The Dance of the Peacock: An Anthology of English Poetry from India

The Dance of the Peacock: Released!

The  Dance of the Peacock:

An Anthology of English Poetry from India

(Published by Hidden Brook Press, Canada)

(Total Number of Poets to be featured – 151)

List of reviews and other links pertaining to the anthology, The Dance of the Peacock:

1. Review by Rob Harle

2. Review by Dr Rajnish Mishra

3. Review by Prof. Vishal Bhadani

4. Review on Amazon

5. Review on Goodreads

6. Press release of the anthology

7. Review by by Jyothsnaphanija

8. On Bookingly Yours

9. Review by Rashmi Jain

10. Press Release

11. Review by Nidhi Mehta

12. Review by Sanober Kahkeshan

13. Review by Nuggehalli Pankaja

List of the 151 poets featuring the anthology, The Dance of the Peacock:-

1.         A J Thomas,

2.         Abhay K,

3.         Aftab Yusuf Shaikh,

4.         Aju  Mukhopadhyay,

5.         Akhil Katyal,

6.         Akshat Sharma,

7.         Allabhya Ghosh,

8.         Amalan Stanley V,

9.         Amarendra Khatua,

10.       Amarendra Kumar,

11.       Ambika Ananth,

12.       Ami Kaye,

13.       Amol Redij,

14.       Ananya S Guha,

15.       Anita Nair,

16.       Anju Makhija,

17.       Anna Sujatha Mathai,

18.       Aparna Kaji Shah,

19.       Arbind Kumar Choudhary,

20.       Archna Sahni

21.       Arman Najmi,

22.       Arundhathi Subramaniam

23.       Asha Viswas,

24.       Ashoka Sen,

25.       Ashoke Bhattacherjee,

26.       Asoke Chakravarty,

27.       Bibhu Padhi,

28.       Binod Mishra,

29.       Bipin Patsani,

30.       Bishnupada Ray,

31.       C D Norman,

32.       C. L. Khatri,

33.       Chandini Santosh,

34.       Chandra Shekhar Dubey,

35.       Charu Sheel Singh,

36.       D. C. Chambial,

37.       Debjani Chatterjee,

38.       Deepak Thakur,

39.       Devashish Makhija

40.       Durlabh Singh,

41.       Geetashree Chatterjee,

42.       Gopa Nayak,

43.       Gopal Lahiri,

44.       Gopikrishnan Kottoor,

45.       H K. Kaul,

46.       Harish K Thakur,

47.       Hazara Singh,

48.       Hiranya Aditi,

49.       Jayanta Mahapatra,

50.       Jaydeep Sarangi,

51.       K N Daruwalla,

52.       K Pankajam,

53.       K. Satchidanandan,

54.       K. Srilata,

55.       K. V. Dominic,

56.       K.V. Raghupathi,

57.       Kanwar Dinesh Singh,

58.       Karan Singh,

59.       Katta Rajamouly

60.       Kavita Jindal,

61.       Khurshid Alam,

62.       KK Srivastava,

63.       Krithika Raghavan,

64.       Kulbhusan Kushal,

65.       Kumarendra Mallick,

66.       Lakshmi Priya,

67.       Lalita Noronha,

68.       M. V. Sathyanarayana,

69.       Malay Roy Chaudhary,

70.       Mani Rao,

71.       Menka Shivdasani,

72.       Michelle Cahill,

73.       Mihir Chitre,

74.       Mohineet Kaur Boparai,

75.       Mona Dash,

76.       Monika Pant,

77.       Mukta Sambrani,

78.       Mustansir Dalvi,

79.       Naina Dey,

80.       Nandini Sahu,

81.       Nikesh Murali,

82.       Nuggehalli Pankaja,

83.       O.P. Arora,

84.       P C K Prem,

85.       P K JOY,

86.       P K N Panicker,

87.       Pashupati Jha,

88.       Poornima Laxmeshwar,

89.       Prabhanjan K. Mishra,

90.       Prabhat K. Singh,

91.       Prahlad Singh Shekhawat,

92.       Pramila Venkateswaran,

93.       Prathap Kamath,

94.       Pravat Kumar Padhy,

95.       Preeta Chandran

96.       Priscila Uppal,

97.       Pritha Kejriwal,

98.       Puneet Aggarwal,

99.       R C Shukla,

100.     R J Kalpana,

101.     Ram Krishna Singh,

102.     R Raj Rao,

103.     Raja Nand Jha,

104.     Rajashree Anand,

105.     Ramendra Kumar,

106.     Ranu Uniyal,

