5 - 7 December 2019 , Thu - Sat.
GALF 2019 : Speakers | Programme | Partners | Performances | Artwork | Videos
Photo Gallery: Inaugural Day | Day 1 | Day 2
Sudeep Sen
Sudeep Sen is widely recognised as a major new generation voice in world literature and “one of the finest younger English-language poets in the international literary scene” (BBC Radio). He is “fascinated not just by language but the possibilities of language” (Scotland on Sunday). At the 2004 Struga Poetry Festival (Macedonia), he received the ‘Pleiades’ honour for having made “a significant contribution to contemporary world poetry”. His prize-winning books include: Postmarked India: New & Selected Poems (HarperCollins), Distracted Geographies, Rain, Aria (A K Ramanujan Translation Award), Fractals: New & Selected Poems|Translations 1980-2015 (London Magazine Editions), EroText (Vintage: Penguin Random House), and Kaifi Azmi: Poems | Nazms (Bloomsbury). He has edited important anthologies: The HarperCollins Book of English Poetry, World English Poetry, and Modern English Poetry by Younger Indians (Sahitya Akademi). Blue Nude (Jorge Zalamea International Poetry Prize) and The Whispering Anklets are forthcoming. Sen’s works have been translated into over 25 languages. His words have appeared in the Times Literary Supplement, Newsweek, Guardian, Observer, Independent, Telegraph, Financial Times, Herald, Literary Review, Harvard Review, Hindu, Hindustan Times, Outlook, India Today, and broadcast on bbc, pbs, cnn ibn, ndtv, air & Doordarshan. Sen’s newer work appears in New Writing 15 (Granta), Language for a New Century (Norton), Love Poems (Knopf/Everyman), Out of Bounds (Bloodaxe), Initiate: Oxford New Writing (Blackwell), and Name me a Word (Yale). He is the editorial director of aark arts and the editor of Atlas. Sen is the first Asian honoured to read his poetry and deliver the Derek Walcott Lecture at the Nobel Laureate Festival. The Government of India’s Ministry of Culture has awarded him the senior fellowship for “outstanding persons in the field of culture/literature”.
Dattaprasad Shetkar
Dattaprasad Shetkar is Goan by birth and heart. He has travelled extensively as a market researcher and brand consultant across India. Since childhood he was drawn towards artistic expression and appreciation, often dabbling into poetry, theatre, debate, elocution and singing. Through Exemplar Strategic Solutions, a firm he co-founded, he has developed strategy and design for many brands and managed events like ‘Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Little Champs’, ‘Jitendra Abhisheki Sangeet Mahotsav’. He founded Susang, a not-for-profit dedicated to art, music and culture, which has revived Konkani poetry and music from 1950s. He is the organiser and curator of TEDxPanaji, an independently organised TED event in Goa.
Keki N. Daruwalla
Keki N. Daruwalla writes poetry and fiction and lives in Delhi. His last poetry volume is Naishapur and Babylon (2018 Speaking Tiger), which includes work between 2006-2017. His last novel is "Swerving to Solitude" (2018 , Simon and Schuster). His last award was Poet laureateship of the Literature Live Festival in Bombay, 2017.
Vidya Kamat
Vidya Kamat is an artist, research scholar, and academic. Her art practice looks at the mythological narratives and traditional belief systems engage and alter perceptions within contemporary Indian social reality. Kamat's works have been showcased in Dhaka( 2012), Istanbul(2007), Santa Fe( 2008), New Delhi(2010,2011) art fairs . She has also shown her works in curated shows in New York ( 2011), Singapore (2011), Thailand(2009), London( 2009), Paris( 2009) & recently Serendipity Festival Goa (2018). Besides, she has had solo shows in Mumbai and Bengaluru, India. Vidya Kamat is also a founder and curator of Talking Myths Project an online archive of traditional tales; and founder of a non-profit organisation Centre for Study of Mythology and Culture based in Goa India.
Rochelle Potkar
Rochelle Potkar is an alumna of Iowa’s International Writing Program (2015) and a Charles Wallace Writer’s fellow, University of Stirling (2017). Her individual poems To Daraza won the 2018 Norton Girault Literary Prize UK, and The girl from Lal Bazaar was shortlisted at the Gregory O' Donoghue International Poetry Prize, 2018. She is the author of The Arithmetic of breasts and other stories, Four Degrees of Separation, and Paper Asylum.
As critic, her reviews have appeared in Wasafiri, Indian Literature, Asian Cha, and Chandrabhaga. Her upcoming book The Inglorious Coins of the Counting House was longlisted at the Eyewear Publishing, Beverly Prize 2019, UK and shortlisted at the 2nd Gaudy Boy Poetry Book Prize 2019, NY. Her poetry film Skirt was showcased on Shonda Rhimes' Shondaland.
She has read her poetry in India, Bali, Iowa, Stirling, Glasgow, Hongkong, Ukraine, Hungary, Bangladesh, and the Gold Coast. She conducts poetry & haibun workshops across India.
https://rochellepotkar.com.
Mahendra Caculo
Born in 1962, Mahendra Caculo has always lived in Goa. He is a civil engineer by training and valuer of real estate. A renowned writer / speaker and much awarded personality in the field of valuation, he regularly conducts workshops on valuation all over the country under ‘Knowledge Series by Mahendra Kakule’. These workshops have received great response from the fraternity of valuers.
