7 - 10 December 2017 , Thu - Sun.
GALF 2017 : Speakers | Performances / Exhibition | Partners | Register Now | Programme | Media Coverage | Videos | Report
Photo Gallery: Inaugural Day | Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3
Bama Susairaj
Bama (Bama Faustina Soosairaj) is a Dalit writer born in Puthupatty (Tamil Nadu). She rose to prominence with her autobiographical novel Karukku (1992) which chronicles the joys and sorrows experienced by Dalit Christian women in Tamil Nadu. She is also the author of Sangati (1994); Kusumbukkaran (1996); Vanmam (2002); Oru Tattvum Erumaiyum (2004); Kondattam (2009); and Manushi (2011). In 2001, the English translation of Karukku won the Crossword Book Award and established her as a distinct voice in Dalit literature. In her novels and other writings, she focuses on themes related to caste domination and social discrimination. Bama’s writings have been translated into English, French Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, and Gujarati.
Sami Ahmad Khan
Sami Ahmad Khan is a writer, academic and documentary producer. He studied Literature at Delhi University, completing his master’s degree in English at JNU, and then went to the University of Iowa on a Fulbright grant. Khan has a PhD in techno-culture studies, and has taught at IIT-Delhi, JNU, and JGU. Red Jihad (2012), Khan’s debut thriller, won two literary awards, and his second novel, Aliens in Delhi (2017), fictionalizes an alien invasion of India's capital. Khan’s short fiction, research papers, and articles have appeared in leading journals across the globe. He discusses life, language, and literature at GGS Indraprastha University, Delhi.
Prabodh Parikh
Prabodh Parikh retired as Head of the Department of Philosophy at Mithibai College, Mumbai. He is a poet and fiction writer. Parikh studied philosophy at Bombay University and Oklahoma State University, Stillwater and is currently Faculty In-charge of International Art Literature and Culture, Whistling Woods International, a film school in Mumbai. His lifelong love for jazz, beer and Sada Dosa (tiffin services in the streets of Thiruvananthapuram) has taken him to many cities around the world, where he has also lectured on contemporary Indian Literature, Arts and Cinema. He completed a film on Labhshankar Thaker, a Gujarati Poet, in 2016. He is currently making a film on another Gujarati poet, Sitanshu Yashchandra, and a collection of his poems (in Gujarati) is due to be published in early 2018.
Antara Dev Sen
Antara Dev Sen is the founder editor of The Little Magazine, an independent journal of ideas and letters, and the first Indian magazine to focus on contemporary South Asian literature and offer it in English translation. Sen is also a literary critic and translator, a newspaper columnist and commentator on the media, politics and culture. She has edited several books including the TLM Short Stories from South Asia series. Earlier, Sen was Senior Editor of the Hindustan Times and the Indian Express in Delhi. She has also been a Reuters Fellow at Oxford University. Sen is associated with other media, literary, educational, and voluntary organisations in India and overseas. She lives in Delhi.
Amita Kanekar
Amita Kanekar is an independent writer and researcher in architectural history, a novelist and columnist, and a member of The Al-Zulaij Collective. She is the author of a novel on the Buddha, A Spoke in the Wheel (2005, 2014). Kanekar has also written an architectural guidebook, The Portuguese Sea Forts of Goa, Vasai and Chaul (2015) and published papers on architectural history. She writes newspaper columns on issues of history, politics, and architecture. She is currently working on a novel set in the late Mughal period. Kanekar is also a member of the Social Justice Action Committee–Goa.
Isabel Santa Rita Vas
Isabel Santa Rita Vas is Guest Faculty, Department of English, Goa University. She is a founder member of The Mustard Seed Art Company, an amateur theatre group from Goa and an author and director. Rita Vas is the author of a collection of plays, Frescoes in the Womb: Six Plays from Goa (2012). All the plays in the collection have their centre in Goa, but often radiate out of their birthplace into a larger world, as do the destinies of numerous people from Goa who figure in it.
Sanchit Gupta
Sanchit Gupta is the author of The Tree with a Thousand Apples (2016), a commercially and critically acclaimed work of fiction on Kashmir. He is also a screenwriter in Hindi cinema and his screenplay based on his book has been long-listed at Sundance Screenwriters’ Lab 2017, United States. He previously worked in FMCG sales and marketing, and theatre and television production. Gupta’s short stories have been published in Indian Ruminations, Muse India, Contemporary Literary Review India, and Tata Lit Live. His works explore his fascination for global cultures, societal structures, vagaries of the world, and the human mind.
Prasenjit K Basu
Prasenjit K Basu is the author of Asia Reborn: A Continent’s Rise from the Ravages of Colonialism and War to a New Dynamism (2017). He runs REAL-Economics, a Singapore-based economic consultancy and has held senior research economist positions with Credit Suisse First Boston, Daiwa Securities and elsewhere. Prasenjit has appeared regularly as an independent commentator on the BBC, Channel News Asia, CNBC, Zee Business and NDTV-Profit, and written op-eds for Financial Times, International New York Times, New Straits Times, The Statesman, India Today and others. He studied economics at St Stephen’s College, Delhi, after which he obtained a dual Master’s degree in International Relations and Public Administration, University of Pennsylvania. He is the president of Singapore's India Club and Tagore Society.
Prashanti Talpankar
Prashanti Talpankar is an Associate Professor at Dnyanprassarak Mandal’s College and Research Centre, Assagao (Goa). She writes poetry, short stories, plays, and children’s stories. Talpankar has also acted in several award-winning movies, including Kabhi Paas Kabhi Fail, which won the National Award for the Best Children’s Film in 1999; Aleesha, winner of the National Award for Best Feature Film in Konkani in 2004; Paltadcho Munis, winner of the Best Konkani film in 2009, and the prize of the International Federation of Film Critics for Discovery at the Toronto Film Festival the same year; Baga Beach, winner of the National Award in 2013; and Rocky Handsome. Her film Juze (Konkani) was screened at IFFI, Indian Panorama 2017. Talpankar won the Best Supporting Actress Award for Aleesha (2004) and Baga Beach (2015) at the State Film Fe
Krishna Shastri Devulapalli
Krishna Shastri Devulapalli is a humour writer, cartoonist, columnist and the quintessential Madras-Chennai novelist. His first novel Ice Boys in Bell-bottoms is a chronicle of a 1970s childhood in the city while Jump Cut is a seriocomic thriller with the Madras film industry as its backdrop. His comic epistolary play, Dear Anita, sends up the Indian publishing industry, as does a work of non-fiction, How To Be A Literary Sensation. His most recent novel is The Sentimental Spy: The Family Bond. He is also the co-editor of the anthology Madras On My Mind: A City in Stories.
