhardwaj writes in contemporary genre of the language, and has published more than 20 short stories/novels collections so far. He was awarded the Rajasthan Sahitya Academy Award in the year 1980, and again in the year 1993.
Some of his best works include Teen Kamron Ka Makan, Chief Sahab Aa Rahey Hain, Chhupane Ko Chhupa Jaata, Banti Bigarti Lakeeren, Teerth Yatra.
He retired as Principal,Government College, Neem-Ka-Thana, Rajasthan. He is currently editing Aksar a literary magazine and Pancheel Shodh Samiksha a Research Journal.
He lives with his family at Chhaoni Neem-Ka-Thana, and at Jaipur.

Himani Dalmia

Himani Dalmia is the author of ‘Life is Perfect', a coming-of-age novel, published by Rupa & Co. Himani is an English Literature graduate from St. Stephen's College, Delhi University, and holds a Master's in South Asian Literature from the University of Oxford. Himani has written prolifically on culture and society for newspapers and magazines. She is a scion of the Dalmia family and works full-time in a family business, Dalmia Continental.

IIra Trivedi

IIra Trivedi is the author of the best-selling novels What Would You Do To Save The World? (Penguin 2006) andThe Great Indian Love Story (Penguin 2009). Her books have been translated into several regional languages and meet by critical and public acclaim. Her latest book There is No Love on Wall Street will be released in January 2011. She holds a MBA from Columbia Business School and a BA in Economics from Wellesley College.

IndiraGoswami

Writing in Assamese  IndiraGoswami's work is extremely powerful and political. Her graphic descriptions and haunting images bring to light the centrality of the body in human affairs placing this against the backdrop on a continuing engagement with social and political contexts. She has published numerous works and is an iconic figure on the Indian literary landscape.

Indrajit Hazra

Indrajit Hazra is the author of ‘The Burnt Forehead of Max Saul' (2000), ‘The Garden of Earthly Delights‘ (2003) and ‘The Bioscope Man‘ (2008). He is currently working on the novel tentatively titled ‘Bulganin's Girl'. He works as a journalist with the Hindustan Times where his column ‘Red Herring' appears every Sunday. He lives in New Delhi.

Iqbal Udasi

Iqbal Udasi is a poet of Punjabi and an activist. Known for singing soulfully the verses of her father late Sant Ram Udasi, the famous Left-wing Dalit poet, she works as a headmistress of a village school in Punjab.

Ira Pande

Ira Pande is the daughter of the beloved Hindi writer Shivani. She taught at the Department of English, Punjab University Chandigarh, for fifteen years, and then was an editor at Seminar, Biblio, Dorling Kindersley and Roli Books. She has done some work for television and has also acted in the award-winning film Monsoon Wedding. Currently, she works as a freelance writer and editor.

Isabel Hilton

Isabel Hilton is a London based writer and broadcaster, and founder and editor of www.chinadialogue.net, an innovative, fully bilingual Chinese English website devoted to building a shared approach on climate change and environmental issues with China. Isabel has reported extensively from South and East Asia, Latin America, the Middle East, Europe and Africa, writing for a wide range of national and international media. She has also made several radio and television documentaries and has been a distinguished presenter for BBC Radio Three and Four.  Some of her books include The Search for the Panchen Lama, The Falklands War, co-author, of the Fourth Reich & The Best of Granta Travel, Betrayed,The Rise of China & The Thinking Fan's Guide to the World Cup,  Her television and radio documentaries include: City On The Edge, Condemned To Live, The Caravan Of Death, to name a few. She was awarded an OBE in 2009 for her contribution to raising environmental awareness in China.

Jai Arjun Singh

Jai Arjun Singh is a freelance writer and journalist. He has authored the book Jaane bhi do Yaaro: Seriously Funny Since 1983, about the making of the cult comedy film, and has edited The Popcorn Essayists, an anthology of film essays. He writes about books and films on the culture blog Jabberwock (http://jaiarjun.blogspot.com).

Jamaica Kincaid

Jamaica Kincaid was born in St. John's, Antigua. Her books include At the Bottom of the River, Annie John, Lucy, The Autobiography of My Mother,My Brother, and My Favorite Plant, among others.  In fall 2009 she was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.  She lives in California.

Jasbir Jain

Jasbir Jain, Sahitya Akademi Writer/Critic -in - Residence at the University of Rajasthan and Director IRIS is the recipient of the 2008 SALA Award for distinguished scholarship and IACS Award, 2004. Her dominant field of interest is narratology in Indian language literatures.

Jaspreet Singh

Jaspreet Singh lives in the Canadian Rockies. He is a former research scientist with a PhD in chemical engineering from McGill University, Montreal. His debut short-story collection, Seventeen Tomatoes, won the 2004 McAuslan First Book Prize. Chef, his first novel, won the Georges Bugnet Award for Fiction and was shortlisted for four awards including the 2009 Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best Book in the Region. It is also longlisted for the 2010 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, and will be brought out by Bloomsbury and Penguin-India later this year.

Javed Akhtar

Son of the well-known Urdu poet and film lyricist, Akhtar belongs to a lineage that can be traced back to seven generations of writers.
He began his career as lyricist with Yash Chopra's Silsila. His songs have achieved unparalleled popularity and he is one of the most respected lyricist in India. He has also written numerous scripts for movies.
Akhtar has won the Filmfare Award fourteen times, he has also won the five National Award as Best Lyricist The President of India has also bestowed him with the Padmashree in 1999. Indira Gandhi Award for National Integration 2006. Padma Bhusan Award 2007.

John Kampfner

John Kampfner's latest book is Freedom For Sale, which looks at the global trade-off between liberty and money and security. He is Chief Executive of the free expression organization, Index on Censorship, and Chairman of Turner Contemporary, a major new UK art gallery. A long-standing journalist and broadcaster, he was Editor of the New Statesman from 2005-08.

K Satchidanandan

K Satchidanandan  is perhaps the most translated of contemporary Indian poets , having 23 collections in 18 languages including  Arabic, French, German and Italian. His book While I Write : New and Selected Poems (Harper-Collins) is being launched during  this festival. Satchidanandan writes poetry  in Malayalam and prose in Malayalam and English and has more than 20  collections of poetry besides several books of travel, plays and criticism. He has represented India in many Literary Festivals across the world including the Berlin Literary Festival and London, Paris, Frankfurt and Moscow Book Fairs. He has won 27 literary awards besides Knighthood of the Order of Merit from the Government of Italy and India-Poland Friendship Medal from the Government of Poland.

Kai Bird

Kai Bird's most recent book is Crossing Mandelbaum Gate: Coming of Age Between the Arabs and Israelis, 1956-1978 (Scribner, April 27, 2010). He is the co-author with Martin J. Sherwin of the Pulitzer Prize-winning biography, American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer (2005), which also won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Biography. He wrote The Chairman: John J. McCloy, theMaking of the American Establishment (1992) and The Color of Truth: McGeorge Bundy & William Bundy, Brothers in Arms (1998). He is also co-editor with Lawrence Lifschultz of Hiroshima's Shadow: Writings on the Denial of History and the Smithsonian Controversy (1998). He is the recipient of fellowships from the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, the Alicia Patterson Foundation, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Thomas J. Watson Foundation, the German Marshall Fund, the Rockefeller Foundation's Study Center, Bellagio, Italy and the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington DC. He is a member of the Society of American Historians and a contributing editor of The Nation. He lives in Kathmandu, Nepal with his wife and son.

