6 - 8 December 2018 , Thu - Sat.
GALF 2018 : Speakers | Programme | Partners | Performances | Workshops | Exhibitions | Artwork | Press Release | Videos
Photo Gallery: Inaugural Day | Day 1 | Day 2
Rochelle D'silva
Rochelle D'silva is a dreamer and an intrinsically emo human. Her poems give voice to feelings of displacement, identity, love and loss. She runs a poetry collective in Bombay called 'Words Tell Stories' and curates storytelling experiences and workshops. She has two poetry albums and a book of poetry to her name. She endorses hugs, and hopes to disappear into the mountains someday. Follow her work at http://rochelledsilva.in/.
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.
Pratik Kanjilal
Pratik Kanjilal is literary editor, leader writer and columnist with The Indian Express. He is also a literary translator and winner of the Sahitya Akademi Translation Prize. Pratik has been Translator in Residence at the University of East Anglia. Earlier, he has worked with The Economic Times and Business Standard, and has been a columnist for the Hindustan Times and Time Out. He has a fairly wide variety of interests, from science and technology to prehistory. And, of course, literature.
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.
Keerti Ramachandra
Keerti Ramachandra is by aptitude, inclination and training, a teacher, a translator by virtue of being multilingual and an editor by default. She has taught English language and literature at all levels and conducted translation workshops for college students and aspiring translators. Keerti translates from Marathi, Kannada and Hindi into English. Her translation of the Sahitya Akademi award winning novel, A Dirge for the Dammed was short listed for the Crossword award in 2016. Her translations won her the A. K. Ramanujam award instituted by KATHA for translation from two or more languages. She co-translated Hindutva or Hind Swaraj by U. R. Anathamurty from Kannada; and Joginder Paul’s stories from Urdu/ Hindi A Dying Sun and Other Stories. Another translated collection, of Gangadhar Gadgil’s Marathi stories A Faceless Evening and Other Stories, was published in 2017. Her translations from Marathi, Kannada and Hindi have appeared in anthologies, magazines and journals in India and abroad. Keerti is also a freelance editor of fiction and nonfiction for leading publishing houses. She is currently teaching a post-graduate course in Translation Theory and Practice at Mount Carmel College, Bangalore, where she lives.
A. J. Thomas
A. J. Thomas is an Indian English poet, fiction writer and translator. He translates poetry, fiction, drama and non-fiction prose from Malayalam to English, and has more than 20 titles to his credit. He has M.Phil. and Ph.D. degrees in English Literature (Translation Studies) from the School of Letters, M. G. University, Kottayam and earlier taught English in Benghazi University, Ajdabiya Branch, Libya. He is a Senior Fellow, Department of Culture, Govt. of India and Honorary Fellow, Department of Culture, Government of South Korea. His books include This Ancient Lyre (2005), The End of the Day (2011), Keshavan’s Lamentations, a translation of M. Mukundan’s master-novel Keshavante Vilapangal (2006). Other publications include Best of Indian Literature (2013) a four volume anthology of Indian literatures in 1600 pages, crown size, which he co-edited; and Like A Psalm....(2017), English translation of Perumpadavam Sreedharan’s iconic novel Oru Sankeertanam Pole which sold more than 300,000 copies over the last 25 years. His writings have appeared in several anthologies in international publications. A. J. Thomas is a recipient of the Katha Award, the AKMG Prize, and the Vodafone Crossword Award (2007). He has read his poems and made presentations in Biennial Symposia of Asia-Pacific Writers in Australia and Hong Kong and also in conferences in Thailand and Nepal.
R. Benedito Ferrão
R. Benedito Ferrão has lived and worked in Kuwait, India, the United States, England, and Australia. A writer and academic, he is currently an Assistant Professor of English and Asian & Pacific Islander American Studies at The College of William and Mary. In 2017-18, he curated the art exhibition Goa/Portugal/Mozambique: The Many Lives of Vamona Navelcar (Fundação Oriente Gallery, Goa), and edited a book of the same title, published by Fundação Oriente (2017), to accompany this retrospective of Navelcar’s art. His fiction and non-fiction appear in Riksha, The Good Men Project, Mizna, and other publications.
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.
Jerry Pinto
Jerry Pinto is the author of Em and the Big Hoom (2012) which won the Hindu Lit for Life Prize; the Crossword Award for Fiction; the Windham-Campbell Prize administered by the Beinecke Library, Yale University; and the Sahitya Akademi Award for fiction in English. His other works include a novel Murder in Mahim (2017); Reflected in Water (2012), an anthology of writing from Goa; a graphic novel on which he worked with Garima Gupta, When Crows are White (2001); a book of poetry, Asylum (2011). He has translated Baluta (2015) by Daya Pawar; Cobalt Blue (2013) by Sachin Kundalkar; and most recently, Baburao Bagul's When I Hid My Caste: Stories (2018). He is on the board of MelJol, an NGO that works in the sphere of child rights and the People's Free Reading Room & Library, one of Mumbai's oldest libraries.
Samar Halarnkar
Samar Halarnkar is the editor of Indiaspend.org, a data-driven, public-interest journalism non-profit. He is the author of Nirvana Under the Rain Tree (2002), an early chronicle of India’s internet revolution, and A Married Man’s Guide to Creative Cooking: And Other Dubious Adventures (2013). Samar has been a visiting lecturer at the University of California-Berkeley and a fellow at the Nieman Foundation, Harvard University. A journalist for 27 years, his last full-time job was Managing Editor of the Hindustan Times. He also writes for Scroll, the Hindustan Times and the New York Times. Samar is an enthusiastic cook, and the fallout of his culinary experiences find their way into a cooking column for Mint Lounge.
