Advaita Kala

Advaita Kala is the author of the bestselling novel,Almost Single. Almost Single awaits its release (Feb) in the United States under the Bantam Discovery Program. Also later this year French, Hindi and Marathi translations of the book will be available. She is presently at work on her new book and is the South Asia Bureau Manager for TIME magazine. Her official website iswww.advaitakala.com.

Alice Albinia

Alice Albinia's history of the Indus valley is told as a journey along the river, from its delta at the Arabian Sea, north through Pakistan, Afghanistan and India, to its source in Tibet. Empires of the Indus:The Story of a River was long listed for the Guardian First Book Award and is published by John Murray.

Alka Saraogi

Alka Saraogi[1960] is a fiction-writer in Hindi, living in Calcutta among writers mostly writing in Bengali or English. Her first novel Kali-katha: via bypassthat traces the fifty years of India's independence through a fifth-generation migrant family in Calcutta from Rajasthan got her the Sahitya-akedemi award. It has been translated into French,Italian, German and Spanish and several Indian Languages besides her own translation into English. She has published three more novels and two collections of short stories.

Alok Bhalla

Alok Bhalla obtained his Master's in English from Delhi University and Ph D from Kent State University, USA. At present he is Visiting Professor at Jamia Millia Islamia. Till recently he was professor at the English and Foreign Languages University (former CIEFL). He is also on the Executive Council of the Sahitya Akademi. He has been a Lady Davis Visiting Professor, Hebrew University, Jerusalem (2007), a Fellow at the Rockefeller Centre, Bellagio, Italy and at the Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla. As a writer he has published extensively on the partition of India, 19th century British romanticism and Latin American literature. Amongst his recent books are Stories About the Partition of India (3 volumes),Partition Dialogues: Memories of a Lost Home and The Life and Times of Saadat Hasan Manto, and The Place of Translation in a Literary Habitat. He is the author of two books on the Gothic Novel. He has translated Dharavir Bharati's, Andha Yug into English verse, as well as the stories of Intizar Husain (2 volumes), Ram Kumar, Manto, Gulzar and others, and the poems of Udayan Vajpai, Kedarnath Singh, Kunwar Narain etc. With Nirmal Verma and U R Anathamurthy, he used to edit Yatra: Writings from the Indian Subcontinent.

Alok Rai

Alok Rai is a professor of literature at the Deaprtment of English, Delhi University. He has specialised in, Victorian, post-Victorian English Literature, George Orwell language and cultural politics in modern India. His recent publications include, Translation of Premchand's Nirmala into English and Hindi Nationalism.

Aminatta Forna

Aminatta Forna is the author of a memoir, The Devil that Danced on the Water and Ancestor Stones, a novel. Her books have been nominated for and won several awards. Aminatta has also published essays and articles, and written for television and radio. She is currently writing her second novel.

Amitabh Bachchan

Amitabh Bachchan, is one of the most prominent figures in the history of Indian cinema. Bachchan has won numerous major awards in his career, including three National Film Awards and twelve Filmfare Awards. He holds the record for most number of Best Actor nominations at the Filmfare Awards. In addition to acting, Bachchan has worked as a playback singer, film producer and television presenter, and was an elected member of the Indian Parliament from 1984 to 1987.

Anita Rau Badami

Anita Rau Badami is the author of numerous short stories, features, and three critically acclaimed novels: Tamarind Mem, The Hero's Walk, Can You Hear the Nightbird Call? which have been published in more than fifteen countries and have won or been on the short-list for a number of awards. She lives in Montreal, Canada and is currently working on her new novel After Snow.

Antara Dev Sen

Antara Dev Sen is Founder Editor of The Little Magazine, an independent publication on social concerns, cultural issues and South Asian literature (www.littlemag.com). A columnist with The Week, DNA, Asian Age and Ekdin Live, Sen has earlier worked as a senior editor with The Hindustan Times and The Indian Express, among other assignments. She lives in Delhi.

Apurva Narain

Apurva Narain born in 1967, is the son and poet translator of one of the leading living poets in Hindi, Kuwar Narain. He has translated a selection of his poems in English titled, No Other World. He is based in Delhi and spends time in India, England and France.

Arshia Sattar

Arshia Sattar has a Ph d from the Department of South Asian languages and civilizations at the University Of Chicago. Her translations from Sanskrit, of tales from the Kathasaritsagara and the Valmiki Ramayana have been published by Penguin books.

Arthur Flowers

Arthur Flowers is author of novels De Mojo Blues,Another Good Loving Blues and nonfiction work,Mojo Rising: Confessions of a 21st Century Conjureman. He is a Director of New Renaissance Writers Guild and the Pan African Literary Forum. He teaches Syracuse MFA and is a delta griot, a performance poet in the griotic line of O Killens.

Aruna Chakravarti

Aruna Chakravarti is a well known academic, writer and translator. Prominent among her nine published books are her translations of Saratchandra Chattopadhyay's Srikanta and Sunil Gangopadhyay'sThose Days and its sequel First Light. She is the recipient the Vaitalik Award, the Sahitya Akademi Award and the Sarat Puraskar. Her first novel The Inheritors was short listed for the Commonwealth Writers' Prize 2004. Her last book The Way Home came out in 2006. Secret Spaces, a volume of short stories, is presently in the publication process.

Arupa Patangia Kalita

Arupa Patangia Kalita, one of Assam's leading writers, has four novels and eight short story collections including Ayananta (2004), Felani(2003), and Kurosawar Sapon (2007). She also writes on questions concerning society and woman. A Ph.D. in English literature, she teaches at Tangla College, Assam.

Ashis Nandy

Ashis Nandy is one of the leading Indian social, cultural and political critics. His field covers public conscience, political psychology, mass violence, nationalism and culture. He received the Fukuoka Asian Culture Prize in 2007. He is Senior Fellow and Director of the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies and Chairperson of the Committee for Cultural Choices and Global Futures.

Ashok Chakradhar

Ashok Chakradhar is a leading Hindi poet specializing in satire and comedy. He has won many prestigious national awards for literature and has been actively associated with radio and television and has scripted a number of dramas, satires and poems including, Masalaaraam andBandariyaa Chalee Sasuraal amongst many others.

Basharat Peer

Basharat Peer was born in Kashmir in 1977. He studied journalism and politics at Columbia University, worked as a reporter in India and as an editor at Foreign Affairs in New York. He is a Fellow at Open Society Institute, New York. His first book,Curfewed Night, an account of the Kashmir conflict won the Vodaphone Crossword Award for Non-fiction and was chosen among the Books of the Year by the New Yorker, The Economist, Sunday Times, and Daily Telegraph. His work has appeared in Granta, Financial Times magazine, Guardian, Foreign Affairs, N+1, The Caravan, Open, and Outlook magazines. His is working on a book on India's Muslims.

