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
Ramita Gurav
Ramita Gurav is an associate professor at Xavier's College, Mapusa, where she has been teaching Hindi for more than 20 years. She has a Ph.D. in Contemporary Hindi Theatre and presented papers on topics related to literature, theatre, and media studies at various state, national and international seminars. In addition, Ramita has done translations of Konkani poems, short stories and Marathi short stories in Hindi. She has also directed dramatizations of short stories of writer Premchand and poems by Gajanan Madhav Muktibodh.
Fátima da Silva Gracias
Fátima da Silva Gracias is a Goa-based historian with a doctorate in the area of Indo-Portuguese history. She is author of several books: Health and Hygiene in Colonial Goa (1994); Kaleidoscope of Women in Goa (1996); Beyond the Self: Santa Casa Misericórdia de Goa (2000); The Many Faces of Sundorem: Women in Goa (2007); Cozinha de Goa: History and Tradition of Goan Food (2011); Faces of Colonial India: The Work of Goan Artist António Xavier de Trindade (2014); and Angela Trindade: A Trinity of Light, Colour and Emotion (2016). She has contributed research papers on various aspects of Indo-Portuguese history and culture in publications and seminars held in India, Portugal, Brazil, Germany, France, Canada, Sri Lanka and Mozambique.
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.
Prabda Yoon
Prabda Yoon was born in Bangkok and studied in the United States from the age of 15. In 1997, he graduated with a BFA in Fine Arts from the Cooper Union in New York City. Prabda returned to Thailand for a six-month military service in 1998, and started to write short stories immediately after his discharge. His first published book, in 2000, was the story collection Muang Moom Chak (City of Right Angles), which was quickly followed by another story collection, Kwam Na Ja Pen (Probability), in the same year. The latter went on to win the prestigious S. E. A Write Award. He has been widely credited as the popularizer of “postmodern” writing in Thailand. Kwam Na Ja Pen has been reprinted continuously and is regarded as a landmark book in contemporary Thai literature. Since his debut collection, Prabda has written and published numerous story collections, novels, essays, song lyrics, and screenplays. His writings have been translated to Japanese, English, Spanish, Italian, and Chinese. He is also the Thai translator of western modern classics such as Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita, Anthony Burgess’ A Clockwork Orange, and all of J. D. Salinger’s books. In early 2017, the UK independent publishing house Tilted Axis Press released Yoon’s first book in English: The Sad Part Was. It is the first translation of Thai fiction to be published in the UK. His second English book, Moving Parts, was published in 2018, also by Tilted Axis Press. Apart from writing, Prabda is also an acclaimed designer of book covers and film director.
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.
Ramrao Wagh
Ramrao Wagh is a faculty member at the Department of Computer Science & Technology, Goa University. Well known in the field of computer science education through his contribution as a teacher, researcher and policy maker, he has contributed to curriculum design and modernization of teaching–learning methods. He is also the Director of Digital learning & Initiatives, Goa University and the UGC Swayam Coordinator for Goa University. He was until recently the Director of prestigious Visiting Research Professor Programme (VRPP) of Goa University. Ramrao has served on several high-level committees of the government and is active in professional, social and cultural fields. He is currently the chair of ACM Goa Professional Chapter. He has handled various issues related to grassroots development, prominent among them the movement for revival of Khazan (saline) land farming in Goa as the Convener of Khazan Action.
Ganesh Saili
Ganesh Saili was born and schooled in Mussoorie, Uttarakhand. He also taught English at the Post Graduate College. Folks say: ‘What he doesn’t know about Mussoorie isn’t worth knowing!’ His books are a record of the goings-on in the pleasure capital of the Raj. Having grown up in the hills, from an impressionable age, he has trekked the high mountains recording in words and pictures the magic of the mountains. His work has been published in periodicals, columns and journals; and translated into two-dozen languages. His latest book, Wanderings in the Garhwal Himalaya (2017) takes the reader to the hills in a clutch of twenty-two essays and two hundred pictures. Other books include Icing on the Landour Cake (2000); Ruskin: Our Enduring Bond (2004); Mussoorie Medley: Tales of Yesteryear (2010); The Doon Valley across the Years (2012); Ruskin Bond: The Mussoorie Years (2013); and Gupp and Gossip from the Hills (2013). Many accolades have come his way. In 1994, his tale of travel to the mystery lake of Roopkund won the Panorama Film Festival Award in Houston. He won the Sanghi Trophy in 1995 and the National Award in 1996.
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.
Anvita Abbi
Anvita Abbi was formerly at the Centre for Linguistics, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, and is currently a Guest Scientist at the Max Planck Institute of Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany and the President of the Linguistic Society of India. A PhD in linguistics from Cornell University, Anvita’s work on tribal languages and other minority languages of South Asia is widely recognized around the world. She has carried out first-hand field research on all six language families of India extending from the Himalayas to the Andaman Islands. In 2003, she identified Great Andamanese as a new language family of India. She has designed and developed the discipline of field linguistics in JNU and trained a large number of students in grammar-writing and language documentation. Her outstanding contribution is the use of modern computational methods for preparing multilingual, multiscriptal, user-friendly talking dictionary of the present-day Great Andamanese language (2012) and unearthing unique grammatical structures of the language (2013). She has authored, co-authored and edited 18 books, in addition to over seventy articles in the areas of linguistics. She is also an acclaimed author of many award winning short stories in Hindi. She runs one of the most famous annual Hindi poetry award Bharat Bhushan Agarwal Kavita Puraskar. In 2oo3, she received the Rashtriya Lokbhasha Samman 2003 award for her contribution towards the tribal languages of India. Anvita is also a recipient of the prestigious Kenneth Hale Award (2015) by the Linguistic Society of America and was conferred a Padma Shri in 2013 by the President of India.
Maria Aurora Couto
Maria Aurora Couto was born in Goa and studied in Dharwar and New Delhi (where she later taught English literature at Lady Shri Ram College, Delhi University). She is the author of the widely acclaimed Goa: A Daughter’s Story and Graham Greene: On the Frontier, and has translated, from Portuguese, A.B. Braganza Pereira’s Ethnography of Goa, Daman and Diu. In 2010 the Government of India honoured her with the Padma Shri for her contributions in literature and education. She lives in Aldona, a village in North Goa.