Kancha Ilaiah

At the peak of the hindutva movement, Kancha Ilaiah wrote his pathbreaking bestselling work, Why I Am Not A Hindu: A Sudra Critique of Hindutva Philosophy, Culture and Political Economy(Calcutta: Samya, 1996). His latest book is equally provocatively entitled Post-Hindu India: A Discourse in Dalit-Bahujan, Socio-Spiritual and Scientific Revolution (Sage, 2009). This critique of Brahmanism and the caste system in India that anticipates the death of Hinduism has sold more than 6,000 copies within three months of publication. Ilaiah, who teaches Political Science at Osmania University in Hyderabad, is also the author of the bestselling children's book Turning the Pot, Tilling the Land: Dignity of Labour in Our Times (New Delhi, Navayana: 2007). According to Unicef-India's country director: "It's a hugely important book. Every Indian child should read it." This book has been translated into Tamil, Telugu, Hindi and Malayalam. His other books includeGod as Political Philosopher: Buddha's Challenge to Brahminism(Calcutta: Samya, 2001) and Buffalo Nationalism: A Critique of Spiritual Fascism (Calcutta: Samya, 2004).

Kishwar Desai

Kishwar Desai has worked in print and TV for over 20 years. Her first book Darlingji: The True Love Story of Nargis and Sunil Dutt was published by HarperCollins India in 2007. Her first novel ,Witness the Night, is longlisted for the Man Asian Literary Prize, 2009.

Krishna Baldev Vaid

Born 1927 in Western Punjab, now part of Pakistan.Survived Partition after harrowing experiences in refugee camps and trains. Transplantation in 1947 his most traumatic and central experience. Educated at Punjab University (Lahore and Delhi) and Harvard University from where he got his Ph.D. in English literature. Has taught English literature at Delhi and Panhab universities and three American universities-Brandeis, Case Western Reserve, State University of New York. Has published about forty books (novels, short stories,plays, diaries,criticism) in Hindi and English. His own translator into English. Has translated Beckett, Racine, Lewis Carrol into Hindi. Known for his style, innovative narrative structures, and uncompromising attitude. Novels available in English: STEPS IN DARKNESS (Uska Bachpan), BIMAL IN BOG (Bimal Urf Jayen To Jayen Kahan), THE BROKEN MIRROR (Guzara Hua Zamana), DYING ALONE (Doosra Na Koi), THE DIARY OF A MAIDSERVANT (Ek Naukrani Ki Diary).

Krishna Sobti

Often regarded as the grande-dame of Hindi literature Krishna Sobti is well known for her short stories and her novels. She is perhaps best known for Mitro Marajani, a novel published in 1966 which explores the complexities of female sexuality.

Lawrence Wright

Lawrence Wright is an author, screenwriter, playwright, and a staff writer for The New Yorker magazine.
Wright began his writing career at the Race Relations Reporter in Nashville, Tennessee.In 1992, he joined the The New Yorker, where he published a number of notable articles, which have won him the National Magazine Award for Reporting as well as the John Bartlow Martin Award for Public Interest Magazine Journalism, and Overseas Press Club's Ed Cunningham Award for best magazine reporting.
His history of al-Qaeda, The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11 (Knopf, 2006) got immediate and widespread acclaim. It was nominated for the National Book Award and won the Lionel Gelber Award for nonfiction, the Los Angeles Times Award for History, the J. Anthony Lukas Book Prize, the New York Public Library Helen Bernstein Book Award for Excellence in Journalism, and the Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction.
Wright is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Laxman Gaikwad

"No native place. No birth-date. No house or farm. No caste, either. That is how I was born." Laxman Gaikwad's autobiographical novel Uchalaya (1987)begins thus. It was translated into English and published by the Sahitya Akademi in 1998 asUchalaya - The Branded. Gaikwad has worked among the Denotified and Nomadic Tribes of Maharashtra from a young age. Uchalya is also the name of a tribe that was notified as ‘criminal' under the provisions of the Criminal Tribes Act first passed in 1871 and subsequently amended from time to time. Uchalaya was awarded the Maharastra Gourav Puraskar. He has written a number of books thereafter and was awarded the Best Writer Award by the Government of Maharastra in 2005. He continues his work with the displaced tribes and has played a leading role in implementing a Commission for All India Denotified, Nomadic and Semi Nomadic Tribes by Government Of India in 2006.

Louis De Bernières

Louis De Bernières, who lives in Norfolk, published his first novel in 1990 and was selected by Granta magazine as one of the twenty Best of Young British Novelists in 1993. Since then he has become well known internationally as a writer and his sixth novel, Birds Without Wings, came out in 2004.Captain Corelli's Mandolin won the Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best Novel. His new book, Notwithstanding: English Village Stories, is published in Autumn 2009.
As well as writing, he plays the flute, mandolin, clarinet and guitar, and performs regularly with the Antonius Players.

M.A. Farooqi

Musharraf Ali Farooqi is a novelist and translator. His novel The Story of a Widow was published in 2008 as was a children's picture book The Cobbler's Holiday Or Why Ants Don't Wear Shoes. His critically acclaimed translation of The Adventures Of Amir Hamza of Ghalib Lakhnavi and Abdullah Bilgrami was published in 2007 and he has recently published the first book of a projected 24-volume translation of the magical fantasy epic Tilism-e-Hoshruba.

Ma Thida

Ma Thida writes fiction, is a human rights activist, and a practicing surgeon from Myanmar/Burma. Thida is a prolific writer of many articles and stories about the damage done to her country by successive repressive regimes. She is the author of the books The Sunflower and In the Shade of an Indian Almond Tree, among others.

Mahasweta Devi

Mahasweta Devi (b. 1926) is one of India's foremost literary personalities, a prolific and best-selling author in Bengali of short fiction and novels; a deeply political social activist who has been working with and for tribals and marginalized communities like the landless labourers of eastern India for years; the editor of a quarterly, Bortika, in which the tribals and marginalized peoples themselves document grassroot-level issues and trends; and a socio-political commentator whose articles have appeared regularly in the Economic and Political Weekly, Frontier and other journals.
She has made important contributions to literary and cultural studies in this country. Her empirical research into oral history as it lives in the cultures and memories of tribal communities was a first of its kind. Her powerful, haunting tales of exploitation and struggle have been seen as rich sites of feminist discourse by leading scholars. Her innovative use of language has expanded the conventional borders of Bengali literary expression. Standing as she does at the intersection of vital contemporary questions of politics, gender and class, she is a significant figure in the field of socially committed literature.

Malashri Lal

Malashri Lal is  Professor in the Department of English, University of Delhi. On fellowships from Fulbright and Rockefeller Foundation she was invited to Harvard University, USA, and Bellagio, Italy. Her recent publications  include the co-edited volumes, Speaking for Myself: Anthology of Asian Women's Writing, and In Search of Sita, both published by Penguin (2009). She is currently associated with the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature, London and  New Delhi.

Malvika Singh

Malvika Singh is a reputed journalist who has worked with many leading national publications.
She was the editor of "The India Magazine" and the publisher of, Seminar-a journal of ideas and alternatives.
She has authorized - "Freeing the Spirit: The iconic women of modern India". Her most recent book is"New Delhi- Making of a capital "

Manisha Kulshreshtha

Manisha Kulshreshtha is a popular young Hindi writer. She has published three story collections. Her very popular story Kathputaliyan, based on life in the Thar Desert in Rajasthan, has been translated into 12 languages. Her first published  novel  Shigaf (The Slit) based on Kashmir,  is written in the unusual form of  a blog! She is the Editor of the first and famous Hindi web portal - www.hindinest.com. Her regular columns published in Naya Gyanoday on ‘literature and internet' have made an  impact on the Hindi literary world. Some of  her translations into Hindi include the autobiography of Maya Angelou, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, House Made of Dawn by N. Scott Momaday, a few stories of Khorkhe Luyis Borkhes. A Kathak dancer herself, she is presently writing a novel on the dance form, tentatively titled Panchkanya. Having been born and brought up in Rajasthan, and being married to an Airforce officer she is well traveled, though she presently lives in Delhi. (manisha@hindinest.com)

Marc Parent

Marc Parent has been in international publishing for 24 years.

Marc, a passionate lover of India, is the Executive Editor in foreign fiction & non fiction at Buchet-Chastel, a famous and demanding literary imprint (since 1929) based in Paris and now part of Libella, a European publishing group founded and headed by Vera Michalski.