107.     Ravi Shankar,

108.     Rizvana Parveen,

109.     Romi Jain,

110.     Rudra Kinshuk,

111.     Ruth Vanita,

112.     Samartha Vashishtha,

113.     Sarada Purna Sonty,

114.     Satish  Verma,

115.     Seema Aarella,

116.     Semeen Ali,

117.     Shamsud Ahmed,

118.     Shanta Acharya,

119.     Sharad Chandra,

120.     Shefali Shah Choksi,

121.     Shloka Shankar

122.     Shobhana Kumar,

123.     Sindhu Rajasekaran,

124.     Smita Agarwal,

125.     Smitha Sehgal,

126.     Sneha Subramanian Kanta,

127.     Sonjoy Dutta-Roy,

128.     Sonnet Mondal,

129.     Soumyen Maitra,

130.     Sreelatha Chakravarty

131.     Stephen Gill,

132.     Subhash Misra,

133.     Sukrita Paul Kumar,

134.     Sunil Sharma,

135.     Sunita Jain,

136.     Syed Faizan,

137.     T. Vasudeva Reddy,

138.     Tejdeep Kaur Menon,

139.     Usha Akella,

140.     Usha Kishore,

141.     V.V.B. Rama Rao,

142.     Vandana Kumari Jena,

143.     Vasuprada Kartic,

144.     Vibha Batra,

145.     Vihang A Naik,

146.     Vinay Capila,

147.     Vinita Agrawal,

148.     Vitasta Raina,

149.     Vivek Naraynan,

150.     Vivekanand Jha,

151.     Yasmin Sawhney.

 Bios of the Poets

A. J. Thomas (b. 1952) is a poet and fiction writer; has also translated extensively from Malayalam poetry, fiction and drama over the last two decades, with several books to his credit. Regularly publishes poetry, short fiction, translations, book reviews and features on literary and cultural matters in journals, magazines and websites in India and abroad. He voluntarily retired as Editor, Indian Literature, the English bi-monthly of Sahitya Akademi and was also its Guest Editor (honorary). He is recipient of Katha Award, AKMG Prize and Vodafone Crossword Award. http://ajthomas.in/

Abhay K. (b.1980) is an Indian poet-diplomat. Winner of SAARC Literature Award and nominated for the Pushcart Prize, he is the author of eight books including five poetry collections. He has contributed to several poetry anthologies including Natural Spirit, A Moment of Déjà vu, Harmonious Palette. His poems have also been published by literary magazines such as Indian Literature, La.Lit, Pratilipi, Enchanting Verses Literary Review, Kritya, Literary St. Petersburg, Severnaya Aurora, Sphinx, Okno etc. www.abhayk.com

Aftab Yusuf Shaikh (b. 1989) has been published in Indian as well as foreign magazines. The Poetry Society of America had awarded him the Outstanding Achievement in Poetry Silver Award and also included his poems in their anthologies.

Aju Mukhopadhyay, Pondicherry, India, is an award winning bilingual poet, author and critic. He has authored 30 books. His poems and some stories have been widely anthologised and translated. He writes fictions too. Seven books contain discussions on his poetry. He has written essays on more than 40 books. www.aju-mukhopadhyay.sulekha.com

Akhil Katyal is a writer and poet, currently teaches literature at St. Stephen’s College, Delhi University. His poetry has been published in several international poetry journals, including The Houston Literary Review, The Minetta Review, The Literateur, The Taj Mahal Review, Nether Magazine and Muse India. He is currently writing the biography of the Kashmiri-American poet Agha Shahid Ali. He is PhD from SOAS, University of   London.

Akshat Sharma is a poet and filmmaker.  Currently, he is pursuing his Masters of Arts in Filmmaking with specialization in Direction. His first collection, VIATICUM – Journey of a Soul was published in Sep 2010. For his work “Wolf-Man”, he was honored with Azsacra International Poetry Award in July 2011. His second collection God Is Dead was released in April 12.

