Prashant Bagad
Prashant Bagad is a writer, a critic, and a philosopher. His novel, Naval, won the Government of Maharashtra’s Hari Narayan Apte Award for the Best Novel of 2021. He has received Baburav Bagul Shabda Award and P. N. Pandit Award for his short story collection, Vivade Vishade Pramade Pravase. Vilas Sarang praised this debut collection as a harbinger of a major shift in the Marathi short story. Saat Goshtincha Pustak is Prashant’s recent collection of short fiction. Some of his stories have been translated into Axomiya, English, and Hindi. His stories, poems, literary-critical essays, and philosophical writings have appeared in distinguished literary journals in Marathi. He is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur.
Bishnupriya
A bilingual writer and translator, Bishnupriya is the Editor-in-Chief of The Antonym Magazine and The Antonym Collection, a global literary magazine and publishing house based in Kolkata. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Central Florida, USA. Prior to that she completed her Masters in Comparative Literature from Jadavpur University, and Bachelor’s degree in English literature from Burdwan University, India. She translates short fictions, creative nonfictions, memoirs and experimental-lyrical prose from Bengali to English. She has edited two anthologies of translated short-stories and is currently waiting for the publication of her first translated novel.
Ozge Calafato
Özge Baykan Calafato is a writer and editor based in Amsterdam. She is the author of two novels, The Silent Man (Konuşmayan Adam, 2007) and The Impassioned (Tutkunlar – Kült Kitap, 2012); two volumes of short stories including Water Critics (Su Eleştirmenleri, 2013) and Çekilir Dert Değil (2014), and a volume of essays, Women of Jazz (2011). Based on her PhD research, her latest book, Making the Modern Turkish Citizen: Vernacular Photography in the Early Republican Era (I.B. Tauris/Bloomsbury, 2022) examines the photographic representations of the urban middle classes in modern Turkey. She is currently a lecturer at the Department of Literary and Cultural Analysis at the University of Amsterdam.
Samrat Chakrabarti
Samrat Chakrabarti attended college dreaming of becoming a theoretical physicist. Only to spend his time doing theatre, reading literature and debating friends. Later he would drop physics for journalism, starting with The Economic Times in New Delhi. In the years since, he has also worked at ET-Now, Tehelka and The Hindu and written for EPW, The Wire, Scroll and Mumbai Mirror. He has an MA in Business Journalism from Columbia University, NYC . Samrat is working on his first book which lies at the intersection of science and Indian society seen through the lens of identity.
Aparna Chivukula
Aparna Chivukula writes, draw, and makes books. She teaches poetry at a college in Bangalore. Her writing has been published in Poetry at Sangam and Aeon. In 2023, she won the Toto Award for Poetry.
Sébastien Gendron
Sébastien Gendron is a French writer. He is just over fifty years old and publishes mainly noir and children’s novels. These two genres enable him to draw distinctive portraits of our world, its power games, its conflicts, and also some of its wonders. His stories focus on characters doing their best to stay afloat but who often end up on the shore, gasping for breath. It can be funny, sometimes. Or not so funny.It all depends on the equilibrium of the individuals, and the intensity of the drama they deal with.
Hemalatha
Hemalatha is the author of the book ‘Banana Money’, which won the Singapore Literature Prize for Tamil Nonfiction in 2020 as well as the Tirupur Sakthi Award and the Padaippu Literature Award. Her stories, novellas and poems have won prizes in competitions such as the Golden Point Award, Muthamil Vizha and the National Poetry Competition, Singapore. Her stories have also been published in several magazines and e-magazines in Singapore and in India.
Francesco Leto
Francesco is a novelist, translator, performer and podcaster, living in France. His work is largely an interdisciplinary exploration into queer identity, relationships, and human condition.