Over the last five years, he has put together a list of Indian & Pakistani Authors considered to be the very best in Europe.In 2007, Buchet-Chastel celebrated the 60th anniversary of the independence of India by publishing a selection of Saadat Hasan Manto's short stories.

Marie Brenner

Marie Brenner is an American author, investigative journalist and writer-at-large for Vanity Fair. She has also written for New York, The New Yorker and the Boston Herald and has taught at Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism. Her Vanity Fair article on tobacco insider Jeffrey Wigand, "The Man Who Knew Too Much", inspired the 1999 movie The Insider, starring Russell Crowe and Al Pacino. It was nominated for seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture.
Brenner worked as a contributing editor for New York (magazine) from 1980-1984, and covered the Royal Wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer. Brenner's 2002 Vanity Fair article, "The Enron Wars," delving into the investigation into the Enron scandals made national news when Senator Peter Fitzgerald used it to question witnesses testifying before a senate committee.
In 2009, the Manhattan Theater Club announced that it had commissioned Alfred Uhry to adapt Brenner's memoir Apples and Oranges: My Brother and Me, Lost and Found for the stage.

Marion Bataille

Marion Bataille is a French illustrator and photographer who was born in 1963. She started to work as a graphic designer for many newspapers and publishing houses such as Le Monde, Centre Pompidou or Gallimard and wrote many book for children. Her latest one, ABC3D was translated in USA, UK, Italy, Germany, Netherland, Spain, Japan, Israel and in India by Tara Books.

Mark Tully

Born Calcutta 24.10.35. MA History and Theology from Trinity Hall Cambridge. 22 Years BBC Correspondent in Delhi. Since 1994 Freelance journalist and broadcaster living in Delhi. For the last 15 years and currently Presenter of BBC Radio 4 weekly programme Something Understood. Author of several books on India, the latest being India's Unending Journey published by Random House. Currently working on a book examining the changes that have occurred in India since the economy was liberalised in 1901. Partner Gillian Wright, author and translator.

Max Rodenbeck

Max Rodenbeck has covered the Middle East for two decades, writing for such journals as the New York Review of Books, Geo magazine and Foreign Policy, in addition to his regular venue as regional correspondent for The Economist. Raised in Cairo and still resident there, he has also published a multi-faceted history and portrait of the city, Cairo: The City Victorious.

Maya Jasanoff

Maya Jasanoff is the author of Edge of Empire: Conquest and Collecting in the East, which won the 2005 Duff Cooper Prize. A professor of history at Harvard University, she teaches and writes extensively about the British Empire. Her new book on refugees from the American Revolution will be out in late 2010.

Meenakshi Reddy Madhavan

Meenakshi Reddy Madhavan is the author of You Are Here (published by Penguin Books, August 2008). She has also contributed to two short story collections-Spooky Stories (Scolastic) and Electric Feather: The Tranquebar Book Of Erotica (Tranquebar). At present, she is working on her second book. She lives in Mumbai.

Meghnad Desai

Meghnad Desai's first novel Dead on Timewaspublishe dby Harper Collins India in May 2008 and by Beautiful Books in London in September 2008. His latest book is The Rediscovery of India by Allen Lane.

Michael Frayn

Playwright, novelist and translator Michael Frayn has several novels to his credit including The Tin Men winner of a Somerset Maugham Award. Other novels are The Russian Interpreter, Towards the End of the Morning,  A Landing on the Sun andSpies. Some of his plays are Clouds, Donkeys' Years, Make or Break, Noises Off and Benefactors, Copenhagen, Democracy and Afterlife. He has also translated a number of works from Russian.

Mimlu Sen

Mimlu Sen is a translator, musician, music producer and composer. She collaborates with Paban Das Baul on all his recordings, performing with and managing his group on their concert tours around the world. She has travelled and worked between India and France since 1969, and was born and raised in Shillong. Baulsphere is her first book.

Mita Kapur

Mita Kapur is a freelance journalist regularly featured in many newspapers and magazines. She covers social and developmental issues along with travel, food and lifestyle humor stories.  She is the founder and CEO of Siyahi, a literary consultancy where she doubles up as a literary agent along with conceptualizing and directing literary events. Her first book,The F-Word was published by HarperCollins in 2010.

Mohyna Srinivasan

Mohyna Srinivasan, moved every two years between army cantonments as she grew up. She completed her schooling from the Lawrence School, Sanawar. After a bachelor's degree from Lady Sri Ram College, Delhi she got an MBA from IIM, Ahmedabad. She worked for Unilever in Mumbai and Hong Kong until finally, in 2004, she gave up corporate life to writeThe House on Mall Road, her first novel. She is married with two children and now lives in Mumbai.

Mridula Behari

Mridula Behari is an award-winning author, playwright and activist.  She has written numerous books including a historical novel, a collection of plays, and contemporary fiction primarily with women as the central character.  She has been published in several national and regional newspapers and magazines including Dharmyug, Saptahik Hindustan, Saarika,Dainik Bhaskar among others.  Her plays have been broadcasted on All-India Radio and Doordarshan widely.  She has also contributed to the theatre and films.  She was recently awarded the Meera Sammaan from the Rajasthan Sahitya Academy and the Radhakrishna Sammaan.  She has spoken extensively on Literary Forums both in India and abroad.  Originally from Ranchi, she is now settled in Jaipur and United States.

Mridula Koshy

Mridula Koshy is the author of If It Is Sweet , a collection of short stories released in May 2009 published by Tranquebar Press/Westland Ltd. The book won the Shakti Bhatt First Book Prize for 2009. She lives in New Delhi with her poet-school teacher partner and three exceptionally wonderful children.

Namita Bhandare

Namita Bhandare studied journalism at Stanford University before returning to India to work for several newspapers. In 1991 she joined Sunday magazine, where she rose to become Features Editor. After a stint with India Today, she joined the Hindustan Times where she launched and edited the paper's new Saturday edition.
Namita has edited several books as part of the Hindustan Times leadership series. Her first book, Madhavrao Scindia: A Life, co-written with Vir Sanghvi, was published by Penguin in 2009. She is currently working on her second book.

Namita Gokhale

Namita Gokhale is a writer and publisher. Her first novel, Paro: Dreams Of Passion, caused an uproar due to its candid sexual humour. Her other books include, Gods Graves And Grandmother, A Himalayan Love Story, Mountain Echoes, The Book of Shadows and The Book Of Shiva.Shakuntala, The Play of Memory, published in 2005, was the first Indian novel to be released simultaneously in Hindi and English. Gokhale's retelling of the Mahabharata for young readers, The Puffin Mahabharata, was released in January 2009.  In Search of Sita, an anthology of essays co-edited with Dr.Malashri Lal, was published in October 2009. Namita Gokhale is a director of Yatra Books, which co-publishes with Penguin India in English, Hindi, Marathi and Urdu. Besides being a founder and the co-director of the DSC Jaipur Literature Festival, Namita Gokhale conceptualized the International Festival of Indian Literature, Neemrana 2002, and the Africa-Asia Literary Conference, Neemrana 2006.

Nand Bharadwaj

Nand Bharadwaj is a well-known writer of Hindi & Rajasthani and a media person. Critics and the fans both have equally appreciated his contribution in literature as well as in media. Born in a small village in Barmer district of Rajsthan, he has contributed a number of books in fiction, literary criticism, interviews with personalities and a collection of articles on culture and media. Andhar Pakh, Jheel Per Havi Raat and Hari Doob Ka Sapna are some of his poetry collections. His novelSamhi Khulato Marag in Rajasthani, has been awarded by Sahitya Akademi, in 2005. His major editorial works include Ret Par Nange Panvand Teen Beesi Paar published by National Book Trust, India in 2007. Doordarshan has also awarded him for his outstanding contribution in the production of series on INDIAN CLASSICS in 2003. As media professional, he has worked with AIR and DD more than three decades. He has recently been retired as Senior Director of Doordarshan Jaipur. At present, he is active as a free-lance writer and media expert.