Allabhya Ghosh (b. 1976) script, story writer and worked as an assistant Director in the short film “Amatir Katha” which was screening in 14th Kolkata film Festival. He wrote and worked for Bengail Television Channel as a Script writer and worked as an actor in so many Bengali film and Serial. His poetry, novel & story have published into the national & international magazine. His first book of poem is “The Mirror” was published at the age of 17.

 Amalan Stanley V (b. 1966) is a poet, novelist, translator and a scientist, involved in scientific and environmental research for more than two decades.  He has authored three poetry collections and a novel in Tamil.  Some of his poems were translated by Sahitya Academy and by literary magazines of other South Indian languages.  He has authored three books in English on science and spirituality and one on the teachings of the Buddha.

Amarendra Khatua (b. 1957) is a bilingual poet. He has authored 14 collections of poetry in Odia and 03 in English. He is also translated in 03 volumes of poetry in Hindi, one each in Telugu & Tamil. His poems are translated in all major Indian languages and also in Spanish, Russian and French. He has won several awards and is a serving Indian diplomat.

Amarendra Kumar (b.1937) is a bilingual poet and short story writer. He has six volumes of poetry and one volume of short stories in English. He has also authored one book of poetry and one book of short stories in Hindi. His essays, research and critical papers have been published in a number of referred journals round the world.

Ambika Ananth (b. 1960) is a bi-lingual poet, a freelance journalist, a translator and a book reviewer with 12 published works.  She has a Masters Degree in Education and has a PG Diploma in Journalism. Her poems have appeared in many anthologies. She is the Chief-Editor of ‘Museindia’, a literary web journal.

Ami Kaye (b. 1956) is the publisher of Glass Lyre Press and Pirene’s Fountain. She edited the Sunrise from Blue Thunder anthology in response to the Japan 2011 disaster. Ami’s poems, reviews and articles have appeared in various journals and anthologies including First Literary Review- East, Tears in the Fence, Cartier Street Review, Wild Goose Poetry Review, Scottish Poetry Review, and Diode Poetry Journal. Her work was nominated for the James B. Baker award. Ami is the author of What Hands Can Hold. Visit amikaye.com

Amol Redij (b. 1977) is a published poet of Silent Moments of Melancholy, his debut collection of 66 poems. His poems have been published in “The Bruised Peach Press (US)”, “The Brooklyn Voice (US)”, and Destiny Poets (UK). He has completed his second collection of 69 poems – “69: The Otherwise Poetry”. www.amolredij.com

Ananya S. Guha (b. 1957) lives in Shillong in North East India and works as the Regional Director of the Indira Gandhi National Open University Shillong. He has four collections of poetry to his credit. In addition, his poems have appeared in four anthologies of poetry, and several print/online magazines. He also writes for newspapers and magazines on education and subjects of general interest.

Anita Nair (b. 1966) is the bestselling author of The Better Man, Ladies Coupe, Mistress and Lessons in Forgetting. Her books have been translated into over 30 languages around the world. Her new novel is Cut Like Wound. Anita has also written a collection of poems, a collection of essays, 04 books of children, two plays and the screenplay for the movie adaptation of her novel Lessons in Forgetting which is part of the Indian Panorama at IFFI 2012 and won the National Film Award in 2013.  She was awarded the ‘FLO FICCI women achievers awards 2008 for literature’. She can be reached at www.anitanair.net.

Anju Makhija (b. 1948) is a poet, playwright, translator and columnist. Her works include two books of poems, View from the Web and Pickling Season; All Together, a multi-media that won an award at the National Educational Film Festival, California. She has co-translated an anthology of partition poetry, Freedom & Fissures. Her plays include If Wishes Were Horses and The Last Train. She has won several awards including 1st prize in the All India Poetry Competition, the BBC World Poetry prize and the Sahitya Akademi English Translation award.

