Archives: Authors

GAURA PANT ‘SHIVANI’ (1923-2003) was among the foremost Hindi writers of her time. Born in Rajkot, her childhood was spent in various places as her father moved from one princely state to another. As a young child, she was tutored by her scholar grandfather, Pandit Hariram Pande, a close associate of Pandit Madan Mohan Malviya and one of the founding faculty members of Banaras Hindu University. At the age of twelve, she was sent, along with her two siblings, to Shantiniketan, where she spent nine magical years. Throughout her life, Shivani lived by the teachings of her gurus at the Ashram and looked upon Bengal as her second home. Her literary output that spans some forty works bears the deep imprint of both Kumaon and Bengal. Best known for her short stories, novels and newspaper columns, Shivani also wrote several travelogues and a three-part autobiography. She was awarded the Padma Shri in 1982.

Shouger Merchant Doshi is the founder of The Story Mechants and The Pinwheel Project.

GEORGE SAMUEL CLASON was born in Louisiana, Missouri, on 7 November 1874. He attended the University of Nebraska and served in the United States Army during the Spanish-American War. Beginning a long career in publishing, he founded the Clason Map Company of Denver, Colorado, and published the first road atlas of the United States and Canada. In 1926, he issued the first of a famous series of pamphlets on thrift and financial success, using parables set in ancient Babylon to make each of his points. These pamphlets were distributed in large quantities by banks and insurance companies and became familiar to millions, the most famous being ‘The Richest Man in Babylon,’ the parable from which the present volume takes its title. These ‘Babylonian parables’ have become a modern inspirational classic.

L. SOMI ROY is the author of And That Is Why: Manipuri Myths Retold (2021), the precursor to Feathers, Fools, and Farts: Manipuri Folktales Retold. A cultural conservationist, curator, and translator, he has curated film for museums in New York like the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and Asia Society. His translations of his mother, the Manipuri writer Binodini, include the Penguin Modern Classic novel The Princess and the Political Agent (2020). He is the founder trustee of Imasi: The Maharaj Kumari Binodini Devi Foundation in Imphal.

Ruth Vanita (Author)
Ruth Vanita taught at Delhi University for twenty years and is now professor at the University of Montana. She was founding co-editor of Manushi 1978-90. She is the author of several books, including Sappho and the Virgin Mary: Same-Sex Love and the English Literary Imagination (1996); Love’s Rite: Same-Sex Marriage in India (2005); Gandhi’s Tiger and Sita’s Smile: Essays on Gender, Sexuality and Culture (2005), Gender, Sex and the City: Urdu Rekhti Poetry in India 1780–1870 (2012); Dancing with the Nation: Courtesans in Bombay Cinema (2017). Her first novel, Memory of Light, appeared in 2020.

She is the author of over sixty articles on British and Indian literature, and has translated many works of fiction and poetry from Hindi and Urdu to English, most notably Chocolate: Stories on Male-Male Desire by Pandey Bechan Sharma ‘Ugra’ (2008). She divides her time between Missoula and Gurgaon.

Saleem Kidwai (Author)
Saleem Kidwai is a historian and independent scholar, who taught at Ramjas College, Delhi University, for twenty years. He has published several academic essays on medieval and modern India, and translated several works, including Song Sung True: A Memoir by Malka Pukhraj and a collection of Syed Rafiq Hussain’s short stories, The Mirror of Wonders. Apart from the author herself, he is the only person to have translated the novels of Qurratulain Hyder, Chandni Begum and Ship of Sorrow.

Ruth Vanita (Author)
Ruth Vanita taught at Delhi University for twenty years and is now professor at the University of Montana. She was founding co-editor of Manushi 1978-90. She is the author of several books, including Sappho and the Virgin Mary: Same-Sex Love and the English Literary Imagination (1996); Love’s Rite: Same-Sex Marriage in India (2005); Gandhi’s Tiger and Sita’s Smile: Essays on Gender, Sexuality and Culture (2005), Gender, Sex and the City: Urdu Rekhti Poetry in India 1780–1870 (2012); Dancing with the Nation: Courtesans in Bombay Cinema (2017). Her first novel, Memory of Light, appeared in 2020.