Nandini Mehta

Nandini Mehta has been a journalist and editor. Among the positions she has held are: Managing Editor of Outlook Magazine until September 2009, and before that Managing Editor (Non-Fiction), Penguin Books. She has lived in Bhutan for nearly 7 years.

Nandini Sundar

Nandini Sundar is Professor of Sociology, Delhi School of Economics, Delhi University, and Co-editor,Contributions to Indian Sociology. Her publications include Subalterns and Sovereigns: An Anthropological History of Bastar, 1854-2006 (2nd ed. OUP, 2007), published in Hindi asGunda Dhur Ki Talash Mein (Penguin, 2009), and Branching Out: Joint Forest Management in India (OUP, 2001). She is also editor of Legal Grounds: Natural Resources, Identity and the Law in Jharkhand  (OUP, 2009) and co-editor of Anthropology in the East: The founders of Indian sociologyand anthropology (Permanent Black, 2007), as well as A New Moral Economy for India's Forests: Discourses of Community and Participation (Sage Publications, 1999).

Her columns can be found at http://nandinisundar.blogspot.com

Nandita C Puri

Nandita C Puri made her literary debut with Nine On Nine, a critically-acclaimed collection of short stories about the urban Indian woman. She is the author ofUnlikely Hero, the best-selling biography of her husband, actor Om Puri. A columnist with major Indian publications, and a screenplay writer, Nandita wrote the Bollywood commercial Dil Leke Dekho. Her next script based on her short story, At Jenny's, is ready for filming. She is currently wrapping up her next book, Breaking News, a tongue-in-cheek look at the Indian media. Nandita lives in Mumbai, where her refrigerator is always stocked with food for thought as she conceptualizes a new book in yet another genre, Eating India, her foray into gluttony with co-author Simon Majumdar (of Eat My Globe fame).

Naveen Kishore

Naveen Kishore, Publisher Seagull Books.

Navtej Sarna

Navtej Sarna graduated in Commerce and Law from Delhi University and joined the Indian Foreign Service in 1980. He is presently India's Ambassador to Israel and has earlier served as a diplomat in Moscow, Warsaw, Thimphu, Geneva, Tehran and Washington DC as well as most recently at Delhi as the Foreign Office Spokesperson. He is the author of  The Exile (2008), We Weren't Lovers Like That (2003), The Book of Nanak (2003) and Folk Tales of Poland (1991). His translation ofThe Zafarnama is scheduled to be published as a Penguin Classic in spring 2011.  His short stories have been broadcast over the BBC World Service and published in prominent magazines and anthologies in the UK and in India. He contributes regularly to the Times Literary Supplement and several Indian journals and his literary column Second Thoughts in The Hindu is now in its fifth year. For more: www.navtejsarna.com

Nayantara Sahgal

Nayantara Sahgal (born 10 May 1927) is an Indian writer in English. Her fiction deals with India's elite responding to the crises engendered by political change; she was one of the first female Indo-Anglian writers to receive wide recognition. She is a member of the Nehru-Gandhi family, the second of the three daughters born to Jawaharlal Nehru's sister, Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit.

Sahgal attended a number of schools as a girl, given the turmoil in the Nehru-Gandhi family during the last years (1935-47) of the Indian freedom struggle, wherein her father would die in prison while Nayantara and her sister Chandralekha were overseas attending college. Her uncle Jawaharlal Nehru too was in and out of prison, as a political prisoner, in the 1930s and 1940s.
Though part of the Nehru-Gandhi family, Sahgal developed a reputation for maintaining her independent critical sense. Her independent tone, and her mother's, would lead to both falling out with her cousin Indira Gandhi during the most autocratic phases of Mrs. Gandhi's time in office in the late 1960s and throughout the 1970s. Indira Gandhi canceled Sahgal's scheduled appointment as India's Ambassador to Italy within days of her return to power. Not one to be intimidated, Sahgal would (in 1982) write a scathing, insightful account of Gandhi's rise to power.

Neeta Gupta

Neeta Gupta is the publisher at Yatra Books. Besides translating and contributing to various magazines, she is the editor of Bharatiya Anuvad Parishad's quarterly journal on translation, Anuvad. Yatra Books has been co-ordinating Penguin's Indian Languages Publishing Programme since January 2005. They have published almost two hundred titles together in Hindi, Urdu and Marathi. These books have been published both in translation as well as in the original  languages.

Niall Ferguson

Niall Ferguson is Laurence A. Tisch Professor of History at Harvard University and William Ziegler Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School. He is also a Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, and a Senior Research Fellow of Jesus College, Oxford.

He is the author of numerous books, including The Pity of War, The House of Rothschild (both 1998), Empire (2003);Colossus (2004) and The War of the World (2006). His latest book is The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World (2008). Many of his books have been made into television series.

Niall Ferguson is also a contributing editor of the Financial Times and writes regularly for Newsweek. He has just completed a biography of Siegmund Warburg and is currently working on the life of Henry Kissinger.

In 2004 Time magazine named him one of the world's hundred most influential people. In 2009 The Ascent of Money won the International Emmy for Best Documentary.

Nighat M. Gandhi

Nighat M. Gandhi has a Masters in Counselling Psychology from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, USA. Upon completing her Masters programme she returned to Allahabad where she worked as a Mental Health Counsellor. She started her literary journey with short fictional pieces she wrote for literary magazines in the United States such as The Literary Review, Antigonish Review, Prism International, and Short Story International. She also writes for newspapers like the Hindu, Hindustan Times, and Dawn. In 2009, her first collection of short fiction, Ghalib at Dusk, was published by Tranquebar Press/Westland Ltd. Her non-fiction,What I am Today, I won't Remain Tomorrow, is due to be published by Yoda Press in 2010.

Nilanjana S Roy

Nilanjana S Roy is a literary critic and columnist with extensive experience in the worlds of publishing and the media. She is currently working on a collection of literary essays, How To Read in Indian, for HarperCollins, and a children's book.

Nirupama Dutt

Nirupama Dutt is a poet, journalist, translator and has written in English, Hindi and Punjabi. Her anthology of poems in Punjabi Ik Nadi Sanwali Jahi received the Punjabi Akademi award. Stories of the Soil, an anthology  of 41 short stories of Punjabi, translated and edited by her and published in December 2010 by Penguin India. She has translated the autobiography and poems of Punjabi revolutionary poet Lal Singh Dil called Song of the Flaming Satluj for Penguin India and has penned the biography of Dalit singer Bant Singh for Navanya called Ballad of Bant Singh. Nirupama is working on a book on Punjab and translating the novels of Amrita Pritam.

Om Puri

Om Puri is an Indian actor who has appeared in both mainstream Indian Cinema films as well as art films. His credits also include appearances in British and American films. He has also received an honorary OBE.
Om Puri is an actor who has made a mark in not just Bollywood but also in the international film scene. Puri has acted in nearly two hundred movies since 1976. The kind of roles he has been seen in are diverse.
He has most recently been awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award, Filmfare Awards 2009.

Om Thanvi

Om Thanvi, born and brought-up in Rajasthan, is editor of Jansatta, a Hindi  daily of the Indian Express Group. He is known for his social and cultural concerns. He has personally been engaged in theatre, literature and environmental activities and has keen interest in history and anthropology; particularly in cinema, music, painting and language. Om writes travelogues and critical essays. His ten-part travelogue on Pakistan, tracing remains of the Indus Valley civilization, was widely acclaimed in the literary circles. So were his research based articles on Dr. L.P. Tessitori, an Italian who worked on traditional Rajasthani literature and language in early 20th century in Jodhpur and Bikaner.

Omair Ahmad

Omair Ahmad's last book, The Storyteller's Talewas released in India and France in 2009, and is due out in Spain and the UK in 2010. The manuscript of his next book, Jimmy the Terrorist, was shortlisted for the Man Asian 2009 literary prize.