Anna Sujatha Mathai has 4 collections of Poetry in English.  She has another volume, MOTHERS VEENA, soon to be published by Authors Press. She has also written Articles and Critical Reviews for The Times of India, The Hindu, India Today, Indian Literature and many other Journals. Her poems have been translated into several Indian and European languages. She has read them at venues all over the world, including London, Struga, Stockholm and Denmark.

Aparna Kaji Shah (b.1956) has published a short story in an anthology, and several book reviews in Canada, Singapore, and India.She has taught English language and literature at the St. Xavier’s College, Mumbai and at the George Brown College, Toronto.  She writes poetry, and is working on a novel.

Arbind Kumar Choudhary is a poet, editor, critic, reviewer and professor of English. He is also founder of two refereed literary journals Kohinoor and Ayush. His interviews appeared in various literary journals in India and abroad.  He has nine poetry collections in English. He is also included in the advisory /editorial boards of WEC, Poetcrit, IJML, Mandakini, Spectrum and IJELL. He has been awarded by The International Writers and Artists Association, USA and The International Poetry Translation and Research Centre (IPTRC), China. His name is included in Cambridge Dictionary of English Writers in England, World Poetry Almanac in Mongolia and many other anthologies in India.

Archna Sahni (b. 1968) is an award winning poetess and her debut collection of poems, First Fire, was published by Yeti Books (2005). She is the recipient of the first Agha Shahid Ali Prize for poetry instituted by Poetry Chain and received Honorable Mention for E.J. Pratt Medal and Poetry Prize. She holds an MEd (University of Toronto) and PhD in English (Punjab University).

Arman Najmi (b. 1940) is the Nom-de-plume of Dr S Hassan, BSc, MBBS, FICS. He also writes in Urdu. He writes poetry in the forms of Nazm and Ghazal. He has two collections of Poems, one of Prose and one of Criticism. Many of his articles on literary subjects and Urdu poems have been published in leading Literary Journals in India and Abroad.

Arundhathi Subramaniam is the author of three books of poetry. She has worked over the years as poetry editor, arts critic and curator. Her poetry has been widely translated and featured in several international journals and anthologies. She has been awarded the Charles Wallace Fellowship, the Visiting Arts Fellowship, the Homi Bhabha Fellowship and the Raza Award for Poetry. She has been the editor of the India domain of the Poetry International Web, since 2004. arundhathisubramaniam.webs.com

Asha Viswas (b. 1946) is a Poet, Critic and Reviewer. She is a former professor of English, Banares Hindu University, Varanasi. She has published three collections of poetry, five books of criticism besides numerous papers on diverse topics. Her volumes of poetry Melting Memories (1996) won Michael Madhusudan Academy award, Mortgaged Moorings (2001) got Editors Choice award by the International library of poetry, U.S.A. and The Rainbow cave and Other Poems (2011) won critical acclaim.

Ashoka Sen is an artist born in India and has been living in England for over 40 years. Her achievements include two novels, a collection of short poems, a collection of short stories and two books for children. She gained a BA (English Studies) and MA (Writing) from Sheffield Hallam University. She won the East Midland Writers’ Development Award in 2000 for her literary work and her poems have been broadcast on the radio. www.ashokasen.co.uk

Ashoke Bhattacherjee is a published poet who is currently a Doctoral Fellow at the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore. He is always in pursuit of beauty and truth that permeates everything, from art to science, maths and literature. His other main interests are playing guitar and composing and recording music.

Asoke Chakravarty (b. 1939), BOIMELA-UTSAV Award winner, is a poet, writer, artist, playwright, musician and humanist. His written work appears in 14 publications and has been translated to Spanish, French, German, Turkish and other languages. He contributes to over 50 leading International magazines and anthologies and has exhibited at 19 solo art shows across 3 continents. He is the founder-director of Krittibas Literary Group of Toronto and was the former President of The International Festival of Poetry of Resistance in Toronto. His collection of poems Vaater thaalaai eto kaantaajhop was nominated for the Sahitya Akademi Award, New Delhi. www.asokecreations.blogspot.com

Bibhu Padhi (b. 1951) is a prolific poet and his seventh book of poetry, Migratory Days: A Travel Diary in Verse, was published in 2011. His poems have published in all the major Indian literary journals like Debonair, The Illustrated Weekly, Imprint, Indian Literature and Quest. Outside India, his poems have been published in, amongst others, Encounter, Orbis, Outposts, New Letters, Southwest Review and The Toronto South Asian Review. His poems have been included in numerous anthologies (as well as school-and college-level textbooks), the most recent being The HarperCollins Book of English Poetry. 