Bhawana Somaaya

Bhawana Somaaya began her career in journalism in the late '70s while studying for her BA degree in Psychology. Commencing with Free Press Journal's Cinema Journal as chief reporter, she moved to Super as a special correspondent while completing LLB at the Government Law College, Mumbai. In '81 she joined Movie as an assistant editor and was promoted in '85 as its joint editor. In '89 Chitralekha asked her to launch their first English publication g and in 2000, she joined as editor Screen film weekly of the Indian Express group.
She is the recipient of several prestigious awards and has contributed columns to Sunday Observer, Afternoon, Janmabhoomi, Pravasi, Hindustan Times, The Hindu, The Pioneer and Newstime. She has written six books, Amitabh Bachchan - The Legend; Salaam Bollywood; Take-25; The Story So Far; Cinema: Images and Issues; Hema Malini - The Authorised Biography; and Fragmented Frames.
Krishna - The God Who Lived As Man is her first attempt in fiction and transcreation. Bachchanalia: The Films of Amitabh Bachchan is her ninth book, with two more in the pipeline.

Brigid Keenan

Brigid Keenan was born in India and began her career in journalism on a provincial newspaper in Britain. She has worked with the Sunday Times, the iconic magazine Nova, & The Observer. 
Among the titles she has published are a biography of Christian Dior, a fashion history entitled The Women we wanted to look like, and works on Damascus and Kashmir. Her book, Diplomatic Baggage tells the trailing spouse's story.  A best-seller in Britain it has been translated into six languages.

Charles Nicholl

Biographer and travel-writer Charles Nicholl is the author of The Reckoning, a prize-winning investigation of the murder of Christopher Marlowe. His biography of Leonardo da Vinci, , has been translated into seventeen languages.His latest book, The Lodger, is an intimate study of Shakespeare in his London lodgings in 1604.

Chetan Bhagat

Chetan Bhagat is the author of two blockbuster novels -Five Point Someone (2004) and One Night @ the call center (2005). In March 2008, the New York Times called him the "biggest selling English author in India's history". The 3 Mistakes of My Life is his third novel.
After eleven years in Hong Kong, the author relocated to Mumbai in 2008, where he works in an investment bank. Apart from books, the author has a keen interest in screenplays and spirituality.

Christophe Jaffrelot

Christophe Jaffrelot has been Director of CERI (Centre d'Etudes et de Recherches Internationales) at Sciences Po (Paris) between 2000 and 2008. He is Research director at the CNRS (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique) and teaches South Asian politics and history at Sciences Po. His most significant publications are The Hindu Nationalist Movement and Indian Politics, 1925 to the 1990s, Penguin India, 1996 and 1999, India's Silent Revolution. The Rise of the Low Castes in North India, Permanent Black, 2003 and Dr Ambedkar and Untouchability. Analysing and fighting caste, New York, Columbia University Press. He has also edited Pakistan, Nationalism without a Nation?, Delhi, Manohar, 2002.and co-edited with P. Van der Veer, Patterns of Middle Class Consumption in China and India, New Delhi, Sage, 2008.

Coleman Barks

Dr. Coleman Barks, now retired Professor Emeritus at the University of Georgia in Athens, taught American Literature and Creative Writing at various universities for thirty four years. He has published six volumes of his own poetry and has collaborated with various scholars of the Persian language to bring the poetry of the 13th Century mystic, Jelaluddin Rumi, into American free verse. This work has resulted in nineteen volumes, including the bestselling, Essential Rumi. The University of Georgia Press  published  Winter Sky: Poems 1966-2008 .

Colin Thubron

Colin Thubron is a celebrated travel writer and novelist.  His most important works have been on the Middle East, the ex-Soviet Union Among the Russians, China Behind the Wall, Central AsiaThe Lost Heart of Asia and Siberia In Siberia.  His latest book Shadow of the Silk Road embraces the regions and interests that have occupied him all his life.  He has won many prizes and awards.

Daniyal Mueenuddin

Daniyal Mueenuddin was brought up in Lahore, Pakistan.  A graduate of Dartmouth College and Yale Law School, his stories have appeared in The New Yorker, Granta, Zoetrope, and The Best American Short Stories 2008, selected by Salman Rushdie.  After practicing for several years as a lawyer in New York City, he now manages a farm in Pakistan.  His debut collection of short stories, In Other Rooms, Other Wonders, will be published in February 2009.

Deepti Naval

Deepti Naval is an acclaimed actor, writer & director and has acted in more than 60 films. A selection of her poems in Hindi, Lamha-Lamha was published in 1983 and more recently, MapinLit published Black Winds and Other Poems. She is also a painter and photographer with several exhibitions to her credit and enjoys trekking in the remote mountains of Himachal and Ladakh.

Derek Mahon

Derek Mahon was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland, in 1941, studied at Trinity College, Dublin, and the Sorbonne, and has worked as a journalist and screenwriter in London and New York, where he also held academic appointments. He now lives in Kinsale, Ireland. He has received numerous awards including a Lannan fellowship. Recent titles include Harbour Lights (2005) and Life on Earth (2008).

Gearóid Mac Lochlainn

Gearóid Mac Lochlainn's work has won many awards at home and internationally and has been translated into several languages. He has been writer-in-residence at Queens University, Belfast and the University of Ulster. He was also the subject of a TG4 documentary Idir Dha Chomhairle (2007). Mac Lochlainn has worked extensively with the British Council and the Arts Council Northern Ireland. In 2007 he was also a fellow at The William Joiner Centre for the Study of War and Social Consequences at University of Massachusetts, Boston.  He received the major Arts Council NI award for poetry in 2006.  He has published four collections of poetry in Irish and English: Babylon Gaeilgeoir (An Clochán), Na Scéalaithe (Coiscéim), Sruth Teangacha/ Stream Of Tongues (Cló Iar Chonnachta), Rakish Paddy Blues (limited edition published by Open House Festival).

Geetanjali Shree

Geetanjali Shree is amongst the foremost Hindi writers today. She is known for her adventurous and innovative prose. Her stories have been included in anthologies in other Indian languages and also in some European languages. 
  
She wrote a biography of a major Hindi writer, Premchand, Between Two Worlds: An Intellectual Biography of Premchand. She is also associated with theatre and writes scripts for Delhi-based theatre groups. Some of her books include Anugoonj, Hamara Shahar Us Baras, Vairagya, Tirohit, Khali Jagah, March Ma aur Sakura and Mai.

Gillian Wright

Gillian Wright studied Urdu and Hindi at London University's School of Oriental and African Studies. She has lived in India for thirty years and has translated Hindi novels by Srilal Shukla and Rahi Masoom Reza and short stories by Bhisham Sahni. She has also written books on travel and wildlife, and collaborated with Mark Tully on his various books, particularly India in Slow Motion.

Gita Wolf

Gita Wolf has written more than seventeen books for children and adults. A highly original voice and figure in contemporary publishing, she continues to explore and experiment with the form of the book and its status as a revered cultural object. Many of her children's books have won major international awards and been translated into several languages. She began Tara Books, an independent publishing house in Chennai, fifteen years ago.