Mahendra started writing poetry at the age 54 on a dare by his childhood friend and has now published a book of poems in English aptly called ‘Late Blooms’ which was well accepted and widely acclaimed. His style of writing is simple, vivid and touches the hearts of the readers.
He has a faithful band of followers who liken his poetry to that in local Indian languages.
He is influenced by Kahlil Gibran, Pablo Neruda, Dilip Chitre and Arun Kolatkar.
Jerry Pinto
Jerry Pinto is a much-awarded author, poet and editor. His works include Em and the Big Hoom for which he was awarded the Sahitya Akademi Award for Fiction and the Windham-Campbell Award from Yale, USA. He has also won the Crossword Award, the Hindu Lit for Life Award, the REC-Valley of Words Award and the Bangalore Festival Prize for Translation. His translated works include the seminal Baluta by Daya Pawar, the first Dalit autobiography in Marathi; I want to destroy myself by Mallika Amar Sheikh; Half-Opened Windows by Ganesh Matkari; I, the salt doll by Vandana Mishra; Strike a blow to change the world by Eknath Awad and When I hid my caste and other stories by Baburao Bagul. His first translation from Hindi, I have not seen Mandu by Swadesh Deepak, is expected next year.
Mr Pinto has taught journalism for more than 25 years at the Social Communications Media department of the Sophia Polytechnic, which is consistently ranked as one of the top ten media departments in India. He sits on the board of MelJol, an NGO that works in the sphere of child rights and represents it on the international board of Aflatoun in the Netherlands. He is a trustee of the People’s Free Reading Room & Library, one of the city’s oldest libraries. He is on the Board of Studies of the English Department of the Sophia College.
He has been a Visiting Fellow at the Suzy and Donald Newhouse Centre at Wellesley College, USA and a Fellow of the Raza Foundation.
Abdullah Khan
Abdullah Khan is a Mumbai based novelist, screenwriter, literary critic and banker. Born in a village near Motihari, Bihar, Abdullah was initially educated in madarsa (Islamic seminary) and Urdu medium school. In the mid-1990s, he discovered that George Orwell was born in Motihari. And, this Orwell’s connection with his home district drew him towards literature. Abdullah’s writings have appeared in Brooklyn Rail (New York), Wasafiri (London), The Hindu (India), The Daily Star (Bangladesh) and Friday Times (Pakistan) among others. His debut film as a screenwriter, Viraam, was released in the theatres in 2017. Patna Blues is his first novel which is being translated into many languages including Hindi, Urdu, Kannada, Marathi, Malayalam, Bangla and Tamil.
Rita Chowdhury
Born at Nampong in Tirap district of Arunachal Pradesh, Dr Rita Chowdhury holds
master’s degree in Political Science as well as Asamiya, followed by LLB. She got her Ph.D. from Guwahati University.
A prominent Asamiya novelist, poet and activist, Dr Chowdhury’s oeuvre include
Makam, a poignant portrayal of Assamese Indian community of Chinese origin; Deo
Lankhui, a novel of epic proportion on the glorious Tiwa Kingdom of Assam; and
Ei Xomoy Xei Xomoy, a fictionalized account of the societal and political changes
brought in by historic Assam Agitation against illegal immigration from Bangladesh to
Assam.
Her other novels are Abirata Yatra, Tirtha Bhumi, Maha Jibanar Adharxila, Papiya
Tarar Sadhu, Raag Malkosh, Jal Padma, Hridoy Nirupai, Papi Nakshatrar Galpa,
Razeeb Ishwar, Jahnabi and Mayabritta. Her 4 poetry collections viz. Pratyaxar
Swapna, Sudoor Nakshatra, Alap Poharar Alap Aandharar, and Baga Matir Tulashi
too have been well received.
Her first novel Abirata Yatra (Incessant Journey) got her Asam Sahitya Sabha’s best
manuscript award in 1981. Her Sahitya Akademi Award (2008) winning novel Deo
Langkhui (The Divine Sword) got her a host of other awards including Kalaguru Bishnu Prasad Rabha Award. Her novel Makam, a poignant portrayal of Assamese Indian community of Chinese origin, translated to Marathi as Makam and to English as Chinatown Days brought her national and international acclaim. Dr Chowdhury has been quite active in giving voice to the voiceless. She is the Chief Trustee of
ADHARXILA, an organization dedicated to empowering young writers of Assam. She
has attended several national and international seminars and Panel Discussions on
various issues of literature, society and international politics. She has also been
awarded with Srimayi Asomi” Samman by Guwahati Bihu Sanmilani, Assam. She was formerly Director, National Book Trust, India.
Harish Trivedi
Harish Trivedi was formerly Professor of English at the University of Delhi and has been a visiting professor at the universities of Chicago and London. His research interests include Postcolonial Literature and Theory, Translation Studies, Comparative Literature and World Literature, and he is currently the contributing editor for South and Southeast Asia of an international project based in Stockholm for writing a history of World Literature. His publications include Colonial Transactions: English Literature and India (1995), Post-colonial Translation: Theory and Practice (1999), and an edition of Kim (2011) by Rudyard Kipling. He has written on and translated various Hindi, Urdu and Sanskrit writers, including Ashvaghosha, Premchand, Manto, and Ajneya. He has edited and contributed two chapters to a book in Hindi on the poet Rahim, a Muslim bhakti poet more formally known as Abdur-Rahim Khan-e khana (1556-1627), who was also a prominent courtier of the Emperor Akbar and the commander of his army.