Binod Mishra (b. 1966), an Associate Professor of English in IIT Roorkee, India, is a bi-lingual poet. He has contributed his poems and articles to various journals and anthologies. He has authored several books and edited ten anthologies. His poetry collection Silent Steps and Other Poems has brought good response. He is also the Editor-in-Chief of Indian Journal of English Studies.

Bipin Patsani (b.1951) is a poet and he has published three collections of poetry and has manuscripts ready for two others. He worked as a teacher in Arunachal Pradesh for 34 years till his superannuation in September 2012.

Bishnupada Ray (b 1970) is an Associate Professor of English at NBU, West Bengal. His poetry has appeared in Indian Literature, New Quest, Makata, A Hudson View, Revival and Shabdaguchha. His latest book of poems Discarded Self and Selected Poems was published by Hyphen Publications, Shimla in 2012.

C.D. Norman (b. 1922) is a poet 91 years old and he served in the Indian Army during the Second World War, worked as a chemist in Sugar Factories and finally taught Physics in high schools in Maduari and Bombay. He writes both in English and Tamil. His leisure time occupation during his retirement days is to collect his own writings in volumes, one every year. His poems have appeared in “Youth Times” and “Woman’s Era”.

C. L. Khatri is a bilingual poet, reputed, perceptive critic and editor of Cyber Literature. He has two poetry collections in English. He edited an anthology of poems Millennium Mood in 2001. He was awarded Michael Madhusudan Acadmay Award for his poetry collection Kargil in 2002. His poems are widely published, anthologized and translated in different languages in India and abroad. He has produced over 35 papers and 20 books of criticism. Currently he is Associate Professor, Dept. of English, T.P.S. College, Patna.

Chandini Santosh (b. 1964) is a poet and painter with two solo collections of poetry. Her poems have been published in eminent journals and she has held two painting exhibitions, widely appreciated in the media and by the artist community. Her short story, ‘The C List’ has been short-listed and published in the anthology ‘Same Difference’ by J Publishing Co Ltd, Ilford, Essex, UK. Her first novel ‘Blood Brothers’ has been submitted to leading publishers.

Chandra Shekhar Dubey (b. 1959) is a poet, writer, translator and Associate Professor of English, SBSEC, University of Delhi. He has to his credit various books, poems, short stories, reviews, articles and research papers. He published two collections of poems titled Ripples On A Stone and Substance of Shadows.

Charu Sheel Singh (b.1955) has published 08 poetry collections. He has also published The Chariot of Fire: A Study of William Blake in the Light of Hindu Thought, Concentric Imagination: Madala Literary Theory, Self-Reflexive Materiality: Three Essays in comparative Method, among other books. His name is listed in many national and international bibliographies. He is working as Professor of English, Mahatma Gandhi Kashi Vidyapith (University), Varanasi.

D. C. Chambial (b. 1950) is a renowned poet and critic. He has brought out 8 anthologies of his poems in English and all eight anthologies have been published in one volume too. A host of critics and students of literature have show keen interest in his poetry. He has also published books on criticism on IEP & figured in several international Who’s Who in Poetry published from England & USA. He has won several awards for poetry from USA and Australia. He also edits POETCRIT, a literary Journal.

Debjani Chatterjee is an award-winning poet, has written, edited or translated over 60 books for children and adults. A cancer survivor, who believes strongly in the therapeutic power of reading and writing, she’s a patron of Survivors’ Poetry and founded the Healing Word support group. Her work has won major awards, including Sheffield Hallam University’s honorary doctorate ‘for outstanding contribution to Literature, the Arts and community service’, and an MBE in 2008. She was selected, in the Arts and Culture category, to be an Olympic Torchbearer in 2012.   www.debjanichatterjee.moonfruit.com

Deepak Thakur is Principal, Govt. PG College, Nalagarh Himachal Pradesh, India. He has been teaching English language and literature for the last 28 years. He has published two books of poems and three books on literary criticism pertaining to the Indian English novelists.