Govind Mathur

Writer of prose and poetry, his works include Nadi Kuch Kehti Hai andBachi hui hasi. He has been awarded the Som Dutt Samman among many other honours.

Gulzar

Gulzar is an eminent writer of rare talent, a leading filmmaker, lyricist and script-writer. He was conferred with the Sahitya Akademi Award in 2002 for his collection of short stories, Dhuan. Gulzar is an author of several collections of poems and short stories in Urdu and has to his credit many hauntingly melodious film songs that demonstrate his multi-lingual sensitivity. His creative repertoire also includes books for children, plays, ballets, translations & music albums. He has made some significant television serials on Mirza Ghalib and on the works of Munshi Premchand. His film scripts have been published in a series of books entitled Manzarnama. Gulzar has been honoured with ‘Life Time Achievement Award' for his contribution to Hindi Cinema & with the Padma Bhushan. The most recent honour conferred upon him at the international level are the Oscar (2008) and the Grammy (2010) Awards  for his song written for the film Slumdog Millionaire.

Gurcharan Das

Gurcharan Das is the author of The Difficulty of Being Good: On the Subtle Art of Dharma. His past works include, India Unbound, A Fine Family (a novel); The Elephant Paradigm; and an anthology, Three English Plays. He studied philosophy at Harvard University, and was CEO Procter & Gamble India before he took early retirement to become a writer. He writes a regular column in the Times of India.

Hari Kunzru

Hari Kunzru lives in New York City as a Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman fellow at the New York Public Library. He is the author of three novels: The Impressionist, which won the Betty Trask Prize and the Somerset Maugham Award; Transmission; andMy Revolutions, which came out in January. In 2003, he was named one of Granta¹s Best Young British Novelists. His short fiction and journalism have appeared in The New Yorker, New York Times, Guardian, Times of India and many other publications around the world. He is deputy president of English PEN.

Imraan Coovadia

Imraan Coovadia was born in Durban, South Africa.  He was educated at Yale, and is the author of two novels, The Wedding and Green-eyed Thieves, as well as a forthcoming monograph on V.S. Naipaul.  His new novel, Broken Window, appears in 2009.  He has published many book reviews, essays, and short stories, both in South Africa and the United States.  He works at the University of Cape Town.

K Satchidanandan

K Satchidanandan  is perhaps the most translated of contemporary Indian poets , having 23 collections in 18 languages including  Arabic, French, German and Italian. His book While I Write : New and Selected Poems (Harper-Collins) is being launched during  this festival. Satchidanandan writes poetry  in Malayalam and prose in Malayalam and English and has more than 20  collections of poetry besides several books of travel, plays and criticism. He has represented India in many Literary Festivals across the world including the Berlin Literary Festival and London, Paris, Frankfurt and Moscow Book Fairs. He has won 27 literary awards besides Knighthood of the Order of Merit from the Government of Italy and India-Poland Friendship Medal from the Government of Poland.

Kanika Gahlaut

Kanika Gahlaut, a senior editor with Mail Today, has been a lifestyle journalist for over 15 years. In between attending fashion shows, watching films, partying and schmoozing hard for a living, she has authoredAmong the Chatterati: The Diary of a Page Three Hack (Penguin India), a fictionalised take on Delhi's partying set, and has contributed to a few anthologies.

Kavita Singh

Kavita Singh is Associate Professor at the School of Arts and Aesthetics, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi where she teaches the history of Indian painting and curatorial studies. She has published on Indian folk and courtly painting and is currently working on the history of museums in India.

Keki N. Daruwalla

Keki N. Daruwalla (1937-) has published  nine volumes of poetry, and three collections of Short fiction, including one novella. His works include,Under Orion and The Map Maker amongst others. Daruwalla wrote his Masters in literature from Punjab University. He went  as a Visiting Fellow under the Colombo Plan to Queen Elizabeth House, Oxford (1980-81). He joined Government service in 1958. He was a part of the Commonwealth Observer's Group for the Zimbabwe elections in 1980. He served as Special Assistant to the Prime Minister of India in 1979. He retired as a Secretary , Govt. of India (Chairman JIC). Keki Daruwalla has won the Sahitya Akademi Award and the Commonwealth Prize.

Kudsi Erguner

Kudsi Erguner, is particularly famed for his activities helping to introduce Ottoman and sufi music to the world. He lives and works in Paris as a musician, composer, musicologist, teacher and author.
Erguner comes from a family of Turkish musicians.He received his training directly from his father, Ulvi Erguner, who was the last great master of the Nay. He has given concerts and played in major festivals throughout the world and has researched the music of India, Pakistan and Turkey, grounded diverse music ensembles, recorded numerous albums and has worked with such well known artists as Bob Wilson, Peter Gabriel, Maurice Bejart, Carolyn Carlson, Peter Brook, Didier Lockwood, Michel Portal, Tony Gatliff, Marc Minkovsky.
Erguner  is  regarded  as  one of  the  most important  pioneer and  contributor to the Ottoman Sufi and classical music as well as to the world music with his original projects.

Kynpham Sing Nongkynrih

Kynpham Sing Nongkynrih is a poet, writer and translator. He belongs to the Khasi tribe and writes in both Khasi and English. His short stories have been published in leading journals in India and translated into Hindi and Bengali. Nongkynrih is a Reader in the Department of English, North-Eastern Hill University (NEHU), Shillong. He has a total of five publications in Khasi and three in English besides edited volumes and translated works of poetry and short stories in both Khasi and English.

Leila Seth

Leila Seth was the first woman Chief Justice of a High Court in India, the first woman Judge of the Delhi High Court and the first woman to top the Bar examinations in England. Her autobiography On Balance intertwines her family and professional life and speaks of her over fifty years of marriage with shoemaker Premo and her remarkable children, writer Vikram, Zen Buddhist Dharmacharya Shantum and film maker Aradhana. Her book was received by the Business Standard as `one of the best memoirs by an Indian in a long time' and the Journal of the Commonwealth Lawyers' Association stated that it `is made all the more enjoyable by the candour, objectivity, and self-deprecating humour of the author'.

Lijia Zhang

Lijia Zhang, author of Socialism is Great! was born and raised in Nanjing. Her articles have appeared in numerous international publications, including South China Morning Post, The Japan Times, The Independent, The Washington Post, and Newsweek. She is a regular speaker on BBC radio and NPR. She lives in Beijing with her two daughters.

Linda Spalding

Linda Spalding was born in Kansas and lived in Mexico and Hawaii before immigrating to Toronto in 1982. She is the author of three critically acclaimed novels, Daughters of Captain Cook, The Paper Wife, and Mere, which she wrote with her daughter, Esta.

Her non-fiction work, Follow, was short-listed for the Trillium Book Award and the Pearson Writers' Trust Non-Fiction Prize. She has been awarded the Harbourfront Festival Prize for her contribution to the Canadian literary community.