Omprakash Valmiki

Omprakash Valmiki is a leading Hindi writer and author of the celebrated autobiography Joothan (1997) which was translated into English by Arun Prabha Mukherjee as Joothan: A Dalit's Life (Samya, 2003). It won New India Foundation Best Book Award 2004. Valmiki has also published three collections of poetry Sadiyon Ka Santaap (Centuries-old Anguish, 1989) Bas! Bhut Ho Chuka (Stop It! That's Enough, 1997), and Ab Aur Nahin (Not Any More, 2009); and two collection of short stories, Salaam (Obeisance, 2000) and Ghuspethiye (Intruders, 2004). He is also the author of Dalit Saahity Ka Saundaryshaastra (The Aesthetics of Dalit Literature, 2001), and a history of the Valmiki community, Safai Devata (God of Cleanliness, 2009).

Oscar Pujol

Oscar Pujol is a Spanish Indologist who has written extensively on various aspects of Sanskrit and Sanskrit philosophy. He compiled the first Sanskrit-Catalan dictionary over 12 years and is the founder-director of the Instituto Cervantes in New Delhi for the promotion of Spanish culture.

P. Sivakami

In 1989, P Sivakami became the first Tamil dalit woman to write a novel-Pazhaiyana Kazhidalum. A literary and commercial success, the novel created a stir by taking on patriarchy in the dalit movement. Translated by the author, it was published in English as The Grip of Change(Orient Longman) 2006. Sivakami has written four novels, numerous short stories and poems. She is founder-editor of the literary magazine Pudiya Kodangi. The English translation of her acclaimed second novel Anandayi is being published by Penguin in 2010. Sivakami was secretary-ranked bureaucrat in Tamil Nadu till 2008, when she quit the administrative service, joined the Bahujan Samaj Party, contested the Lok Sabha poll from Kanyakumari and lost. In December 2009, she founded her own political party, Samuga Samathuva Padai (Forum for Social Equality).

Pankaj Mishra

Pankaj Mishra is the author of The Romantics: A Novel winner of the Los Angeles Times's Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction, An End to Suffering: The Buddha in the World, andButter Chicken in Ludhiana: Travels in Small Town India. He frequently contributes literary and political essays to The New York Review of Books and The Guardian among other publications. His most recent book is Temptations of the West: How to Be Modern in India, Pakistan, Tibet, and Beyond

Pavan K. Varma

Writer-diplomat Pavan K. Varma joined the Indian Foreign Service in 1976. He has been Press Secretary to the President of India, the Spokesman of the Ministry of External Affairs, Joint Secretary for Africa, High Commissioner for India in Cyprus, Director of the Nehru Centre in London and Director General of the Indian Council for Cultural Relations, New Delhi. A writer of depth and insight, he has written over a dozen books including the highly successful  The Great Indian Middle Class, Being Indian: The Truth About Why the 21st Century Will Be India's, Krishna: The Playful Divine and Ghalib: The Man, The Times, and the Havelis of Old Delhi. Another recent work is a witty adaptation of Vatsyayana's Kama Sutra; Kama Sutra: The Art of Making Love to a Woman, was published early in 2007. His latest book titled: Becoming Indian: The Unfinished Revolution of Culture and Identity. Pavan K. Varma, is currently the Indian Ambassador to Bhutan.

Pramod Kapoor

Pramod Kapoor founded Roli books in. The accent was on publishing qualitatively evolved books for children. This was followed by a foray into art and photographic books: In 1992, Kapoor created Lotus which has some of the finest writers of the time: At the end of 2009 Kapoor's dream of opening India's first bookstore dedicated wholly to art and design books was realized with the opening of CMYK bookstore in New Delhi.


Pramod Kapoor is also an avid collector of vintage photographs relating to India and has undertaken photo research for books such as The Unforgettable Maharajas; India Then and Now and New Delhi: The Making of a Capital.

Prasoon Joshi

Prasoon Joshi, "the Advertising Guru of India",  is also an acclaimed Poet and screenwriter in Bollywood. An MBA, he started his career as a copywriter. Today, he is Chairman McCann-Erickson India & Creative Director Asia Pacific. From Cannes Lion winning Advertising campaigns for Coca Cola & Happydent to Filmfare for Taare Zameen Par & Rang De Basanti and three published poetry books he is considered a torchbearer and contemporary face of Indian Creativity.

Rahul Bose

Rahul Bose- Actor, Screen-Writer, Director, Social Activist and Rugby Player.
He started his career at the tender age of six and has acted in a number of plays in movies. Time' magazine called him ‘the superstar of Indian art house cinema' while ‘Maxim' (Italy), ‘the Sean Penn of Oriental cinema'.He is also notable for his social activism: He participated in the relief efforts that followed the 2004 Boxing Day Tsunami and is also the founder of the anti-discrimination NGO,.He was also selected as one of ten speakers to speak at the Global day of Action for Climate Change rally of 100,000 people in Copenhagen, at COP15, in December last year. Bose is also a former member of India's international rugby team, the National Orange Indian Rugby Team.
He continues to write prolifically on issues ranging from gender equality to the future of Indian cinema, Rahul currently leads the quintessential peripatetic life with punctuated retreats to his mountain home in Kasauli.

Ravi Singh

Ravi Singh is publisher and editor-in-chief with Penguin Books India, which he joined in 1994.

Reba Som

Reba Som is a doctorate from Calcutta University and currently the Director of ICCR Kolkata. Her publications include Gandhi, Nehru and Bose: The Making of the Modern Indian Mind, (Penguin, New Delhi, 2004) and Rabindranath Tagore: The Singer and his Song (Penguin, New Delhi 2009).

A trained singer of Rabindrasangeet, Reba Som's compact disc, Selected Songs of Rabindranath Tagore (Saregama) includes her English translations of Tagore's lyrics.

Rick Stroud

Rick Stroud is a film maker and writer.  His credits include Deadline with John Hurt,  The Good Dr Bodkin Adams  with Timothy West and the serialWe the Accused with Ian Holm. The Book of the Moon  is his first work of non fiction and is published by Doubleday in the UK, Walker Books in the US and Editorial Record in South America.

Roberto Calasso

Born in Florence, Roberto Calasso lives in Milan. He's the author of a work in various parts, which so far includes The Ruin of Kasch (1983), The Marriage of Cadmus and Harmony (1988), Ka (1996), K.(2002), Tiepolo Pink (2006) and Baudelaire's Folly (2008). Calasso is also the author of the novelL'Impuro Folle and two collections of essays The Forty-Nine Steps and Literature and the Gods. His One Hundred Letters to an Unknown Reader was published in 2003, and in 2004 he edited The Zürau Aphorisms by Franz Kafka.

Roddy Doyle

Roddy Doyle is the author of nine novels, includingThe Commitments(1887) and Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha, for which he won the Booker Prize, in 1993.  His latest novel, The Dead Republic, will be published in May 2010.  He also writes for children, and has written for the stage and screen.  He lives and works in Dublin, Ireland.

Romesh Gunesekera

Romesh Gunesekera's first novel Reef was shortlisted for the 1994 Booker Prize. He is also the author of The Sandglass, (winner of the inaugural BBC Asia Award) and Heaven's Edge which like his collection of stories, Monkfish Moon, was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. His most recent novel, The Match, was described by the Irish Times as a book that ‘shows why fiction is written-and read'. He was born in Sri Lanka and lives in London where this year he has been appointed Writer in Residence at Somerset House.

Ruchir Joshi

Writer, pathbreaking film-maker, columnist and provocateur, Ruchir Joshi is also the editor of India's first anthology of contemporary erotica, Electric Feather: The Tranquebar Book of Erotic Stories, published by Tranquebar Press/Westland Ltd. His first novel, The Last Jet Engine Laugh, was called the "essential literary debut" of 2001; he is working on his second novel, set in Calcutta during World War II.

