5 - 7 December 2019 , Thu - Sat.
GALF 2019 : Speakers | Programme | Partners | Performances | Artwork
Photo Gallery: Inaugural Day | Day 1 | Day 2
Nandita Haksar
Nandita Haksar was a journalist before her involvement in the women's rights movement forced her to take to law. For the past three decades she has worked as a human rights lawyer, campaigner. She has set many precedents in human rights and refugees law. She has taken up cases in the courts in India as well as appearing before international courts and committees. She has evolved and taught courses on human rights in various universities.
She was awarded a Degree of LL.D. (Honoris Causa) from NALSAR in recognition of her work in the field of human rights.
Haksar is no longer practicing law and has devoted her time to writing. She writes for various national and international journals including Scroll.in, Newsclick and Aawaz. She has published more than 15 books. Her publications include:
Framing Geelani, Hanging Afzal: Patriotism in the Time of Terror (2007) in which she writes about her experience of defending two Kashmiri Muslims accused of attacking the Indian Parliament, and Rogue Agent: How India's Military Intelligence Betrayed the Burmese Resistance (2009) in which she exposed the RAW, Indian’s external intelligence agency ; The Judgement That Never Came: Army Rule in North East India (with Sebastian Hongray, 2011); ABC of Naga Culture and Civilization (2011) which has been taught in schools for Naga children and; Across the Chicken Neck: Travels in North East India (2013); The Many Faces of Kashmiri Nationalism: from Cold War to the present Times (2015) and Framed as a Terrorist (with Mohammad Aamir Khan) (2016), The Exodus Is Not Over: Migrations from the Ruptured Homelands of Northeast India (2016), Antarctica: profits of Discovery Nationalism Beyond Borders (2018) and Kuknalim Naga Armed Resistance testimonies of leaders, pastors healers and soldiers (2019; co-authored).
Samrat Choudhury a.k.a. Samrat X
Samrat Choudhury is an author and journalist, and a former editor of daily newspapers in India’s major metropolises, Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru. His first novel, The Urban Jungle, was published by Penguin Books in 2011. Some of his literary essays and short stories have appeared in translation in German, Spanish, Italian and Portuguese. His latest publication is an edited anthology titled Insider/Outsider, on this issue with relation to Northeast India, of which he is one of the two editors. He has recently relaunched East Wind, an independent quarterly for Northeast India, in collaboration with its founder.
Samrat was the Asian Leadership Fellow from India at the International House of Japan in Tokyo in 2018 and a Chevening Scholar at the University of Westminster, London, in 2019.
Naresh Fernandes
Naresh Fernandes is the author of Taj Mahal Foxtrot: The Story of Bombay's Jazz Age and City Adrift: A Short Biography of Bombay. He is the editor of Scroll.in, a digital news publication.
R. Benedito Ferrão
R. Benedito Ferrão has lived and worked in Asia, Europe, N. America, and Oceania. He is an Assistant Professor of English and Asian & Pacific Islander American Studies at The College of William and Mary and currently a Fulbright-Nehru Fellow at the Xavier Center of Historical Research. Curator of the 2017-18 exhibition Goa, Portugal, Mozambique: The Many Lives of Vamona Navelcar, he edited a book of the same title (Fundação Oriente 2017) to accompany this retrospective of the artist’s work. His scholarly writing appears in various international journals and edited books, including Research in African Literatures and Places of Nature in Ecologies of Urbanism (HKU Press 2017); his fiction and creative non-fiction can be read in Riksha, The Good Men Project, Mizna, The João Roque Literary Journal, and other publications.
Vivek Shanbhag
Vivek Shanbhag writes in Kannada. He has published five short story collections, three novels and two plays. He has edited two anthologies, one of which is in English. Vivek was the founding editor of the literary journal Desha Kaala. His critically-acclaimed novel Ghachar Ghochar is translated into 18 languages worldwide. Ghachar Ghochar was on the list of best ten books of 2017 by NY Times as well as The Guardian. It is one of Vulture‘s 100 best books of the 21st century. Ghachar Ghochar is the first Indian language book to be a finalist for the LA Times book prize in fiction 2017 and The American National Translation Award 2017.