Maliram Sharma

Hailing from village Satasar, Maliram Sharma belongs to the first generation to have recieved formal education and achieve acedemic heights in his family. He writes poetry, satire and fiction. His works include Aamne Saamne, Sadak ka sailab and O Satasar, an autobigraphical account amongst other works. He has held various important administrative and honorary posts in Rajasthan.

Malise Ruthven

Malise Ruthven is the author of Fundamentalism: the Search fo Meaning, A Fury for God: The Islamist Attack on America, The Divine Supermarket:Shopping for God in America,Islam in the World and several other books.
A former university lecturer and scriptwriter for the BBC External Services, he is currently working on a book about religion and brain science.

Manju Malhi

Manju Malhi first book, the award winning Brit Spice was published by Penguin. Her other books include India with Passion on regional Indian home cuisine and Easy Indian Cookbook. She won the BBC's Food and Drink competition in 1999 and cooked with Antony Worrall Thompson on BBC2. She has done a forty part series entitled ‘Cooking Isn't Rocket Science' for one of India's leading broadcasters NDTV.
Manju has written extensively on Indian food for newspapers and magazines, and is the voice of BBC Food. 

Manjushree Thapa

Manjushree Thapa is the author, most recently, ofSeasons of Flight, set in rural Nepal and Los Angeles. Her previous books of fiction are Tilled Earth and The Tutor of History. Her literary nonfiction books include Forget Kathmandu, a finalist for the Lettre Ulysses Award. She lives in Kathmandu and Toronto. More on www.manjushreethapa.com

Marie Brenner

Marie Brenner is an American author, investigative journalist and writer-at-large for Vanity Fair. She has also written for New York, The New Yorker and the Boston Herald and has taught at Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism. Her Vanity Fair article on tobacco insider Jeffrey Wigand, "The Man Who Knew Too Much", inspired the 1999 movie The Insider, starring Russell Crowe and Al Pacino. It was nominated for seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture.
Brenner worked as a contributing editor for New York (magazine) from 1980-1984, and covered the Royal Wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer. Brenner's 2002 Vanity Fair article, "The Enron Wars," delving into the investigation into the Enron scandals made national news when Senator Peter Fitzgerald used it to question witnesses testifying before a senate committee.
In 2009, the Manhattan Theater Club announced that it had commissioned Alfred Uhry to adapt Brenner's memoir Apples and Oranges: My Brother and Me, Lost and Found for the stage.

Mererid Hopwood

Mererid Hopwood is a poet and novelist. She shot to fame in Wales in 2001 when she became the first woman ever to win the prestigious Chair for poetry at the National Eisteddfod. She has since won the National Crown, also for poetry, and the Eisteddfod's Prose Medal, for her novel O Ran. She was previously awarded a first class honours degree in Spanish and German from Aberystwyth and a PhD from University College London, and continues to be in great demand as a poet, tutor and television presenter. Her other publications include a guide to writing poetry in strict Welsh metre (‘cynghanedd') and books for young people.

Michael Patrick MacDonald

Michael Patrick MacDonald is the author of the memoirs, All Souls: A Family Story From Southie and Easter Rising: A Memoir of Roots and Rebellion. He has been awarded an American Book Award, a New England Literary Lights Award, a Golden Pen Award from the National Networks for Youth, and a fellowship at Bellagio Study Center. He has completed the screenplay to All Souls for "Bull Durham" director Ron Shelton.
As an activist he has focused his efforts on cross-cultural coalition building to reduce violence, founding Gun Buyback programs and local support groups, giving voice to survivors of violence and the drug trade.  He currently lives in Brooklyn New York, and is Author in Residence at Northeastern University.

Michael Wood

Michael Wood is the writer of many acclaimed books and television programmes which have been seen world wide, including Art of the Western Worldand In Search of Shakespeare. His latest series recently aired in India was The Story of India and he is also author of A South Indian Journey(Penguin).

MJ Akbar

MJ Akbar has worked in the field of journalism withTimes of India, Illustrated Weekly, the Onlooker,Sunday, The Telegraph, Deccan Chronicle amongst others. He launched and was editor of  The Asian Age. In 2008 he launched Covert, a political based fortnight magazine. He also launched in 2010 The Sunday Guardian, Delhi's first Sunday newspaper and India on Sunday, published from London. MJ Akbar has recently joined India Today and Headlines Today as Editorial Director. His books include India: The Siege Within, Challenges to a Nation's Unit; Riot After Riot; Nehru: The Making of India & Kashmir: Behind the Veil& The Shade of Swords: Jihad and the Conflict Between Islam and Christianity. MJ Akbar's book Blood Brothers is the story of three generations of a Muslim family- based on his own- and how they deal with the fluctuating contours of Hindu-Muslim relations. This book has been translated into Italian, Hungarian, Hindi and Malayalam.

Mohammed Hanif

Mohammed Hanif graduated from Pakistan Air Force Academy as Pilot Officer, but subsequently left to pursue a career in journalism. He has written plays for the stage and BBC radio, and his film The Long Night has been shown at film festivals around the world. His first novel A Case of Exploding Mangoes was long listed for Man Booker Prize, shortlisted for Guardian First Book Prize and selected for Barnes and Noble's Discover Great New Writers' series. He is currently BBC's correspondent based in Karachi.

Mohan Bhopa

Mohan Bhopa is one of the most successful practioners of the Papuji ki Phad. Once an illiterate village goat herd from the Shekhawati, he has travelled the world with his phad, bringing the great mediaveal courtly epic of Papuji to audiences from Jaipur to Boston.

Mukul Kesavan

Mukul Kesavan is a writer and historian who lives in Delhi. His most recent book was The Ugliness of the Indian Male and Other Propositions.

Mukund Lath

Dr. Mukund Lath teaches history at the University of Rajasthan, Jaipur. His A Study of Dattilam, is an in-depth exploration of one of the ancient most Indian texts on music and is considered a landmark in musicology. He is also the author amongst others of Ardhakathanaka, Half a Tale. He is also a classical vocalist trained under Pandit Jasraj.

Muzaffar Ali

Muzaffar Ali, born in1944 Lucknow, is an Indian film-maker, a fashion designer, a poet, an artist, a music-lover, a revivalist and a social worker. In 2005 he was awarded the Padma Shri for his achievements. Some of his films include the very popular, Umrao Jaan, Sheeshon ka Maseeha and Anjuman amongst many others.

Nabaneeta Dev Sen

Nabaneeta Dev Sen is a Bengali poet and writer. A recipient of the Sahitya Akademi award and the Padmashree, she is also Professor of Comparative Literature at Jadavpur University, Calcutta. Her works include, Pratham Pratyay, Maya raye gelo andKaruna tomar kon path diye amongst many others.

Nadeem Aslam

Nadeem Aslam is the author of the award-winning novels Season of the Rainbirds and Maps for Lost Lovers. He lives in the UK. His third novel The Wasted Vigil has just been published.