Rupika Chawla

Rupika Chawla is a conservator of paintings based in Delhi. She has restored several Ravi Varma paintings and also gives training in conservation. She has written extensively on contemporary Indian art and is the author of Surface and Depth; Indian Artists at Work (Viking), A. Ramachandran: Art of the Muralist (Kala Yatra and Sistas), Icons of the Raw Earth (Kala Yatra) and has recently published Raja Ravi Varma, Painter of Colonial India (Mapin Publishing). She also maintained a column in the Indian Express from 2001 to 2004.

S. Anand

S. Anand is the publisher of Navayana, an independent press that focuses on issues of caste. He is also the co-author of the just-published Bhimayana, a graphic biography of B.R. Ambedkar.

Sadia Shepard

Sadia Shepard is a writer and documentary filmmaker who lives in New York City. Her memoirThe Girl from Foreign was published in 2008 by Penguin in the US and India, Meulenhoff in the Netherlands, and Atlantic Books in the UK (as Footpaths in the Painted City). Shepard's writing has appeared in The Washington Post, The New York Timesand The Indian Express. As a film producer, her credits include The September Issue, a portrait of Anna Wintour and the making of Vogue, which won the Excellence in Cinematography Award at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival. She teaches non-fiction writing at Columbia University.

Salima Hashmi

Artist, curator, and educator Prof. Salima Hashmi is currently the Dean, School of Visual Arts at Beaconhouse National University, Lahore. She has written extensively on the arts. Her book Unveiling the Visible-Lives and Works of Women Artists of Pakistan was published in 2002, and Memories, myths, Mutations - Contemporary Art of India and Pakistan for Oxford University Press, India in 2006.

Recent publications are Hanging Fire - Contemporary Art from Pakistan catalogue for Asia Society Museum, New York.  A Song for this Day- 55 poems by Faiz Ahmed Faiz (illustrations only) Sang-e-Meel Publishers, Lahore 2009.

She is the daughter of Urdu Poet Faiz Ahmed Faiz.

Sam Miller

Sam Miller is a former BBC TV and radio correspondent for the BBC in India. He was also the presenter and editor of the BBC's current affairs programme, South Asia Report, the Head of the BBC's Urdu service and Managing Editor, South Asia. He now runs journalism training projects for the BBC.
In 2004, he was one of eleven well-known writers from around the world who contributed to the book, The Weekenders: Adventures in Calcutta.
His first book, Delhi: Adventures in a Megacity, was published in January 2009 by Penguin India, in June 2009 by Jonathan Cape in the UK and will be published in 2010 by St Martin's Press in the US.

Satyanand Nirupam

Satyanand Nirupam, a young writer/poet, is the Hindi editor at Penguin Books India. After completing his M. Phil from Delhi University on the tradition and philosophy of historiography of Hindi literature, he worked with the NCERT as a research associate. Nirupam joined Penguin/Yatra in March 2009 and has since then steadily built a list of important titles for their list - including an anthology of Sahir Ludhianvi's poetry, two new collections by the reclusive Krishna Baldev Vaid and a successful translation of Pavan Verma's Becoming Indian into Hindi. He plays an active role in promoting a book-reading culture in Hindi through all possible media channels. In 2010 he was a coordinator and one of the concept developers for Bahastalab, the popular debate series.

Sayoni Basu

Educated at Calcutta and Oxford, Sayoni Basu has worked in publishing in OUP and Penguin and is currently publishing director in Scholastic.

Shabana Azmi

Actress Shabana Azmi is best known for her work in some of the greatest Indian films like Ankur, Mandi, Arth, Khandar, Paar, and Godmother. She has won several International Awards and the National Award for Best Actress five times.
Off-screen, she passionately advocates for the rights of women, minorities, and displaced slum-dwellers, both through activism and in her role as a Member of Parliament.She has fought relentlessly against religious fundamentalism of all hues and is highly respected as a moderate, liberal Muslim voice.
Shabana was the first Indian to receive the Gandhi International Peace Prize 2006 by Gandhi Foundation London.

Shanay Jhaveri

Shanay Jhaveri graduated from Brown University in 2007 with a concentration in Art-Semiotics and the History of Art and Architecture. He is currently a research fellow at the Royal College of Art, London. Jhaveri has edited a volume of essays titled Outsider Films on India: 1950 - 1990, and divides his time between Mumbai and London.

Shaukat Shoro Hussain

Shaukat Shoro Hussain was born in 1947 in Sindh, Pakistan. He has written 60 short stories, several plays, research articles, book reviews and columns in Sindhi language. Three collections of his stories have been published in Pakistan and one in India. His story Death of Fear was included in Unbordered Memories: Sindhi stories of Partition published by Penguin Books, India in 2009 .

Shazia Omar

Shazia Omar is a social psychologist.  She completed her undergrad at Dartmouth College, USA and her masters at the London School of Economics, UK.  She now lives in Bangladesh, where she works at a development agency and teaches pilates.  She is a member of www.writersblock.com.bd. Her debut novel, Like a Diamond in the Sky, was released in August 2009.

Sheen Kaaf Nizam

Sheen Kaaf Nizam is an Urdu poet and critic. He has published Lamhon kee Saleeb, Dasht mein Dariya, Naad, Saya koi Lamba na Tha,Bayazein Kho Gayi Hai and many other collections and anthologies. He has edited many Devnagari volumes of poets besides editing Deewan-e-Ghalib and Deewan-e-Mir. He has been honoured with many prizes including the Iqbal Samman, Bhasha Bharti Samman, the Urdu Akademi Award and the Begum Akhtar award. He has won the Sahitya Akademi Award for Urdu in December 2010.

Shobhaa De

Shobhaa De is a highly popular Indian columnist and novelist. During the course of her career in journalism she founded and edited three magazines- Stardust, Society and Celebrity. She has authored several novels, including Sultry Days, Starry Nights. Her most recent book is Superstar India: from Incredible to Unstoppable, published in 2008.

Shoma Chaudhury

Shoma Chaudhury is Managing Editor, Tehelka, a weekly newsmagazine widely respected for its investigative and public interest journalism. Earlier she had worked with The Pioneer, India Today, and Outlook. When Tehelka was forced to close down by the government after its seminal story on defence corruption, she was one of four people who stayed on to fight and articulate Tehelka's battles and relaunch it as a national weekly. Shoma has written extensively on several areas of conflict in India - people vs State; the Maoist insurgency, the Muslim question, and issues of capitalist development and land grab. She has won several awards, including the Ramnath Goenka Award and the Chameli Devi Award for the most outstanding woman journalist in 2009. She lives in Delhi and has two sons.

Shrabani Basu

Shrabani Basu is a journalist and historian. She is the London correspondent of the Calcutta-basedAnanda Bazar Patrika group and writes for The Telegraph and other publications. Her books include the critically acclaimed Spy Princess, a biography of the Second World War heroine, Noor Inayat Khan, soon to be made into a major film, and Curry, The Story of the Nation’s Favourite Dish, a look at the history of curry in Britian. Victoria and Abdul is her third book.

Siddarth Varadarajan

Associate Editor of The Hindu and one of India's leading commentators on foreign affairs, Varadarajan has reported extensively from Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Nepal, Bangladesh, the former Yugoslavia as well as Kashmir and India's northeastern region. Prior to joining The Hindu in 2004, he was the Foreign Affairs editor and Deputy Chief of Bureau of The Times of India. In 2002, he edited a book on the Gujarat riots, Gujarat: The Making of a Tragedy (Penguin). He is the recipient of the Elizabeth Neuffer memorial prize for excellence in journalism, awarded by the United Nations Correspondents Association in 2005 for a series of articles on Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency.

A trained edonomist, Varadarajan taught economics at New York University for a number of years before returning to India to work as a journalist in 1995. He lives in New Delhi and is currently writing a book, Hegemony Outsourced?: The United States, India and the Struggle for Asia, on the Indo-U.S. relationship.

