BIO Amarjit Chandan was born in Nairobi in 1946 and studied in India at Panjab University, coming to Britain in 1980 to live in London. He has published five collections of poetry and three books of essays in Punjabi notably Jarhān (poems) and Phailsufiān and Nishāni essays). He has edited and translated about 30 anthologies of Indian and world poetry…
Mahendra Bhatnagar: Translated by Anuradha Bhattacharyya
BIO Mahendra Bhatnagar is one of the many Indian poets whose literary careers were shaped by poetry in the post-independence of India…
Bharat Bhusan Agarwal : Translated by Abhay K.
BIO B.B. Agarwal or Bharat Bhusan Agarwal (1919-1975) was an important figure in Pragativad movement in Hindi poetry. He published nine collections of poetry and was awarded Sahitya Akademi Award posthumously. . BIO Abhay K. is a poet and editor. He has published six collection of poems including The Eight-Eyed…
Peerzada Ghulam Ahmad “Mahjoor”: Translated by Huzaifa Pandit
BIO Peerzada Ghulam Ahmad (Kashmiri: غلام احمد (Nastaleeq)); 11 August 1887 − 9 April 1952), better known by the pen name Mahjoor (Kashmiri: مہجور (Nastaleeq)), was a poet of the Kashmir Valley, along with contemporaries, Zinda Kaul, Abdul Ahad Azad, and Dinanath Nadim. He is especially noted for introducing a new style into Kashmiri poetry…
Shiv Batalvi: Translated by Nalini Priyadarshni
BIO Shiv Batalvi was a Punjabi language poet, known for his romantic poetry who remains one of the best loved poets more than 40 years of his death. He published his first collection of poetry at the age of 24, is the youngest writer to be feted with India’s highest literary award, the Sahitya Akademy,…
Amrita Pritam: Translated by Jhilmil Breckenridge
BIO Amrita Pritam (31 August 1919 – 31 October 2005) was an Indian writer and poet, who wrote in Punjabi and Hindi. She is considered the first prominent woman Punjabi poet, novelist, and essayist, and the leading 20th-century poet of the Punjabi language, who is equally loved on both sides of the India-Pakistan border. With a…
Vaidya Nath Mishra ‘Nagarjun’: Translated by Sunil Sharma
BIO Sahitya Akademy Award winning poet Vaidya Nath Mishra ‘Nagarjun’ (11 June, 1911 – 5 November, 1998) is one of the most respected names in contemporary Hindi Literature. He is known as the poet of the people. He wrote in Maithli, Hindi, Sanskrit and Bangla also. Prose, poetry, translations and children’s literature were successfully attempted…
Om Nagar: Translated by Abhay K.
BIO Om Nagar (b.1980) writes in Rajasthani. He was awarded the Youth Prize by the Sahitya Akademi, Bhartiya Gyanpith and Pakhi literary journal and has published 9 books in Hindi- Rajasthani and in translation. BIO Abhay K. is a poet and editor. He has published six collection of poems including The Eight-Eyed Lord of…
Jibanananda Das: Translated by Lopamudra Banerjee
BIO Jibanananda Das (17 February 1899 – 22 October 1954) was a prolific Bengali poet, writer, novelist and essayist. Born in 1899 in a Vaidya-Brahmin family in the small district town of Barisal, located in the south of Bangladesh, Das is acknowledged today as one of the prime literary figures of the post-Tagore era in Bengal. According to…
Rabindranath Tagore: Translated by Bina Biswas
BIO Rabindranath Tagore was born in 1861 and died in 1941. He brought fame to Indian English and Bengali literature through his translation of Gitanjali which won the Nobel Prize and had a preface by WB Yeats. He was a great poet, dramatist, lyricist, fiction writer and essayist. He also illumined the history of the…
Mir Muhammad Taqi: Translated by Meghan Hartman
BIO Mir Muhammad Taqi “Mir” was one of the most famous Urdu poets in the eighteenth century, and is still regarded today as the khudā-e sukhan (the God of Poetry). As a child, he grew up in Agra, then later migrated to Delhi where he spent most of his life. Mir spent the twilight of his life…
Kalidasa: Translated by Usha Kishore
BIO The flourit of the legendary Sanskrit litterateur Kalidasa is approximated to be between 4th and 5th century CE. Kalidasa is considered the greatest poet and playwright in the Sanskrit language. His works are primarily based on Indian myth, into which he weaves magical descriptions of nature. There are many debates surrounding Kalidasa’s life and…