Nalini Jameela

Nalini Jameela was born in Kerala to parents who were daily wage laborers.She started sex work at the age of 24 and has been involved with Kerala Sex Workers Forum. She has two daughters Latha and Seenath.

Nalini has directed two documentariesJwalamukhika & A peep in to the silence.

Her autobiography Njan Laingikathozhilali was published in Malayalam by DC Books and translated into English Autobiography of a Sex Workerby Westland.

Penguin Books India publishes her next book Romantic Encounters of A Sex Worker.

Namita Gokhale

Namita Gokhale is a writer and publisher. Her first novel, Paro: Dreams Of Passion, caused an uproar due to its candid sexual humour. Her other books include, Gods Graves And Grandmother, A Himalayan Love Story, Mountain Echoes, The Book of Shadows and The Book Of Shiva.Shakuntala, The Play of Memory, published in 2005, was the first Indian novel to be released simultaneously in Hindi and English. Gokhale's retelling of the Mahabharata for young readers, The Puffin Mahabharata, was released in January 2009.  In Search of Sita, an anthology of essays co-edited with Dr.Malashri Lal, was published in October 2009. Namita Gokhale is a director of Yatra Books, which co-publishes with Penguin India in English, Hindi, Marathi and Urdu. Besides being a founder and the co-director of the DSC Jaipur Literature Festival, Namita Gokhale conceptualized the International Festival of Indian Literature, Neemrana 2002, and the Africa-Asia Literary Conference, Neemrana 2006.

Nandan Nilekani

Nandan Nilekani's book Imagining India - Ideas for a new Centuryhas recently been launched in India. In this sweeping and comprehensive book, one of the country's finest and most dynamic minds examines the central ideas that have shaped modern India, and offers an original perspective on our past, present and future.Across the world, Nandan is recognized as one of India's most successful software entrepreneurs and as the co-founder of Infosys, among India's premier companies in the IT sector.

Nasreen Munni Kabir

Nasreen Munni Kabir is a documentary film-maker who has made several series on Indian cinema. She is Channel 4's consultant on Indian cinema.In 2005 Nasreen completed two documentaries on Shah Rukh Khan: The Inner World of Shah Rukh Khan andThe Outer World of Shah Rukh Khan. She has written several books including Guru Dutt - a life in cinema, Talking Films with Javed Akhtar,Talking Songs with Javed Akhtar and Bollywood, The Indian cinema Story and two new books Yours Guru Dutt and The Immortal Dialogue of Mughal e Azam.

She was born in India and has lived most of her life in London and Paris (where she organised the first major Indian film festivals to be held in France at the Georges Pompidou Centre in 1983 & 1985). She won the first Asian Womens' Achievement Award in 1999 for her work promoting Indian cinema in the UK and recently completed a six year term as a governor on the board of the British Film Institute.

Navdeep Suri

Navdeep Suri is a member of the Indian Foreign Service since 1983. He is currently Consul General of India in Johannesburg. Mr. Suri is co-author of the study Development Strategy as a Determinant of Foreign Policy: A case study of India and Pakistan. His work on Indo-African relations has been published in India's Foreign Policy, while his study titled Outsourcing and Development was presented at the Inter-Government Experts Meeting organized by UNCTAD. Grandson of the eminent Punjabi novelist Nanak Singh, his translation of Pavitra Paapi, his grandfather's classic 1930s novel, has been published as The Watchmaker.

Nicholas Coleridge

Nicholas Coleridge is the author of twelve books, both fiction and non-fiction, based loosely upon his professional life (The Fashion Conspiracy, Paper Tigers, With Friends Like These) or epic novels (Godchildren, A Much Married Man). His books have been published in fourteen languages. His next novel, Deadly Sins, is published in May.

He is Vice President of Condé Nast International, the magazine company, and has run the British company since 1989. He has been named Young Journalist of the Year in the British Press Awards, and received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the British Society of Magazine Editors.

Nikita Lalwani

Nikita Lalwani was born in Rajasthan and raised in Cardiff. Her novel Gifted was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize, shortlisted for the Costa First Novel Award and Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year. In June 2008 she won the Desmond Elliot Prize for Fiction and donated the £10,000 prize to human rights campaigners, Liberty. She lives in London.

Patrick French

Patrick French is a British writer, the author ofYounghusband, Liberty or Death, Tibet,Tibetand the World Is What It Is: The Authorized Biography of V.S. Naipaul, described by James Wood in The New Yorker as ‘a masterly, mournful book ... full of intimate and moving revelations.' His latest book is India: A Potrait, which will be released in January 2011.

Paul Zacharia

Paul Zacharia is a writer and columnist in Malayalam. He has published over 40 books including short stories, novels, travelogues, essays and film-scripts. He lives in Thiruvananthapuram. He won the Kendra Sahitya Akademi Award in 2005.

Pavan K. Varma

Writer-diplomat Pavan K. Varma joined the Indian Foreign Service in 1976. He has been Press Secretary to the President of India, the Spokesman of the Ministry of External Affairs, Joint Secretary for Africa, High Commissioner for India in Cyprus, Director of the Nehru Centre in London and Director General of the Indian Council for Cultural Relations, New Delhi. A writer of depth and insight, he has written over a dozen books including the highly successful  The Great Indian Middle Class, Being Indian: The Truth About Why the 21st Century Will Be India's, Krishna: The Playful Divine and Ghalib: The Man, The Times, and the Havelis of Old Delhi. Another recent work is a witty adaptation of Vatsyayana's Kama Sutra; Kama Sutra: The Art of Making Love to a Woman, was published early in 2007. His latest book titled: Becoming Indian: The Unfinished Revolution of Culture and Identity. Pavan K. Varma, is currently the Indian Ambassador to Bhutan.

Peter Pannke

Peter Pannke is a singer, dreamer and storyteller born in Germany. His books include Troubadoure Allahs - Sufimusik im Industal,Indien - Fest der Farben, Mali - Reise durch ein magisches Land(Frederking & Thaler, Munich) and Saengers muessen zweimal sterben - Eine Reise ins unerhoerte Indien(Piper/Mallik, Munich).
At the Jaipur Literature Festival he is launchingDreamtalker - Songs, Poems, Essays (Daastaan, New Delhi). Other forthcoming titles are Indien hören(Silberfuchs, Hamburg); Saints and Singers(Oxford University Press, Karachi),Singers Die Twice(Indica Books, Varansi) and Das verzauberte Ohr - Die Entdeckung der Weltmusik(Schott Music International, Berlin).He is a well-known broadcaster with more than 4000 radio features to his credit, more than half of it on India and Pakistan. He has produced close to 100 world music CDs and is the bandleader of Troubadours United (www.troubadours-united.com). Film maker Elfi Mikesch, winner of the German Camera Award in 2007, portrayed it in the 1-hour documentary The Road of the Troubadours (ZDF/ARTE 2002).

