Contributors

Benyamin has published eighteen books in Malayalam including eight novels and three short story collections. His most famous work, ‘Goat days’ is translated into many languages including English, Arabic, Tai and Napali. It is a text book for many universities and received Kerala Literature Academy Award in 2009 and long listed for Man Asian Literature Prize 2013 and Short listed for DSC prize 2014. His other major works include Euthanasia, Second book of Prophets, Yellow lights of death and Al Arabian Novel factory. Born in 1974, Sangeeta Bandyopadhyay wrote her frst poem at 13, and was published for the frst time at 25. Her frst novel, Sankhini, was a critical as well as commercial success. She has written over ffteen novels and sixty short stories in Bengali, and her novels Panty and Abandon have been published in English translation in India (Penguin Random House, HarperCollins) and the UK (Tilted Axis Press). She lives and writes in Calcutta.

K. R. Meera is an Indian author, who writes in Malayalam. She was born in Sasthamkotta, Kollam district in Kerala. She worked as a journalist in Malayala Manorama. She started writing fction in 2001 and her frst short story collection Ormayude Njarambuwas published in 2002. Since then she has published fve collections of short stories, two novellas, fve novels and two children's books. She won the Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award in 2009 for her short-story, Ave Maria. Her novel Aarachaar (2012) is widely regarded as one of the best literary works produced in Malayalam language. It received several awards including the Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award (2013), Odakkuzhal Award (2013), Vayalar Award (2014) and Kendra Sahitya Akademi Award (2015). It was also shortlisted for the 2016 DSC Prize for South Asian Literature.

Manisha Kulshreshtha is a popular Hindi writer. She is the author of four novels and seven short story collections. Her recent and well received novel Swapnpash tells the story of the life of a schizophrenic female painter. She has received several awards and fellowships. She is currently working on a biographical novel based on famed Hindi writer Bhartendu Harishchandra’s protégé and companion, Mallika. And getting Senior fellowship from ministry of culture for a travelogue based on traveling on Path of MEGHDOOTAM (cloud messanger) of Kalidas. She received a senior fellowship from the ministry of culture for a travelogue about Kalidas’s lyric poem Meghaduta (Cloud Messenger).

Shashi Taroor, an Indian politician and former diplomat, has published 15 bestselling works on India covering its history, culture, flm, society, foreign policy and more. His monthly column, India Reawakening, appears in 80 newspapers worldwide. He is also a passionate lecturer and speaker-globally recognised for his contributions on current issues in India.

Perumal Murugan is an Indian author, scholar and literary chronicler who writes novels in Tamil. He has written six novels, four collections of short stories and four anthologies of poetry to his credit. Tree of his novels have been translated into English: Seasons of the Palm, which was shortlisted for the Kiriyama Prize in 2005, Current Showand One Part Woman. He was a professor of Tamil at the Government Arts College in Namakkal.

Anita Goveas is British-Asian, based in London, and fueled by strong cofee and paneer jalfrezi. Her stories are published and forthcoming in the 2016 London Short Story Prize anthology, the Word Factory website, Pocket Change, Haverthorn, Moonchild Magazine, Riggwelter Press and former cactus mag. She tweets erratically: @cofeeandpaneer

Paul Zacharia writes regularly for Kerala’s leading newspapers and magazines and his columns have appeared in India Today, Outlook, Te Week, Te Hindu and Tehelka, etc. Literary awards include the Kendra Sahitya Akademi, Kerala Sahitya Akademi, Odakkuzhal, Muttathu Varki, Padmarajan, Katha, Pravasa Kairali, etc. He lives in Tiruvanathapuram, Kerala.

Sadaf Saaz is a poet, writer, entrepreneur and women’s rights advocate. She is a festival director and the producer of the annual Dhaka Literary Festival (previously Hay Festival Dhaka), which she co-founded in 2011. She also runs an arts management and travel organization, Jatrik, which produces festivals and events in literature and the arts, and promotes cultural and sustainable tourism in Bangladesh. She is the author of a collection of poems, Sari Reams, published in 2013. Her monologues based on Bangladeshi women’s experiences, ‘Je Kotha Jai Na Bola’ (Tat which cannot be said), has been performed in various locations in Bangladesh.

Manasi is a contemporary Malayalam writer whose oeuvre spans from short stories to articles on women’s issues as well as contemporary socio-political themes. She has won various literary awards, including Kerala Sahitya Academy Award, instituted by the state apex body in literature, for the collection of short stories Manjile Pakshi. One of her stories has been made into a flm that won the Kerala State flm award for the best original story. Vivek Shanbhag writes in Kannada. He has published eight works of fction and two plays, and has edited two anthologies, one of them in English. He published and edited the literary journal Desha Kaala for 7 years. Vivek’s novel Ghachar Ghochar was published in English translation to critical acclaim worldwide. He was a Honorary Fellow at the International Writing Program 2016 at the University of Iowa. An engineer by training, Vivek Shanbhag lives in Bangalore, India. Dani Brubaker, frst a painter, now a fashion photographer was born in Oklahoma. Part Choctaw Indian, she grew up by the code of the Native American Indian which reveres children, yet allows them freedom of self-expression -- which is refected in Dani's art. Regarding her photography, Dani states, "For me it's all about the eyes, the connection I have with my subjects. My camera embodies a powerful medium of expression and communication; nothing is more moving than capturing raw human emotion… whether it's a twinkle in a child's eye or the playful banter between children, or the wholesome, sexy glance of an adult. Capturing those moments for posterity is what my photographs are about." Susmita Bhattacharya was born in Mumbai and sailed the world on oil tankers before settling down in the UK. She is an associate lecturer at Winchester University and leads the SO:Write Young Writers workshops in Southampton. Her debut novel, Te Normal State of Mind (Parthian), was published in 2015. Her short stories, essays and poems have been widely published and also broadcast on BBC Radio 4. She won the Winchester Writers Festival Memoir prize in 2016. She lives in Winchester with her family. She tweets at @Susmitatweets Hari Menon is a freelance photographer who loves to travel, his play of colours and shapes in the photos he takes talk deeply about his passion and love for photography. He hails from a village near Cochin called North Paravur.