Sister Jesme

Dr. Sr. Jesme (formerly Dr. Sr. Meamy Raphael C.) has a teaching experience of 27 years & has been the principal of St. Mary’s College, Thrissur, Kerala. She has won a number of awards such as Fr. T. A. Mathias Award 2007, Award for Education in Excellence 2006, Sevana Ratna Award 2005. Sister Jesme’s published works include a number of Papers, Poems & Books such as A Cascade (1999), Rhapsody(2003), At the Foot of the Cross (2005), Narrative Aesthetics: A Case Study (2004), Amen: The Autobiography of a Nun (Autobiography in English & Malyalam, 2009), amongst many others.

Soumya Bhattacharya

Soumya Bhattacharya's first book, You Must Like Cricket?, was published to international acclaim in 2006. He has just published a (sort of) sequel, All That You Can't Leave Behind. His novel, "If I Could Tell You" was published in December 2009 by Tranquebar Press/Westland Limited. Bhattacharya's writing has appeared in the New York Times, the Sydney Morning Herald, the Guardian, the Observer, the Independent, the New Statesman, Granta and a host of Indian magazines and newspapers. He is the Editor of Hindustan Times's Mumbai edition.

Stephen Frears

Stephen Frears is one of Britain's most distinctive and provocative directors.His breakthrough as a feature film director came with the low budget hit My Beautiful Laundrette. Then came Dangerous Liaisons which received six Oscar nominations, followed by The Grifters, which gained him an Oscar nomination for Best Director.His latest film isTamara Drewe , an ironic look at life in the quiet of the English countryside.

SUDESH BATRA

SUDESH BATRA is a well-known writer for fiction writings, poetry and literary criticism in Hindi. As a former Professor and Head of the Dept. at University of Rajasthan , she has been actively associated with various academic and research projects on contemporary Hindi writings. ‘Chhat aur Aakash', ‘Subah Hone Tak' (short story collections) and ‘Band Mutthi ka Sach' (collection of poems) are some of her famous collections of creative contribution. Apart from the creative work she has contributed 9 books on literary criticism. She has also been associated with Literary forums and women organizations. At present she is living in Jaipur.

Sudhir Kakar

Psychoanalyst and novelist, Sudhir Kakar is the author of sixteen books of non-fiction and three novelsThe Ascetic of Desire, Ecstasy and Mira and Mahatma. A fourth novel, Among the Moguls, will be published in May. His books have been translated into twenty one languages around the world.

Sujata Sen

Sujata Sen is Director East India, British Council. She is also Project Owner for projects and work on Intercultural Dialogue in the region which includes the literature events that are part of Lit Sutra: UK-India Literary Conversations, a programme of cultural relations through reading and writing, building on the success of the British Council's festival of Indian writing at London Book Fair 2009.

Before joining the British Council she was Assistant Editor, The Statesman. Editor of the Saturday and Sunday features pages and supplements and leader writer. Prior to her stint with The Statesman she was Editor, Orient Longman, covering publishing, marketing and promotion for all States in Eastern and North East India, Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh. She published several hundred books, many of them bestsellers.

Sunil Sethi

Sunil Sethi, journalist , columnist and television presenter, has hosted the weekly literary show Just Books on NDTV since early 2005. He was one of the founding editorial team ofIndia Today and been a columnist for the Times of India and the Indian Express. He is a recipient of the Nieman Fellowship at Harvard University and the Japan Foundation fellowship. He is the author of Indian Interiors and Inside Asia. His new book The Big Bookshelf: Sunil Sethi in Conversation with 30 Famous Writers, published by Penguin India, will be launched at the Jaipur Literature Festival in 2011.

Suresh Kohli

Suresh Kohli, born 19th May 1947, has carved out a niche for himself in almost every chosen field of creative expression. He has written, produced and directed nearly a 100 documentaries and mini-television serials; published 5 volumes of poetry in English, one novel, edited several volumes of short stories and literary criticism, translated from Hindi, Punjabi and Urdu into English. Also sometimes hailed as "Father of literary journalism" in India, he has also written extensively on cinema for both national and international newspapers and periodicals

Surina Narula

Surina Narula - Festival Advisor, as a businesswomen and fundraiser is best known of her tenacious and innovative work and achievements in supporting the plight of street children worldwide. Surina in the past 18 years provides voluntary consultancy to NGOs to raise awareness and build capacity. She has organised numerous events to raise money for their support and more importantly to raise the profile of street children and their need on an international level. Surina was awarded an MBE in 2008.

Susanne Rudolph

Susanne Rudolph is Professor of Political Science Emeriti, University of Chicago. For many years, she along with husband Lloyd has been active in promoting the study of Rajasthan. In 1986, they helped to found the Rajasthan Studies Group [RSG] [www.rajstudies.org] in the USA. In 1992 they assisted the late Dr. Rajendra Joshi in establishing the Institute for Rajasthan Studies [IRS]. She has co-edited The Idea of Rajasthan: Explorations in Regional Identity with Lloyd Rudolph. They are the authors with Mohan Singh Kanota of Reversing the Gaze: Amar Singh's Diary, A Colonial Subject's Narrative of Imperial India, Essays on Rajputana and of the forthcoming Romanticism's Child: Essays on and Documents of James Tod. The Rudolphs are recipients of the 2007 Colonel James Tod award of the Maharana Mewar Foundation. Susanne Rudolph is a past president of the American Political Science Association and of the Association of Asian Studies. They spend three months in Jaipur each year.

Tania James

Tania James graduated from Harvard University in 2003 with a bachelors degree in filmmaking and received her MFA in fiction from Columbia's School of the Arts in 2006.  Her work has appeared in One Story magazine, Guernica, and Elle India.  Her debut novelAtlas of Unknowns (Knopf, April 2009) was a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers pick and an Editor's Choice for The San Francisco Chronicle and The New York Times.

Tarun Tejpal

In a 27-year career as a journalist, Tarun has been an editor with the India Today and the Indian Express groups, and the managing editor of Outlook. He is the founder of Tehelka - which has garnered international fame for its aggressive public interest journalism. In 2001, AsiaWeek listed Tejpal as one of Asia's 50 most powerful communicators, and BusinessWeek declared him among 50 leaders at the forefront of change in Asia. Tarun's debut novel, The Alchemy of Desire, was hailed by the Sunday Times as "an impressive and memorable debut", and by Le Figaro as a "masterpiece". In 2007 The Guardian, UK, named him among the 20 who constitute India's new elite. Tarun's second novel, The Story of My Assassins has been published in 2009 to rave reviews. Pankaj Mishra has said, "It sets new and dauntingly high standards for Indian writing in English", while Altaf Tyrewala has called it "an instant classic". For more:  www.taruntejpal.com

Tenzin Tsundue

Former political prisoner who survived torture and humiliation in Tibet under Chinese occupation is a poet and independence activist born and raised in India. A leader in the Tibetan struggle, Tenzin Tsundue is a post graduate from Bombay University in literature and philosophy. As a university student he published his first book of poems with money begged and borrowed from his classmates. Tsundue continues to publish his books himself and makes a living out it by peddling poetry. His second book Kora is in its sixth edition selling more than 15,000 copies and his third book Semshook is in its third edition. He won the first "Outlook-Picador Non-fiction Contest 2001″. Tsundue is widely published in national and international media, and anthologized. As a poet he represented Tibet in the Second South Asian Literary Conference in New Delhi in 2005 organized by Sahitya Akademi, Poetry Africa 2005 in Durban and KATHA Asia International Utsav 2006, New Delhi. Some of his writings are published online at: www.TibetWrites.org.

Tina Brown

Tina Brown is the Founder and Editor in Chief of The Daily Beast.  She is the author of the 2007 New York Times best seller The Diana Chronicles.  She has written for numerous publications including The Times of London, The Spectator, and the Washington Post.Ms. Brown graduated with an M.A. from Oxford at St Anne's College and authored two plays: Under the Bamboo Tree, performed at the Edinburgh Festival and Happy Yellow at the London fringe Bush Theater.