Vivek is the co-translator of U R Ananthamurthy’s book “Hindutva or Hind Swaraj” into English.
Stacy Rodrigues
Stacy Rodrigues resides in Margao Goa. She completed her education in music. Being visually impaired, she is an artist by profession for the past 6 years and as of now, she is a full-time yoga instructor & a spiritual counsellor. So far she has held 4 solo exhibitions and she has been part of a few group exhibitions in Goa. In the year 2012, on a small scale, she released her poem book entitled "reflections". Recently she has written her first novel "In Search Of" which was launched in the month of October 2019. In Search Of is a book about a visually impaired individual who dared to live a normal life. The experience that life put her through taught her the meaning of life and helped her find her true self.
Harish Trivedi
Harish Trivedi was formerly Professor of English at the University of Delhi and has been a visiting professor at the universities of Chicago and London. His research interests include Postcolonial Literature and Theory, Translation Studies, Comparative Literature and World Literature, and he is currently the contributing editor for South and Southeast Asia of an international project based in Stockholm for writing a history of World Literature. His publications include Colonial Transactions: English Literature and India (1995), Post-colonial Translation: Theory and Practice (1999), and an edition of Kim (2011) by Rudyard Kipling. He has written on and translated various Hindi, Urdu and Sanskrit writers, including Ashvaghosha, Premchand, Manto, and Ajneya. He has edited and contributed two chapters to a book in Hindi on the poet Rahim, a Muslim bhakti poet more formally known as Abdur-Rahim Khan-e khana (1556-1627), who was also a prominent courtier of the Emperor Akbar and the commander of his army.
Rochelle D'silva
Rochelle D'silva is a performance poet based in Goa. She writes about her travels, cultural influences and personal experiences. Her poems give voice to feelings of displacement, love and loss. She started performing in 2011, and since then has performed on numerous stages across India, Australia, Malaysia, Singapore and Nepal. She has been a part of a multitude of literary festivals; Times Lit Fest 2018, Goa Art and Lit Fest 2018, Melbourne Spoken Word and Poetry Festival 2018, Kala Ghoda Art and Literature Festival 2018 to name a few. In 2016, she represented the Indian writing community during a poetry tour in Nepal called Words Express – Spoken Word Jatra, featuring international poets from Pakistan, Malaysia, Singapore, Philippines and the universally proclaimed Sarah Kay.
Rochelle has created the very first residency solely designed for poets - 'The Poetry Retreat' is a 5-day residency held twice a year in Goa. Both her spoken word albums (A Thin Veneer of Coping and Best Apology Face) are available on Bandcamp/iTunes/Spotify. Her solo collection of poems, When Home Is An Idea, has been widely appreciated as a conduit to talk about identity and belonging.
Kiran Budkuley
Kiran Budkuley is a critic, poet and translator who works from/into English, Hindi, Konkani, and Marathi. The areas of her research are Culture and Gender Studies, Konkani Literature, Folklore, and Translation Studies. Her articles have appeared in reputed journals, and her poems and general articles are published in well-circulated magazines. Some of her well-known books are: Sahitya Niyaal: Antarang ani Kayarupaam (1998); Samikshekaden Ishtagat (1998) Akshar-Sarita (2009); Mapping the Mosaic of Culture (2009); and Musings in the Meadows (2012). She has several edited volumes and translations to her credit as well. Budkuley retired from Goa University as Professor of English and Head of the Department and Dean, Faculty of Languages and Literature. She is a public speaker and conducts regular workshops on translation, and creative and critical writing. She is Visiting Research Professor, Kavivarya Bakibab Borkar Chair for Comparative Literature at Goa University.
Tony Martin
Anthony M Barreto, who writes under the pen name Tony Martin teaches English at S S Angle Higher Secondary School, Mashem Canacona since 1999. He is a Gold medalist of the Goa University and holds post graduate degrees in English literature and Philosophy.
Besides five books — Naked Goa (2003) The Practical English Teacher (2001) It’s a Funny World (1994) Canacona – the Last Frontier (2012) Sinful Goa – Paradise in Peril (2014) — he has written extensively for local English dailies and was a Sub-Editor with The Navhind Times and Herald.
He lives in Galgibaga Canacona and loves reading and writing.
