KLF Curator Hindi
Born on 25 June, 1980, Vyomesh Shukla grew up imbibing all orderly and chaotic elements of Varanasi. As he began with writing essays and penning responses focusing on the City of Light’s various facets, he forayed into translations of towering intellectuals such as Eliot Weinberger, Noam Chomsky, Howard Zinn, Raymond Williams, Terry Eagleton, Edward Said, Mahasweta Devi, and K. Satchidanandan.
Acclaimed for his poetry, Vyomesh was awarded the 2008 ‘Ankur Mishra Memorial Award’ and the 2009 ‘Bharat Bhushan Agarwal Award’. With his first collection of poetry titled ‘Phir Bhi Kuch Log’ published in 2009, his second collection ‘Kajal Lagana Bhoolna’ came out in 2020. Among other things, he also published an exclusive work on the literary giant, Vishnu Khare.
With translations in various Indian and foreign languages, Vyomesh has the distinct honour of having his verses etched on the Dawn Chorus sculpture at the Rail Park in Philadelphia, with many Nobel laureates.
A respected literary critic who was bestowed with the 2011 ‘Raza Foundation Fellowship’, Vyomesh is also an acclaimed theatre director and a passionate cultural activist. As a Sangeet Natak Akademi ‘Ustad Bismillah Khan Yuva Puraskar’ awardee in theatre, Vyomesh is instrumental in the revival of neoclassical Hindi theatre.