Tracy Chevalier FRSL is the author of 10 novels, including the international bestseller Girl with a Pearl Earring, which has sold over 5 million copies and was made into a film starring Scarlett Johansson and Colin Firth. Tracy grew up in Washington DC and moved to the UK in the 1980s. She and her husband divide…

Gopalkrishna Gandhi (b. 1945) read English Literature and History at St Stephen’s College,  Delhi University. He has been in administrative positions in Tamil Nadu and in Delhi, as a member of the Indian Administrative Service. He was Secretary to the President of India (1997-2000), Director of The Nehru Centre in the High Commission of India,…

Taro Sindik is a Hindi writer and poet from Arunachal Pradesh. Taro is on one of the few Akademi awardees from the State to win the award for Hindi from North East region. The first time he tried writing a poem was in the second semester of his master’s degree in 2007 during literary competition.…

Bangalore based historian, Dr. Vikram Sampath is the author of six acclaimed books: Splendours of Royal Mysore: the Untold Story of the Wodeyars; “My Name Is Gauhar Jaan: The Life and Times of a Musician”, “Voice of the Veena: S Balachander -­‐ A Biography” and “Women of the Records.” His latest books are the two-volume biography— “Savarkar: Echoes from a Forgotten Past” and “Savarkar: A Contested Legacy” from Penguin…

Divya Dutta is an actor, author and now a poet too. The talented actor won a National Award for best actor (female) in a supporting role in 2018. She has acted in more than 100 feature films in Hindi and Punjabi language, few notable films being Veer- Zara, Bhaag Milkha Bhag, My Friend Pinto, Stanley…

Amitav Ghosh was born in Calcutta in 1956. He grew up in Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and India. He studied at the universities of Delhi and Oxford and published the first of eight novels, The Circle of Reason, in 1986. The first novel in his Ibis trilogy, Sea of Poppies, was shortlisted for the Man Booker…

Sachidananda Mohanty was formerly Professor and Head, Department of English, University of Hyderabad, Vice Chancellor of the Central University of Orissa and Governing Board Member of Auroville Foundation, administered by the MHRD, Government of India. He is the recipient of several national and international awards including those from the British Council, Charles Wallace, the Salzburg, the Katha and the…

Mamta Kalia is an Indian author, teacher, and poet writing primarily in the Hindi language. She completed M.A. in English from the University of Delhi. Her writings focus on the lived experiences of women from the middle-class families in India. She won the Vyas Samman, one of India’s richest literary awards, in 2017 for her…

Utpal Banerjee is a Professor of the Department of Molecular, Cell and Developmental Biology at UCLA. He obtained his Bachelor of Science in Chemistry from St. Stephen’s College, Delhi University, Master of Science in Physical Chemistry from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, and PhD in Chemistry from the California Institute of Technology. Banerjee was…

Pratibha Ray is an Indian academic and writer of Odia-language novels and stories. She is a member of a number of learned societies. She has received prestigious awards like – Odisha Sahitya Academi Award 1985, Sahitya Akademi Award 2000, Padma Shri Award’ in Literature and Education by the Government of India, and Odisha Living Legend…