Pico Iyer

Pico Iyer is the author of two novels and seven books of non-fiction, including Video Night in Kathmandu, The Lady and the Monk, The Global Soul and, most recently, The Open Road, an account of 33 years of talking and traveling with the XIVth Dalai Lama.

Prakash Dandetha

Prakash, the latest star of the remarkable Dandetha bardic dynasty from Borunda near Jodhpur, is an expert on the folklore of Rajasthan who worked with the late Komal Kothari and who knows the traditions and the folk beliefs of the state like few others.

Prasoon Joshi

Prasoon Joshi,   "the Advertising Guru of India",  is also an accalimed Poet  and screenwriter in Bollywood. An MBA, he started his career as a copywriter. Today, he is Chairman McCann-Erickson India & Creative Director Asia Pacific. From Cannes Lion winning Advertising campaigns for Coca Cola& Happydent to Filmfare for Taare zameen par &Rang De Basanti and three published poetry books he is considered a torchbearer and contemporary face of Indian Creativity.

Pushpesh Pant

Pushpesh Pant, born 11 December 1946. Educated in Nainitaland Delhi. Have taught in the Delhi Univeristy and the JNU for four decades. Written books on culture, cuisine, travel and Indian foreign poolicy and international relations. independent producer of television documenataries. TV anchor and columnist in Hindi and English newspapers.

Rajiv Chandrasekaran

Rajiv Chandrasekaran is the National Editor of The Washington Post and the author of Imperial Life in the Emerald City, a best-selling account of the troubled American effort to reconstruct Iraq. The book won the Overseas Press Club book award, the Ron Ridenhour Prize and Britain's Samuel Johnson Prize. It was named one of the 10 Best Books of 2007 by the New York Times. It also was a finalist for the National Book Award. The book is currently being adapted into a major motion picture starring Matt Damon.

Rana Dasgupta

Rana Dasgupta is the author of Tokyo Cancelled(2005) and Solo (2009). He lives in New Delhi.

Ritu Kumar

Ritu Kumar, one of India's foremost designers has developed a unique style of her own, reflecting the ancient traditions of Indian craftsmanship in a contemporary vocabulary.With a background in art history and museology, which has enriched her horizons, Ritu's understanding of ancient designs and the innovative use of traditional crafts has created a new classicism. Her book Costumes and Textiles of Royal India published by Christies in 1999 chronicles the history of textiles and art design in India.

S R Faruqui

Shamsur Rahman Faruqui, Urdu critic, poet, fiction writer,  was born in 1935. Savar (Rider), his book of  short stories was published in India and Pakistan to great acclaim as re-creation of the Indo Muslim literary culture in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. His novel Ka'i Chaand the Sar-e Asman  (Many Moons Across the Sky) explores the same world on a larger scale. Published from Karachi (2006) and Delhi (2007), it was hailed as a triumph of creativity and scholarship.

Sam Miller

Sam Miller in the early nineties was the BBC World Service TV and radio correspondent in Delhi and on his return to the UK in 1993 was presenter and editor of the BBC's current affairs programme, South Asia Report. Later he was Head of the BBC's Urdu service and Managing Editor, South Asia.

In 2004, he was one of eleven well-known writers from around the world who contributed to the book, The Weekenders: Adventures in Calcutta.  His first book, Delhi: Adventures in a Megacity, is due in January 2009.

Sampurna Chattarji

Sampurna Chattarji is an award-winning poet, fiction-writer and translator. Her books include The Greatest Stories Ever Told, Abol Tabol: The Nonsense World of Sukumar Ray and Mulla Nasruddin (all published by Penguin/Puffin). Abol Tabol was reissued as a Puffin Classic in 2008 under the title Wordygurdyboom! Her modern retelling of the complete Panchatantra titled Three Brothers and the Flower of Gold was published in July 2008 by Scholastic. Her debut poetry collection Sight May Strike You Blind was published by the Sahitya Akademi (India's National Academy of Letters) in 2007, and reprinted in 2008. She was awarded the Charles Wallace Creative Writing Scholarship to Edinburgh University in 2005 and the Highlights Foundation Scholarship to the Highlights Writers Workshop at Chautauqua, New York in 2006. Sampurna's first novel Rupture is forthcoming from HarperCollins later this year.

Sarwat Khan

Sarwat Khan is a well known name in contemporary Urdu literature. She has five books to her credit,Zarron ki haraarat (Stories), Andhera Pag (Novel) & three books of criticism. Andhere Pag is a rare piece on the traditions and customs of the Rajpurohit Caste in Rajasthan, in which she portrays the struggle of a young widow against centuries old customs to live like a free and self confident woman.

Satyanarana

Satyanarana from Jodhpur is the author of many works of fiction and reportage including the book, Phati Jeb se ek din which was made into a telefilm. He has been the recepient of several awards. He is is a professor of Hindi.

Shaktidan Kavia

Shaktidan Kavia, a widely travelled author and professor has writtenSanskriti ri Soram, Saputa ri Dharti, Rajasthani Sahitya ka anusheelam and Rajasthani kaavya mein saanskritik gauravamongst many others. He has recieved many awards and honours including Sahitya Akademi Award for Rajasthani translators and Rajasthan Sahitya Akademi award for poetry. His writing has been translated into Gujarati, English and Italian.

Shashi Tharoor

Dr. Shashi Tharoor is a prize-winning author of ten books, fiction and non-fiction; and a widely-published critic, commentator and columnist 
His books include the classic The Great Indian Novel (1989), India: From Midnight to the Millennium (1997), Nehru: The Invention of India (2003), and most recently, The Elephant, the Tiger, and the Cell phone: Reflections on 21st Century India (Fall 2007).

Siddharth Dhanvant Shanghvi

Siddharth Dhanvant Shanghvi's bestselling debut novel, The Last Song of Dusk, won the Betty Trask Award (UK), the Premio Grinzane Cavour (Italy), and was nominated for the IMPAC Prize. Shanghvi's new novel, The Lost Flamingoes of Bombay, was short-listed for the Man Asian Literary Prize 2008.

Siddharth Varadarajan

Associate Editor of The Hindu and one of India's leading commentators on foreign affairs, Varadarajan has reported extensively from Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Nepal, Bangladesh, the former Yugoslavia as well as Kashmir and India's northeastern region. Prior to joining The Hindu in 2004, he was the Foreign Affairs editor and Deputy Chief of Bureau of The Times of India. In 2002, he edited a book on the Gujarat riots,Gujarat: The Making of a Tragedy (Penguin). He is the recipient of the Elizabeth Neuffer memorial prize for excellence in journalism, awarded by the United Nations Correspondents Association in 2005 for a series of articles on Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency.
 
A trained edonomist, Varadarajan taught economics at New York University for a number of years before returning to India to work as a journalist in 1995. He lives in New Delhi and is currently writing a book, Hegemony Outsourced?: The United States, India and the Struggle for Asia, on the Indo-U.S. relationship.