Devashish Makhija(b. 1977) is a storyteller, screenwriter, filmmaker, graphic artist and poet. He spends his life bewildered by the world, driven to manic curiosity about little things (like why is the ‘butter-fly’ not called the more befitting ‘flutter-by’). His alter ego resides at www.nakedindianfakir.com

Durlabh Singh is a widely published writer and a poet based in London. Part of his poetry is based on cultural values and metaphysics inherited from India. His aim is to produce innovatory poetry with a fresh outlook. He has published books on poetry and fiction. As an artist he has illustrated his books.

Geetashree Chatterjee (b. 1963) is a graduate from Delhi University and holds various Diplomas. She has completed twenty five years in Petroleum & Natural Gas Sector and de-stress through writing, reading, blogging and music. Her poems and short stories have been published in e-journals like Muse-India, Write Space and Induswomanwriting.com. http://panaecea.wordpress.com/ & http://mindspeak-vanderloost.blogspot.in

Gopa Nayak (b. 1963) writes in English and Odia. She has a DPhil from the University of Oxford, and is currently teaching English in Bhubaneswar. She is the author of one volume of poetry, “Dissension”. Her Odia poems are regularly featured in local publications.

Gopal Lahiri (b. 1957), a bilingual poet from India, has been writing poetry for more than twenty-five years. He has had six poetry collections in Bengali and five collections in English. His poems appeared in print and electronic publications worldwide. He is a regular contributor of poems in poetry journals. http://g_lahiri.tripod.com, http://gopallahiri.blogspot.com

Gopikrishnan Kottoor has several national prizes of the British Council-Poetry Society, India, for his poetry. He has ten volumes of poetry. His poems have featured inter alia, in Orbis (UK), Verse (Seattle), Nth position (UK), The Illustrated Weekly (India), Ariel (Canada), and anthologies by Bloodaxe (UK), Fulcrum (US), and Poetry Society, (India).  He has published novels (A Bridge Over Karma, Hill House, Presumed Guilty), and plays (The Mask of Death, Fire in the Soul, A Woman in Flames). He edited A New Book of Indian Poems in English and founded Poetry Chain. He was poetry editor for The Southwest Poetry Journal during his MFA stint in Texas State University, USA. His poem, Father, Wake Us In Passing, (translated into German), won him a poetry Residency, in the University of Augsburg, Germany. www.gopikottoor.blogspot.in.

H. K. Kaul is a Library and Information specialist, author, poet, bibliographer and institution builder. He has 43 years experience as a Library specialist, the creativity of a poet and the man with a vision who established two institutions, the DELNET – Developing Library Network in 1988 and the Poetry Society (India) in 1984. His first book came out in 1972 and since then he has authored and edited 55 books, besides research papers and over 100 articles, in the fields of  library networking, bibliographical studies, history, poetry and publishing.

Harish Kumar Thakur is Associate Professor of Political Science at (Government College for Girls) RKMV, Shimla, HP. He is author of 10 Books, about 100 Research Papers, Articles, Book Reviews and Essays and over 500 poems. He is also editing a literary journal Conifers Call: Shimla Journal of Poetry & Criticism. He is also Executive Editor, Kafla Intercontinental and Associate Editor of Asia Pacific Panorama.

Hazara Singh (b. 1922) is a poet of 92 years old and retired as HOD of Journalism, Languages & Culture, Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana. He participated in Freedom Struggle against Colonialism, imprisoned thrice during 1942-45. His knowledge is gleaned from tribulation he faced during that ordeal. He is the author of 10 books in English, 4 in verse, 6 in prose. His published work available on www.hazarasinghprofessor.org

Hiranya Aditi (b. 1993) began writing poetry and painting at age 6. Her poetry has been published in Muse India, and in various poetry collections. She is inspired by Nature and the Human journey. She is also a vocalist, Indian classical violinist, and volunteers in many community service projects.

