6 - 8 December 2018 , Thu - Sat.
GALF 2018 : Speakers | Programme | Partners | Performances | Workshops | Exhibitions | Artwork | Press Release
Photo Gallery: Inaugural Day | Day 1 | Day 2
Jaideep Hardikar
Jaideep Hardikar is an award-winning Nagpur based journalist/writer. He is a core team member of the People's Archive of Rural India (PARI) and a Fellow of the Mumbai School of Economics and Public Policy working on water commons. He has worked with four different newspapers for over two decades, most recently with The Telegraph as its central India Assistant Editor. Jaideep's journalism appears in several digital and print media outlets, including the BBC, ruralindiaonline.org, New Internationalist Magazine, news18.org, Hindkisan, Divya Marathi, Indian Express Online, and others. He has been the recipient of many national and international fellowships and awards, including the prestigious Prem Bhatia award for environmental journalism and Sanskriti Award for Young Journalists. Jaideep was awarded an Alfred Friendly Press Fellowship in 2009. He was also a 2015 fellow in the Asia Leadership Fellow Program hosted by the International House of Japan and the Japan Foundation at Tokyo and a Monash-DFAT fellow in 2017. Jaideep is an author of A Village Awaits Doomsday (2013), translated into Hindi as Yahan Ek Gaon Tha. The book looks at people displaced by development projects. He is currently writing a second book on farmers’ suicides and cotton growers’ struggles in a globalised world.
Usha Alexander
Usha Alexander is the author of the novels The Legend of Virinara (2018) and Only the Eyes Are Mine (2008); and the novelette, Leaving Idaho (2017). Her writing has been featured in 3 Quarks Daily and Scroll.in; is forthcoming in The Punch Magazine; and has appeared in various other publications, including anthologies like The Best American Travel Stories 2007. She worked for many years at Apple, after having returned from Vanuatu, a Pacific Island nation, where she taught secondary school science as a US Peace Corps volunteer. She maintains an abiding interest in science, anthropology, and history. Usha grew up in Pocatello, Idaho, a remote little town in the Rocky Mountain region of the USA. Though currently residing in the National Capital Region of India (NCR), she carries her home within herself. You’ll find her on the web at www.ushaalexander.com.
Payal Kakkar
Payal Kakkar is a self-taught fine arts photographer who incorporates architectural elements giving a new dimension to document photography in the most unique way. Born in 1975, Payal grew up in Delhi but now resides in Old Goa. She has a background in Indian classical dance, Environmental Protection, and Dietics. For the last six years she has focused on the practice of photography, having produced bodies of work in Italy and Angkor Wat. Her photographs are highly detailed and lyrical in quality. Her approach to photography sets her apart from others. She prefers to shoot in ambient light, as she firmly believes that it reflects the true character of the design. Her passion in photography led her to tread the path of Architectural Photography as she traveled the world exploring the new lands. Instantly she was drawn to angles, spaces and structures and the story they tell. The photos are a result of images that arise in her mind and are subjectively experienced reality of the architectural form and its appearance.
Ashwani Kumar
Ashwani Kumar is an Anglophone Indian poet, writer, and professor at Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS). His anthologies include My Grandfather’s Imaginary Typewriter (2014) with a prolegomenon by Ashis Nandy and Banaras and the Other (2017). Ashwani’s poems - translated in Indian languages and Hungarian - are noted for their ‘lyrical celebration’ of garbled voices of memory and their subversive ‘whimsy’ quality. Banaras, the first of a trilogy on religious cities, was long-listed for the 1st Jayadev National Poetry Award 2017. Select cantos of the Hungarian translation of Banaras were performed by Hungarian band Kalaka at the Times Lit Fest 2017 in Mumbai. He is currently working on Ayodhya, the second volume in the trilogy; the non-fiction book Biharis (forthcoming, Aleph Books); and a special volume on Tagore in Hungarian Architecture of Alphabets/Betűrendek architektúrája (forthcoming, 2019). Ashwani is the co-founder of Indian Novels Collective which brings classic novels of in Indian Literature to English readers. He is the author of Community Warriors (2008); and co-editor of Power Shifts and Global Governance (2010), Global Civil Society Yearbook 2009: Poverty and Activism (2009). Migration and Mobility (forthcoming). He also writes articles and reviews for Financial Express, the Print, Business Standard, The Hindu, Indian Express, DNA, Open Democracy and others.
Sushila Sawant Mendes
Sushila Sawant Mendes has a PhD in history from 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). She is currently working on a book on the history of Assolna, Velim, and Cuncolim. Sushila 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.