Felipe Franco Munhoz
Felipe Franco Munhoz is the author of “Lanternas ao nirvana” (Record, 2022), “Identidades” (Nós, 2018) and “Mentiras” (Nós, 2016). From the Russian, he translated “O Cavaleiro de Bronze e outros poemas” (Kalinka, 2022): a selection of Pushkin’s poetry. He’s received a Santa Maddalena Foundation Fellowship (Italy), a Bolsa Funarte de Criação Literária (Brazil), an ABRALIC mention of honor (Brazil), and the residencies Art Omi: Writers (USA) and Festival Artes Vertentes (Brazil). His participation at Sangam House (India) is being sponsored by Itamaraty: Brazilian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Shobha Nayak
A resident of Belagavi, Karnataka, India, with a passion for art and literature. Shobha is also an adventure seeker and wanderlust enthusiast.
Seema Punwani
Born in Spain and raised in Mumbai, Seema Punwani now lives in Singapore. Her debut novel, “Cross Connection,” was launched at the Pune International Literary Festival in India in 2018. Her short fiction has been anthologized in “The Best Asian Short Stories” 2019 and 2020, and in “Sampan” in 2022. Her play, “Falling,” was staged at the Dastak Theatre Festival in Singapore in 2021. She has a Masters in Management from Mumbai University and a MA (Creative writing) granted by LASALLE College of the Arts (Singapore) and Goldsmiths (London).
Sumana Ramanan
Sumana Ramanan is an independent journalist interested in history, politics and culture. She is also Associate Director at Literature Live!, which organises the Tata Mumbai International Literature Festival. She has been a senior editor at leading publications in India and earlier, a correspondent based in Mumbai for various outlets, with reporting stints in Germany, Israel-Palestine and the UK.
Vidya Rao
Vidya Rao is a classical singer (of thumri-dadra), and writer on music. Her writing focuses on gender and musical form. She is currently writing on the laments recited by Shia Muslim women in Moharram majlis gatherings. She also works as an editor with Orient Black Swan , commissioning books in the social sciences.
Ishena Robinson
Ishena Robinson is a Jamaican-born, America-based writer who probes the intersections of identity, place, politics and pop- culture from her specific perspective within the global Black diaspora. She holds an MFA in Nonfiction Creative Writing from Columbia College, Chicago and a B.A. in Media, Journalism and Political Science from the University of West Indies, Mona. Ishena’s writing has been published in the Jamaica Gleaner, Harper’s Bazaar, The Root, Chicago Reader, and more.
Prarthana Saikia
Prarthana Saikia writes fiction in Assamese. She has four publications to her credit: Jatra-Enekoiye (2008), Platformot Etiya Kono Nai (2009) Jatadhari (2011, which was awarded the Sahitya Akademi Yuva Puraskar) and Pharaoh (2022). Some of her short stories have been translated into Bengali and English and are published in the literary magazine Muse India. Muse India has also published some of her poems written in English under the pen name Benu Gopal.
Shranup Tandukar
Shranup Tandukar is a poet and writer based in Lalitpur. His writings are forthcoming or have appeared in the Lucky Jefferson, Salamander magazine, and Riverstone Literary Journal among others. He is currently a poetry reader for the PRISM International.
Lora Tomas
Lora Tomas has a Master’s Degree in Indology and English Language and Literature from the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Zagreb, and a Master’s Degree in Gender Studies from Central European University in Budapest. She has co-edited and co-translated into Croatian (from English and Hindi) two anthologies of contemporary Indian short prose and poetry.
The early version of her manuscript ‘Salt Dark’ was shortlisted for the V.B.Z. Literary Prize for the Best Unpublished Novel of 2019. It was published in 2020 by Hena Com. ‘Salt Dark’ was adapted into a serialized radio novel for Croatian Radio. It was awarded ‘Slavić’ for the best debut book.
The early version of her manuscript ‘Salt Dark’ was shortlisted for the V.B.Z. Literary Prize for the Best Unpublished Novel of 2019. It was published in 2020 by Hena Com. ‘Salt Dark’ was adapted into a serialized radio novel for Croatian Radio. It was awarded ‘Slavić’ for the best debut book.