Simon Schama

Simon Schama is University Professor of Art History and History at Columbia University; the author of fourteen books including Citizens: A Chronicle of the French Revolution, Landscape and Memory, Rembrandt's Eyes, Rough Crossings: Britain, The American Revolution and The Slaves and most recently
The American Future: A History. He writes regularly for The Guardian in London and The New Yorker magazine and has written and presented more than thirty films for BBC Television including the 15part A History of Britain and the Emmy winning Power of Art.

Sirish Rao

Sirish Rao is one of the directors of Tara Books - widely regarded as one of India's finest independent houses. As a writer, Sirish has authored novels, children's books, re-tellings of myths, and books on art. His books have been translated into seventeen languages and have won several international awards.

Sivasankari

Sivasankari is a Tamil writer and activist.  Her works include more than 36 novels, 48 short novels, 150 short stories, 15 travelogues, 7 collections of articles, 13 collections of short stories, one talking book, 3 volumes of literary research, 2 volumes of anthologies, and 2 biographies. She is presently working on a project titled Knit India Through Literature. Her novels on various social issues have been filmed and serialized. Her works have been translated into many languages. She is the first writer to have narrated her story through video and audiotapes. She has also presented and anchored many talk shows. She has been honoured with Kasturi Srinivasan Award, Bharatiya Bhasha Parishad Award, Rajiv Gandhi National Integration Award and Prem Chand Rastriya Sahitya Samman for her literary achievements. She has also received many awards for her commitment in the field of social work.

Sonia Faleiro

Sonia Faleiro is an award-winning reporter and writer. She is the author of a book of fiction, The Girl(Penguin, 2006), and a contributor to several anthologies including AIDS Sutra: Untold Stories from India (Random House, 2008). Beautiful Thing, her first full-length work of non-fiction, uncovers the secretive world of Bombay's dance bars. It was Time Out's Subcontinental Book of the Year, and CNN's Mumbai Book of the Year (2010). Critics described it as ‘a brilliant, unforgettable book by a writer who is one of the best of her generation.'Beautiful Thing is being translated into several languages and will be published in the UK by Canongate in August 2011. Sonia was born in Goa, studied in Edinburgh, worked in Bombay, and lives in San Francisco.

Sudeep Chakravarti

Sudeep Chakravarti is the author of a work of narrative non-fiction about India's Maoist rebellion,Red Sun-Travels in Naxalite Country and two novels, Tin Fish and Once Upon a Time in Aparanta. A former career journalist, he is also a columnist, professional futurist, and media consultant. Sudeep lives in Goa, India.Sudeep Chakravarti is the author of a work of narrative non-fiction about India's Maoist rebellion,Red Sun-Travels in Naxalite Country and two novels, Tin Fish and Once Upon a Time in Aparanta. A former career journalist, he is also a columnist, professional futurist, and media consultant. Sudeep lives in Goa, India.Sudeep Chakravarti is the author of a work of narrative non-fiction about India's Maoist rebellion,Red Sun-Travels in Naxalite Country and two novels, Tin Fish and Once Upon a Time in Aparanta. A former career journalist, he is also a columnist, professional futurist, and media consultant. Sudeep lives in Goa, India.

Sunil Gangopadhyay

Sunil Gangopadhyay began his literary career as a poet with the journal Krittibas in 1953 & his novel Atma Prakash in 1966.A prolific writer Sunil Gangopadhyay has published around 350 books in his fifty five years span as writer. He is best known for his Neera poems and the mega narratives, Sei Samai, Purba Paschim and Pratham Alo translated into English as Those Days, East West and First Light. Several of his novels have been made into films- two of them by legendary film maker Satyajit Ray. These are Aranyer din ratri, and Pratidwandi.

Swapan Dasgupta

Swapan Dasgupta is a political columnist living in Delhi. Having spent his formative years in India and UK probing the past and espousing radical causes, he is now a lapsed historian and a refugee from the Left-liberal ghetto. His writings are centred on unpopular and quirky causes: a deregulated economy, Curzonian foreign policy, writing of narrative history, Raj nostalgia and an England that no longer exists. Perceived by the Left as belonging to the Right, he is regarded by India's Right as a friendly oddity and a heretical nationalist.

Tahmima Anam

Tahmima Anam was born in Bangladesh in 1975. She grew up in Paris, New York, and Bangkok, attended Harvard University, where she earned a Ph.D. in Social Anthropology. She lives in London. Tahmima's writing has been published in Granta, The New York Times, and The Guardian. A Golden Age is her first novel.

Tarun Tejpal

In a 27-year career as a journalist, Tarun has been an editor with the India Today and the Indian Express groups, and the managing editor of Outlook. He is the founder of Tehelka - which has garnered international fame for its aggressive public interest journalism. In 2001, AsiaWeek listed Tejpal as one of Asia's 50 most powerful communicators, and BusinessWeek declared him among 50 leaders at the forefront of change in Asia. Tarun's debut novel, The Alchemy of Desire, was hailed by the Sunday Times as "an impressive and memorable debut", and by Le Figaro as a "masterpiece". In 2007 The Guardian, UK, named him among the 20 who constitute India's new elite. Tarun's second novel, The Story of My Assassins has been published in 2009 to rave reviews. Pankaj Mishra has said, "It sets new and dauntingly high standards for Indian writing in English", while Altaf Tyrewala has called it "an instant classic". For more:  www.taruntejpal.com.

Tarun Vijay

Tarun Vijay is a commentator and a columnist on the Times of India and major Indian language newspapers and Director of a nationalist think tank Dr. Syama Prasad Mokerjee Research Foundation. He specializes in Chinese affairs and has received fellowship from Sichuan University. He has written a travelogue An odyssey in Tibet besides several other books, the latest beingSaffron Surge.

Tash Aw

Tash Aw is Malaysian by birth but now lives in London. His first novel, The Harmony Silk Factory, won the Whitbread Best First Novel Award and the Commonwealth Best First Novel Award. Map of the Invisible World is his second novel.

Thomas Keneally

Born in 1935 in Australia,Thomas Keneally has written nearly thirty novels, two memoirs and a number of historical works. The novels include four Booker Prize short-listees - including The Chant of Jimmy Blacksmith, Gossip From the Forest, Confederates and Schindler's Ark, the latter of which won the prize. His historical work includes The Great Shame and The Commonwealth of Thieves. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and has been awarded honorary doctorates in Australia and the United States. His present work includes a novel on escaped Tsarist prisoners who lived in Melbourne and Brisbane, and a history of famines, the Irish, the Bengal famine, and the twentieth century recurrent Ethiopian ones.
He lives in Sydney with his wife, and has two children and four grandchildren.

Tina Brown

Tina Brown is the Founder and Editor in Chief of The Daily Beast.  She is the author of the 2007 New York Times best seller The Diana Chronicles.  She has written for numerous publications including The Times of London, The Spectator, and the Washington Post.Ms. Brown graduated with an M.A. from Oxford at St Anne's College and authored two plays: Under the Bamboo Tree, performed at the Edinburgh Festival and Happy Yellow at the London fringe Bush Theater.

