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
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.
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.
Arun Prakash
Arun Prakash retired as the 20th Naval Chief and Chairman Chiefs of Staff in end-2006. A naval-aviator by specialization, Admiral Prakash has held appointments in command of ships, air squadrons, and a naval air station. In flag-rank he commanded the Eastern Fleet; the National Defence Academy; the Andaman & Nicobar Joint Command; and the Western Naval Command. During the 1971 war he saw action with the IAF and was awarded the Vir Chakra for gallantry. Since his retirement, Admiral Prakash served two terms as member of the National Security Advisory Board, and was Chairman of the National Maritime Foundation. He currently holds a Distinguished Chair at India’s Naval War College and is a Distinguished Fellow of the Delhi Policy Group. Settled in Goa, he writes and speaks frequently on strategic and maritime affairs.
Mathew Staunton
Mathew Staunton is a printing historian, printmaker, teacher, and publisher. Originally from Coolock in Dublin, he divides his time between research in Irish history, teaching in a design school in Paris, printing on a small press at the bottom of his garden, and running The Onslaught Press in Oxford, UK. He has edited, designed or illustrated more than 50 books, mostly in the fields of poetry and haiku. He has been awarded a research fellowship by the Fondation Irlandaise and published on Irish visual and material culture, and the relationship between Gaelic typography and national identity. With his background in the history of book illustration and nationalist print propaganda, he is an active member of Pôle Irlande in Paris 3 and the Société Française des Études Irlandaises.
Wendell Rodricks
Wendell Rodricks is an internationally-acclaimed designer and author. His first collection from Goa earned him the title ‘Guru of Minimalism’. His unique garments have been displayed at major fashion events. In 2010, he revived the weaving of the traditional Goan Kunbi Sari and identified and trained weavers in the use of sari looms. Rodricks is the author of Moda Goa: History and Style (2012); The Green Room (2012); and Poskem (2017). He has been honoured by the All India Konkani Parishad; bestowed the Rainbow Warrior Award by Kashish Film Festival; and conferred the distinction of Knight in the Order of Arts and Letters (Chevalier de l'Ordre National des Arts et Lettres) by The Ministry of Culture and Communication of France. In 2014, Rodricks was awarded the Padma Shri.
K.R. Meera
K R Meera is a multi-award-winning writer and columnist with more than a dozen books including short stories, novels and essays which have won her prestigious literary prizes including the Kerala Sahitya Akademi Awards, the Vayalar Award, and the Odakkuzhal Award. In 2015 she won the Kendra Sahitya Akademi Award for Aarachar (2012), widely hailed as a contemporary classic. It is published in English as Hangwoman (2016) and was shortlisted for the DSC Literary Prize. Her other translated works include And Slowly Forgetting That Tree (2015); Yellow Is The Colour Of Longing (2016), which was shortlisted for the Crossword Prize for Translation; The Gospel of Yudas (2016); and The Poison Of Love (2017), shortlisted for the Atta Ghalatta Literary Prize. Meera lives in Kottayam with her husband Dileep and daughter Shruthi.
Yudhishthir Raj Isar
Yudhishthir Raj Isar straddles the multiple worlds of cultural theory and practice. He is Professor of Cultural Policy Studies, The American University of Paris (2002- ); and was Eminent Research Visitor, Institute for Culture and Society, Western Sydney University (2011-2013). Since January 2017, he is also the Education Director at the Aga Khan Trust for Culture. Isar was the founding co-editor of the Cultures and Globalization Series (SAGE) and has authored many book chapters and journal articles. He has been president of the European arts and culture platform Culture Action Europe (2004-2008). Isar is a trustee of cultural organizations and a consultant to foundations and international organizations, notably UNESCO.
Sanjay Talreja
Sanjay Talreja is a Toronto-based filmmaker whose work has appeared on television and theatrical screens in Canada, the US and India. He has won several awards and citations for his films and has also received support from Canada and Ontario Arts Councils. Talreja is the co-editor of Strangers In The Mirror: In And Out Of The Mainstream Of Culture In Canada (2014). His collection of short stories, Downward This Dog (2017) is his first foray into fiction and is set in the immigrant community in Toronto and in various parts of the Indian subcontinent. He is currently working on a detective novel set in Mumbai. All his work – whether print or visual - explores how ordinary folks survive and thrive in a complex, shifting ​ and paradoxical​ world.
Odette Mascarenhas
Odette Mascarenhas is a TV host, columnist, food critic, and author with 10 books of different genres to her credit. She won the Special Jury Award 2008 at the Gourmand World Cookbook Awards for her first book Masci: The Man Behind the Legend. Another book, The Culinary Heritage of Goa (2014) won her the Gourmand Award for historical recipes. She has also written the The Shadow of the Temptress (2016). Mascarenhas is the co-founder of the Goan Culinary Club, which is dedicated to preserving the authenticity of Goan cuisine and researching long-lost recipes. She is he co-curator for ‘Food as Art’ for the Serendipity Arts festival. Mascarenhas is the recipient of the Orchid Award 2017 for Women Achievers in the field of Art and Culture, and the Trinity Medallion for outstanding contribution towards Goan cuisine.
Patricia Pereira-Sethi
Patricia Pereira-Sethi is an award-winning journalist who worked for two decades as correspondent, editor and the United Nations Bureau Chief for Newsweek magazine in New York. She has interviewed more than 45 heads of state during her career including Indira Gandhi, Morarji Desai, Fidel Castro, George Bush Sr, Augusto Pinochet, Daniel Ortega, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, Robert Mugabe, Pham Van Dong. Sethi has been felicitated for her career achievements by Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar and the Goa Union of Journalists. She authored the biography of industrialist Ramesh Chauhan Thunder Unbottled: From Thums Up to Bisleri (2013). Sethi lives in Goa and is a regular columnist for the Sunday Panorama section of the Navhind Times and Viva Goa. She also lectures at Goa University’s Centre for Latin American Studies.