Wendell Rodricks
Wendell Rodricks is an internationally-acclaimed designer and author. Born in Mumbai, he studied Fashion Designing in the US and France from 1986 to 1988. His first collection from Goa earned him the title ‘Guru of Minimalism’. His unique garments, inspired by Goa and India, have been displayed at major fashion events around the world. In 2007, the Confederation of Indian Industries invited him to showcase two fashion shows in Bryant Park, New York to celebrate the 60th year of India’s independence. Wendell has also displayed his work at the Festival of India (1993) in Beijing and Shanghai. In 2010, he revived the weaving of the traditional Goan Kunbi Sari and identified and trained weavers in the use of sari looms. He is the author of Moda Goa: History and Style (2012); The Green Room (2012), a memoir; and Poskem (2017). Moda Goa received rave reviews for its portrayal of long-forgotten aspects of Goa’s cultural and costume history. Wendell has also written for magazines, coffee table books, and anthologies. 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. He was awarded the Padma Shri in 2014.
Mini Krishnan
Mini Krishnan edits translations for Oxford University Press and is consulting editor of the translation programme of the Malayalam University in Tirur, Kerala. She sources and edits fiction, plays, travelogues, autobiographies and biographies from 16 Indian languages into English. Krishnan was formerly with Macmillan India where she edited the Modern Indian Novels in Translation (37 volumes, 1992-2000). She is an advocate of translation education in higher education. She also served as Member, Indian Literature Abroad, a Ministry of Culture initiative to promote Indian writers in six UNESCO languages; was Member, Curriculum Advisory Board (2006-2009); and PAC Member, National Translation Mission (2006-2013). She was the Founding Editor of the South Asia Women Writers Website hosted by the British Council (2004-2006). She is the Series Editor of Living in Harmony (classes 1-10), India’s first Peace Education programme for schools and writes two monthly columns for The Hindu: This Word for That in the Literary Review on Translation; and Ethics & You in Education Plus.
Paro Anand
Paro Anand was the recipient of the Sahitya Akademi Bal Sahitya Puruskar Award 2017 for her book Wild Child, now published as Like Smoke with additional content. She has written books for children, young adults and adults. Recognized internationally and nationally, she headed the National Centre for Children’s Literature, has interacted with over three lakh people, primarily children in difficult circumstances, and runs a programme, Literature in Action. Paro holds a world record for helping over three thousand children make the world’s longest newspaper. Her book, No Guns at my Son’s Funeral (2005) was on the International Board on Books for Young People Honour List and is translated into German and Spanish. The Little Bird who held the Sky up with his Feet (2013) was on ‘1001 Books to Read Before You Grow Up’, an international gold standard of the world’s best children’s literature. BBC Hindi selected her on their 100 Women #100Women Project – a project highlighting the challenges and achievements of women in India. Her book Wingless has been performed nationally and internationally. She is also the co-author of Two (2017) with Swedish writer, Orjan Perrson​.Her latest book, The Other: Stories of Difference (2018), is a ground-breaking collection of stories dealing with sensitive issues. She has been awarded for her contribution to children’s literature by The Russian Centre for Science and Culture.
Casimiro Simões
Casimiro Simões was born in Lousã (Portugal) and has been working as a journalist for Lusa - Agência de NotÃcias de Portugal since 1989. He has published three books, all of which are in the area of social and political satire. In 2009, he published the satire Com as botas do meu pai – Pegadas do poder autárquico na vila de Vale Tudo (With the boots of my father - Footprints of the autarchic power in the village of Vale Tudo). This was followed in 2010 by  Campanha bufa – Porco no espeto na safra de Vale Tudo (Campaign bufa - Pork on the spit in the harvest of Vale Tudo) - which marked the centenary of the Portuguese Republic. The final volume in the trilogy - Cornos ao sol – Agonia do carneiro velho na troika de Vale Tudo (Horns in the sun - Agony of the old sheep in the Troika of Vale Tudo) – was published in 2013. He has also written scores of chronicles and stories published in various Portuguese outlets. Casimiro headed the delegation of Coimbra da Lusa between 2005 and 2009. Earlier this year, he participated in the World Literature Festival of Sal, in Cape Verde.
Abhay Sardesai
Abhay Sardesai has been the Editor of ART India, the premier art magazine of India, since November 2002. He has been a Visiting Faculty in Aesthetics at the Department of English, University of Mumbai; and the Chair of Humanities, Kamla Raheja Vidyanidhi Institute of Architecture, Mumbai. Abhay has also taught at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS); the Bhau Daji Lad Museum (BDLM); and Shreemati Nathibai Damodar Thackersey (SNDT) Women’s University. He writes in English and translates from Marathi, Konkani and Gujarati. Abhay has written widely on art and literature and read from his work at various places.