Her journalism career began in 1973 writing for the London Sunday Times, The New Statesman and The Sunday Telegraph. Her writings from this era are collected in 2 books, Life As A Party and Loose Talk. Tina's revitalization of publications began at the Tatler - she became editor-in-chief in 1979; circulation rose dramatically and soon purchased by Condé Nast in 1982. She became editor-in-chief of Vanity Fair at the end of 1983. With Tina at the helm from 1984-1992, they won 4 National Magazine Awards; she was named Advertising Age's first Magazine Editor of the Year. In 1992, Tina took on revitalizing The New Yorker. In her 6 ½ year tenure, circulation increased 28%; in 1992, Tina was the first magazine editor to be honored with the National Press Foundation's Editor of the Year Award.

In 1998, she co-founded Talk Media with Harvey and Bob Weinstein of Miramax, launched Talk magazine and Talk Miramax Books. From April 2003 - May 2005 Tina hosted CNBC's Topic A with Tina Brown. Tina is married to Sir Harold Evans, former editor of the Sunday Times of London, President of Random House. They have two children, George and Isabel, and reside in New York.

Tulsi Badrinath

Tulsi Badrinath is a writer and dancer based in Madras.Meeting Lives, which was on the 2007 Man Asian Literary Prize longlist under a different title, is her first novel. She trained in Bharata Natyam from the age of eight and has performed widely in India and abroad.

U R Ananthamurthy

Udupi Rajagopalacharya Ananthamurthy, is a leading contemporary writer and critic in the Kannada language. He received a Master of Arts degree from the University of Mysore and earned his doctorate from the University of Birmingham in 1966. He is a recipient of the Jnanpith Award for the Kannada language and in 1998 he received the Padma Bhushan award from the Government of India. His main works include Samskara, Bhava, Bharathi Pura, and Avasthe.

Udaya Narayana Singh

Udaya Narayana Singh, is Director of the Central Institute of Indian Languages, Mysore, India and is a renowned linguist as well as a reputed poet, playwright and essayist in Maithili and Bengali. He previously set up the Centre in Applied Linguistics and Translation Studies at the University of Hyderabad, and taught in the Universities at Delhi, Baroda and Surat as well. As a creative writer, he has published four collections of poems and twelve plays in Maithili (writes under the pen-name ‘Nachiketa'), as well as six books of literary essays and two volumes of poetry in Bengali, besides translating several books. His recent books include an anthology of poems - Madhyampurush Ekvachan (2005) translated and published in English (2007), Tamil (2008) and German (2009), a play - No Entry: Maa Pravisha (2008) and a collection of one-acts -Priyamvadaa aa anya ekaankii (2008).

Udayan Vajpeyi

Some of Udayan's writings include  Sudeshna & Door Desh Ki Gandh (short-stories), Abhed Aakash(book of conversations with Film maker Mani Kaul),Kuchh Vakya  Ganitajna ki Kavitayen (poems),Charkhe Par Barhat (essays), Vie Invisible(poems in French translation, Paris), which have been  translated into many languages across the world.
 
Mr. Vajpeyi has translated texts of Octavio Paz, Anton Chekhov, Tadeuz Rozewicz, Nilim Kumar (Assamese) amongst others into Hindi. He has written texts for many documentary films and the dialogues of Char Adhyaya (Kumar Shahani's feature film on Ravindarnath Tagore's novel). 

He has participated in various poetry festivals in India and abroad, including Biennale International de poetess in Val-de-Maurne (France) in 1997 and was invited as Writer-in-Residence in Lavigny (Switzerland) in 2000. He  teaches Physiology in Gandhi Medical College, Bhopal.

Vandana Bhandari

Vandana Bhandari is currently a Professor in the Fashion and Textiles department and the Head of International Linkages at the National Institute of Fashion Technology, New Delhi.

Her works include: Celebrating Dreams: Weddings in India , Textiles and Crafts of India: Arunachal Pradesh, Assam and Manipur, the NIFT Millennium Document titled Evolving Trends in Fashion and Costume, Textiles and Jewellery of India - Traditions in Rajasthan.

Vikas Swarup

Vikas Swarup is an Indian diplomat, presently posted in Pretoria. His award winning debut novel Q&A has become an international phenomenon, translated into 36 languages and adapted into the acclaimed film Slumdog Millionaire. His second novel Six Suspects is also being translated into several languages and has been optioned for a film by the BBC.

Vikram Seth

Vikram Seth was born in India and educated here and in England, California and China. He has written acclaimed books in several genres: verse novel, The Golden Gate; travel book, From Heaven Lake; animal fables, Beastly Tales; epic novel, A Suitable Boy. His most recent novel, An Equal Music, was published in 1999. In a move which will cheer hundreds of thousands of his fans, Vikram Seth has announced that he is writing the long-awaited sequel to his much-loved million-copy bestseller A Suitable Boy. A Suitable Girl will be published by Penguin in Autumn 2013.

Viky Arya

A poet, a sculptor, a scriptwriter, a painter, a photographer, an author and illustrator of several books for children.Born and brought up in Dehradun, Viky is a national award winner for children's literature. Her poetry collection Canvas has been awarded Kriti Samman by Hindi academy.A M.F.A. from B.H.U. Viky works with a leading ad agency as AVP & senior creative director.

Wendy Doniger

Wendy Doniger is an American scholar of history of religion. She is the author, translator, and editor of almost thirty books in as many years; the latest wasThe Woman Who Pretended To Be Who She Was.  Her current works in progress include a novel,Horses for Lovers, Dogs for Husbands and a book about magic rings of memory and forgetfulness,Rings and Ringers.   The book that she is about to publish in March,
The Hindus:  An Alternative History, forms the basis for her lecture, which is entitled Including Dogs and Dalits:  An Alternative Narrative of the Hindus.

William Dalrymple

William Dalrymple is the author of seven acclaimed works of history and travel, including City of Djinns, which won the Young British Writer of the Year Prize and the Thomas Cook Travel Book Award; the best-selling From the Holy Mountain; The Age of Kali, which won the French Prix D'Astrolable;White Mughals, which won Britain's most prestigious history prize, the Wolfson, and The Last Mughal which won the Duff Cooper Memorial Prize &  The Crossword Prize for Non Fiction. He divides his time between New Delhi and London, and is a contributor to The New York Review of Books, The New Yorker, The New Statesman and The Guardian. He published Nine Lives: In Search of the Sacred in Modern India to great acclaim in October 2009, the book went straight to the top of the Indian bestseller list & won the first Asia House Prize for Asian Literature. He holds honourary doctorates of letters from the Universities of St Andrews, Aberdeen and Lucknow, and has lived in Delhi on and off for the last 25 years. He is a founder and co- director of the DSC Jaipur Literature Festival.