Her journalism career began in 1973 writing for the London Sunday Times, The New Statesman and The Sunday Telegraph. Her writings from this era are collected in 2 books, Life As A Party and Loose Talk. Tina's revitalization of publications began at the Tatler - she became editor-in-chief in 1979; circulation rose dramatically and soon purchased by Condé Nast in 1982. She became editor-in-chief of Vanity Fair at the end of 1983. With Tina at the helm from 1984-1992, they won 4 National Magazine Awards; she was named Advertising Age's first Magazine Editor of the Year. In 1992, Tina took on revitalizing The New Yorker. In her 6 ½ year tenure, circulation increased 28%; in 1992, Tina was the first magazine editor to be honored with the National Press Foundation's Editor of the Year Award.

In 1998, she co-founded Talk Media with Harvey and Bob Weinstein of Miramax, launched Talk magazine and Talk Miramax Books. From April 2003 - May 2005 Tina hosted CNBC's Topic A with Tina Brown. Tina is married to Sir Harold Evans, former editor of the Sunday Times of London, President of Random House. They have two children, George and Isabel, and reside in New York.

Tishani Doshi

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 dancer with the Chandralekha Group in Madras.

Tony Wheeler

Tony lived in Karachi for five years as a small child, but his first visit to India was in 1972 on a trip along the ‘hippie trail' which led to the very first Lonely Planet guidebook. More than 30 books later India, first published in 1981, is still his favourite.

Tunku Varadarajan

Tunku Varadarajan is a national affairs correspondent and writer at large for The Daily Beast<http://www.thedailybeast.com/> . He is also a research fellow at Stanford's Hoover Institution and a professor at NYU's Stern Business School. He is a former op-ed editor atThe Wall Street Journal and lecturer in law at Oxford University. He was born in India.

Upinder Singh

Upinder Singh is Professor of History in the University of Delhi. Her writings range over various aspects of ancient Indian social, economic, religious and cultural history, the history of archaeology, and the modern life stories of ancient sites and monuments. Her books include Ancient Delhi, The Discovery of Ancient India: early archaeologists and the beginnings of archaeology and, most recently, A History of Ancient and Early Medieval India: from the Stone Age to the 12th century (Pearson Longman).

Urvashi Butalia

Urvashi Butalia is a writer and publisher. Co-founder of India's first feminist publishing house, Kali for Women, she is now Director of Zubaan, an imprint of Kali. She has written and published widely, and her best known work is the award winning oral history of Partition, The Other Side of Silence: Voices from the Partition of India. She is currently working on several different books: a Reader on India's history, culture and politics, a family memoir about Partition and a book on sexuality and citizenship as seen through the life of a eunuch. She lives and works in Delhi.

V.K Karthika

V.K. Karthika is Publisher and Chief Editor, Harper Collins Publishers, India.

Véronique Tadjo

Véronique Tadjo is a poet, novelist and writer of children's books. She is also a painter and illustrator. Born in Paris, of an Ivorian father and a French mother, she was brought up in Abidjan (Côte d'Ivoire). She has a doctorate in African American Studies from the Sorbonne, Paris IV and has travelled extensively in West Africa, Europe, USA and Latin America. She has published several books and her novel Reine Pokou(Queen Pokou) was awarded the prestigious literary prize Grand Prix Littéraire d'Afrique Noire in 2005. She is Head of French Studies in the School of Literature & Language Studies, University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg.

Vijay Verma

Born 1935, Vijay Verma has written and worked extensively ,particularly in the fields of folk-music and Indian temple art and architechture. Served in the Indian Administrative Service 1960-93, including as Census Commissiner of India. Publications include "The Living Music of Rajasthan"

Vikram Chandra

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Vikram Chandra's latest novel, Sacred Games, was the recipient of the Hutch Crossword Prize for English Fiction (India), a Salon.com Book Award for Fiction (USA), and was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award (USA).  He currently divides his time between Bombay and Berkeley, California, where he teaches creative writing at the University of California.

Vimmi Sadarangani

Vimmi Sadarangani has written two collection of poems, four books of children literature and five books on learning Sindhi language and script.
She is also a member of Sindhi Advisory Board, Sahitya Akademi, Delhi and the National Council for Promotion of Sindhi Language (GOI).
She has been given a number of awards for her contribution towards literature.
The latest being, National Award for Contribution in the field of Sindhi Education from Akhil Bharat Sindhi Boli ai Sahitya Sabha for the year 2008. Vimmi Sadarangani currently Lives in Adipur, (Kutch-Gujarat).

Vinod Padraj

Vinod Padraj is a prominent Hindi poet living in  Sawaimadhopur. As a modern Hindi poet, his poems have been included in many collections such asBahar Sab Shant Hai & Ret Par Nange Paon. Bakhat a literary bulletin was published exclusively on his work. He has participated in many seminars and symposiums. His collection  Koi To Rang Hai was widely appreciated. At present he is working as Branch Manager in Baroda Rajasthan Gramin Bank.

Vir Sanghvi

Sanghvi is among India's leading print and TV journalists. He started his career early and was the youngest editor in the history of Indian journalism. Currently, he is Editorial Director of the Hindustan Times, and Advisory Editor of HT Media Ltd. He has also hosted a number of shows on Television, and won numerous awards for the same.
These apart, Sanghvi is a foodie, writing the inimitable - and hugely popular - Rude Food column in Hindustan Times' Sunday magazine. A collection of these columns was published by Penguin in 2004. The book won the international food world's equivalent of the Oscar and has been translated into 10 other languages. Penguin will publish his biography of Madhavrao Scindia this winter.

William Dalrymple

William Dalrymple is the author of seven acclaimed works of history and travel, including City of Djinns, which won the Young British Writer of the Year Prize and the Thomas Cook Travel Book Award; the best-selling From the Holy Mountain; The Age of Kali, which won the French Prix D'Astrolable;White Mughals, which won Britain's most prestigious history prize, the Wolfson, and The Last Mughal which won the Duff Cooper Memorial Prize &  The Crossword Prize for Non Fiction. He divides his time between New Delhi and London, and is a contributor to The New York Review of Books, The New Yorker, The New Statesman and The Guardian. He published Nine Lives: In Search of the Sacred in Modern India to great acclaim in October 2009, the book went straight to the top of the Indian bestseller list & won the first Asia House Prize for Asian Literature. He holds honourary doctorates of letters from the Universities of St Andrews, Aberdeen and Lucknow, and has lived in Delhi on and off for the last 25 years. He is a founder and co- director of the DSC Jaipur Literature Festival.

Wole Soyinka

Playwright, Poet, Novelist and Essayist, Wole Soyinka born in 1934, is a Yoruba from Nigeria, and  is also active on Human Rights issues, in whose cause he serves on a number of international organizations. He is presently Emeritus Professor at Obafemi Awolowo University, Nigeria, with attachments to European and American universities. He won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1986.

Yatindra Mishra

Yatindra Mishra Poet- critic- editor.He has pursued a postgraduate degree in Hindi in the fond hope that it will equip him for his craft. He had three anthologies Yada-Kada, Ayodhya Tatha Anya Kavitayen, and Dyorhi Par Aalaap to his credit
Some of his poems including the Ayodhya series have been translated and published in English and German in India and abroad.
Yatindra is the recipient of Raza Puraskar, 2007; Bharateeya Bhasha Parishad Yuva Puraskar, 2006; Hemant Smriti Kavita Puraskaar, 2005; Bharat Bhushan Agrawal Smriti Puraskaar, 2004; Rajiv Gandhi Rashtreeya Ektaa Puraskaar, 2004 and Parampara Rituraj Samman,1999.
Currently he is busy writing a book on the life, literature and cinema of lyricist-film maker Gulzar.
He lives with his family in Ayodhya at Rajsadan.