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
Sushila Sawant Mendes
Sushila Sawant Mendes (PhD, Goa University) heads the Department of History at the Government College of Arts, Science and Commerce, Quepem (Goa). Her doctoral dissertation was on the impact of Luis de Menezes Braganza on Goa's anti-colonial struggle, and later became a book: Luis de Menezes Braganza: Nationalism, Secularism and Free-thought in Portuguese Goa (2014). Mendes regularly presents papers at various seminars in India and abroad, many of which are included in books on Goa’s history. The Government of Goa has appointed her on the Expert Committee for revision of the Goa Gazetteer. The present Std X history text of the Goa Board was finalized under her guidance as Chairperson. Mendes is a Trustee of the Manovikas Public Charitable Trust, and a Founder Trustee of Silver Star Appeal.
Ankita Verma Datta
Ankita Verma Datta is an Economics graduate from Mumbai University and is trained in advertising communication and marketing at the Xavier Institute of Management/Communication. She spent more than a decade in the advertising industry, handling a wide range of clients from finance, insurance, education, food industry, and also government sector and political campaigns, before starting her own communications consultancy in 2003. Apart from marketing and advertising, Datta has interests in various other fields, including curating antique Portuguese houses in Goa and ‘hobby-breeding’ the exotic dog breed of Tibetan Mastiffs. An ardent nature and animal lover, she spends her time between Mumbai, Lonavala, and Goa. Her debut novel Trust Me Not was published recently.
Tishani Doshi
Tishani Doshi is the author of five books of fiction and poetry. At the age of 26, an encounter with the choreographer Chandralekha led her to an unexpected career in dance. Her first book of poems, Countries of the Body (2006), won the Forward Poetry Prize for the best first collection in the UK. She is also the recipient of an Eric Gregory Award for poetry and a winner of the All-India Poetry Competition. Doshi’s first novel, The Pleasure Seekers, was published to critical acclaim in 2010 and has been translated into several languages. Her most recent book is a collection of poems: Girls Are Coming Out of the Woods (2017).
Chandan Gowda
Chandan Gowda teaches at Azim Premji University and writes a weekly column on culture and politics in Bangalore Mirror. He recently translated U R Ananthamurthy’s story Bara (2016), and edited The Post Office of Abachooru, a book of short stories of Purnachandra Tejasvi (forthcoming). A Life in the World, consisting of autobiographical interviews with U R Ananthamurthy is also forthcoming. Gowda conceived and directed Sahitya Sahavasa (In the Company of Literature), a series of video lectures of U R Ananthamurthy on modern Kannada writers, which was telecast on Doordarshan in 2014. He has also edited The Way I See It: A Gauri Lankesh Reader (2017) and Theatres of Democracy: Selected Essays of Shiv Visvanathan (2016). He is presently completing a book on the cultural politics of development in old Mysore state.
Mustansir Dalvi
Mustansir Dalvi is a poet and translator, and teaches architecture. Brouhahas of Cocks (2013) is his first book of poems in English. Dalvi's poems are translated into French, Croatian, and Marathi. His 2012 English translation of Muhammad Iqbal's Shikwa and Jawaab-e-Shikwa from the Urdu, Taking Issue and Allah's Answer, is described as 'insolent and heretical'. The book was Runner-Up for Best Translation for 2012 at the Muse India National Literary Awards. His translations of the Sufi mystic poet Rahim are included in Arundhati Subramanium edited Eating God: An Anthology of Bhakti Poetry (2014). In Struggles with Imagined Gods (2014), Dalvi translated poems of the noted Marathi poet Hemant Divate. He is currently editing (with Sampurna Chattarji) a book of the collected translations (by Dilip Chitre, Sarabjeet Garcha and Mustansir Dalvi) of Hemant Divate’s Marathi poetry.
Jessica Faleiro
Jessica Faleiro is a Goa-based, adult third culture kid who writes fiction, poetry, essays and travel pieces.
Her poems, stories and non-fiction have appeared in Asia Literary Review, Indian Quarterly, IndiaCurrents, Coldnoon, Joao Roque Literary Journal, Rockland Lit, Mascara Literary Review, Muse India and the Times of India. She published her first novel ‘Afterlife: Ghost stories from Goa’ about the gothic, against a Goan backdrop, in 2012.
Jessica has an MA in Creative Writing from Kingston University, UK. She gives talks on creativity, and writing workshops to help improve craft. For more info, please visit her website: https://jessicafaleiro.wordpress.com/about/
Shelly Bhoil
Shelly Bhoil lives in India and Brazil. In addition to her debut poetry book An Ember from Her Pyre (2016), she has published academic papers and poetry in over two dozen books and journals. Bhoil brought out, with Tsering Shakya, the Muse India Edition of Tibetan Writings in English (2014). Her forthcoming publications include two co-edited volumes: Resistant Hybridities: Tibetan Narratives in Exile (2018) and Negotiating Dispossession: Tibetan Subjectivties on a Global Stage (2018). Bhoil has received Commendation Prize in All India Poetry Competition 2016, Third Prize in Rabindranath Tagore International Poetry Prize 2016, first place in Tahoe Safe Alliance Writing Contest 2011, and honourable mention in FLEFF Checkpoint Story Contest 2011, Ithaca University.
Trisha De Niyogi
Trisha De Niyogi heads the Strategic Planning and Marketing division at Niyogi Books. As a lead for strategic planning and business development, her goal is to drive a portfolio diversification in alignment to the company’s long-term strategy. She began her career in publishing with SAGE Publications and has also worked in various projects in product development, marketing and advertising with several multinationals including PepsiCo, Toshiba, EY and Tesco-Trent. An avid reader, music aficionado and a cultural aesthete, De Niyogi is trained in Bharatnatyam and plays the piano. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Mathematics, Delhi University; Master’s degree in Economics, University of Warwick; and a Business Management degree, with specialization in Marketing, Symbiosis International University.
Raviraj Naik
Raviraj Naik is a Goa-based artist and filmmaker involved in making audio visual films and documentaries. Many of his films and documentaries have been shown at various film festivals in Goa, Mumbai, Delhi, and Pune. Naik has a deep interest in visual storytelling through various media like films, illustrations, and graphic novels. He also has sound knowledge of music especially percussion instruments. In 2016, Naik self-published a 19-page graphic book, A Journey to Reality, based on the lives of people living in the mining areas of Goa. A Journey to Reality was showcased at the Bengaluru Comic Con, and at the Delhi Comic Con in 2016. Naik also participated with A Journey to Reality at Indiecomixfest at YWCA , Colaba (Mumbai) in October 2017.
Heta Pandit
Heta Pandit is the author of eight books on Goan heritage as well as several articles on the subject. She also lectures widely on the same topic. A founder member of the Goa Heritage Action Group, Pandit now devotes all her research resources to the study of the unique Goan architectural art form of kaavi. She is currently translating a book on the Dhangar community from the original written by Shubhada Chari, and also collecting stories in verse from the Sattari taluka in Goa. She lives in the village of Saligao in North Goa and divides her time between Goa and her homes in Panchgani and Mumbai.