She is the author of over sixty articles on British and Indian literature, and has translated many works of fiction and poetry from Hindi and Urdu to English, most notably Chocolate: Stories on Male-Male Desire by Pandey Bechan Sharma ‘Ugra’ (2008). She divides her time between Missoula and Gurgaon.

Saleem Kidwai (Author)
Saleem Kidwai is a historian and independent scholar, who taught at Ramjas College, Delhi University, for twenty years. He has published several academic essays on medieval and modern India, and translated several works, including Song Sung True: A Memoir by Malka Pukhraj and a collection of Syed Rafiq Hussain’s short stories, The Mirror of Wonders. Apart from the author herself, he is the only person to have translated the novels of Qurratulain Hyder, Chandni Begum and Ship of Sorrow.

Ruth Vanita (Author)
Ruth Vanita taught at Delhi University for twenty years and is now professor at the University of Montana. She was founding co-editor of Manushi 1978-90. She is the author of several books, including Sappho and the Virgin Mary: Same-Sex Love and the English Literary Imagination (1996); Love’s Rite: Same-Sex Marriage in India (2005); Gandhi’s Tiger and Sita’s Smile: Essays on Gender, Sexuality and Culture (2005), Gender, Sex and the City: Urdu Rekhti Poetry in India 1780–1870 (2012); Dancing with the Nation: Courtesans in Bombay Cinema (2017). Her first novel, Memory of Light, appeared in 2020.

She is the author of over sixty articles on British and Indian literature, and has translated many works of fiction and poetry from Hindi and Urdu to English, most notably Chocolate: Stories on Male-Male Desire by Pandey Bechan Sharma ‘Ugra’ (2008). She divides her time between Missoula and Gurgaon.

Saleem Kidwai (Author)
Saleem Kidwai is a historian and independent scholar, who taught at Ramjas College, Delhi University, for twenty years. He has published several academic essays on medieval and modern India, and translated several works, including Song Sung True: A Memoir by Malka Pukhraj and a collection of Syed Rafiq Hussain’s short stories, The Mirror of Wonders. Apart from the author herself, he is the only person to have translated the novels of Qurratulain Hyder, Chandni Begum and Ship of Sorrow.

V.J. JAMES writes in Malayalam. Born and brought up in Changanacherry, Kerala, he currently resides in Thiruvananthapuram. An engineer by profession, he worked at the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre. The English translation of Corashasthram, titled Chorashastra, was shortlisted for the Atta Galatta-Bangalore Literature Festival Book Prize. The English translation of Anti-Clock was shortlisted for the JCB Prize for Literature 2021 and longlisted for PFC-VoW Book Award 2022.

Rohan Chakravarty is the creator of Green Humour, a series of comics and illustrations on wildlife and nature conservation. He lives in Nagpur where he goes on nature trails every day, led by his pet dogs Srishti and Sakshi. His worst nightmare is that the wildlife featured in his comics will read them and gang up on him for revenge some day.

Rohan has authored seven other books, including Green Humour for a Greying Planet, Naturalist Ruddy, and Pugmarks and Carbon Footprints. Although he has won awards by UNDP, Sanctuary Asia, WWF International, the Royal Bank of Scotland and the Green and Bangalore Literature Festivals for his work, a fig that once dropped out of a hornbill’s mouth straight into his palm remains his most cherished prize.

Kuldip Salil was born in Sialkot in 1938, post-independence he settled in Delhi where he pursued his Masters in English literature and Economics from Delhi University. He retired as Associate Professor of English, Hans Raj College, Delhi University. An accomplished poet of Hindi, Urdu and English, he has published eight volumes of poetry. He is a recipient of numerous awards including the Sahitya Akademi Award for his works.