Jayanta Mahapatra (b. 1928) is a physicist, bilingual poet, editor, translator and essayist. He holds the distinction of being the first Indian English poet to have received the Sahitya Akademi Award (1981) for the book of poetry, Relationship. His other major awards include SAARC literary Award, Allen Tate Poet Prize and Padma Shree Award from the President of India. As a distinguished editor, he has been bringing out, for many years, a literary magazine, Chandrabhaga.  He is the author of 36 books which include 18 volumes of poetry in English. www.jayantamahapatra.com

Jaydeep Sarangi (b.1973) is a bilingual writer, academic, editor, translator, academic administrator and the author of a number of significant publications (including 24 academic books and four books of poems) on English Literature in reputed anthologies and journals. He is the mentor of many academic, literary journals and in the editorial board of several journals. He has guest edited two issues for muse India on marginal literatures from the Eastern India and the North East. Recently, he had been awarded with visiting fellow to the University of Wollongong (2012) and the Westerly Centre, UWA(2013), Australia.

Keki N. Daruwalla (b. 1937) is one of India’s leading poets and short story writers. He wrote his Master’s in literature from Punjab and spent a year at Oxford as a Visiting Fellow under the Colombo Plan. He retired as Chairman JIC and Secretary to the Government of India. He was also Special Assistant to the Prime Minister in 1979. He has nine volumes of poetry and three collections of short fictions to his credit. A volume of his Collected Poems has been published in 2006. He won the Sahitya Akademi Award in 1984 and Commonwealth Poetry Prize (for Asia) in 1987. He represented the country at the Frankfurt Book Fair in 2005. His works have been translated in various European languages like Swedish, Magyar, German and Russian. He wrote regularly for The Economic Times on international affairs for five years. He published his first novel “For Pepper and Christ” in 2009 and a travelogue, “Riding the Himalayas” in 2011.

K Pankajam (b. 1952) is a poet, novelist and bilingual writer. Two collections of her English poems “Look Beyond” and “Echoes” have been published in 2006 and 2009. Her third book of poems “Whispering Waves” is being brought out shortly.  Her works have also been published in many on-line journals.  Her poems have been included in the anthologies “Roots & Wings – An Anthology of Indian Women Writing In English,  Fancy Realm and ‘Poetic Bliss’  She has to her credit one Malayalam fiction titled “Ormakalude Thiranottam”.  Her English fiction “Beads of Memories” is expected to be published in 2013.

K. Satchidanandan (b. 1946) is a poet of national and international repute writing in Malayalam. He has 21 collections of poetry in Malayalam besides 16 collections of world poetry in translation and 23 collections of critical essays and interviews besides four collections of essays in English. He has edited several anthologies of poetry and prose in Malayalam, English and Hindi. He has 27 collections of his poems in translation in 17 languages, including five collections in English, six in Hindi and one each in Arabic, German, French and Italian besides all the major Indian languages. He has won 21 awards for his literary contribution.  A film on him, Summer Rain was released in 2007. He was in the list of probables for the Nobel Prize, 2011. http://www.satchidanandan.com

K. Srilata is a poet, fiction writer, translator and is also a professor at IIT Madras where she researches and teaches Creative Writing, Fiction and Translation Studies. She won the first prize in the All India Poetry competition organised by the British Council and the Poetry Society, India.  She has also been awarded the Unisun British Council Poetry Award and the Charles Wallace fellowship for a writing residency. Her debut novel Table for Four was longlisted for the Man Asian literary prize.  She had earlier translated from Tamil to English Rapids of a Great River: The Penguin Book of Tamil Poetry. She is also a visiting faculty at the Chennai Mathematical Institute where she takes a course on Readings in Fiction.

K. V. Dominic, English poet, critic, short story writer, editor and a retired professor of English. Besides many publications of poems, short stories and critical articles in various journals, he has authored twenty two books so far which include 04 collection of poetry in English. He is the Secretary of GIEWEC, Editor and Publisher of International Journal on Multicultural Literature (IJML) and Editor-in-Chief of the Guild’s journal, Writers Editors Critics (WEC). www.profkvdominic.com

K.V. Raghupathi (b. 1957) has published 16 books which include 09 books in English Verse. He has attended many conferences and seminars and presented papers on literature, language and philosophy.  A great lover and promoter of classical Karnatic music, he has published a number of articles in various international journals. He is a recipient of several awards that include Michael Madhusudhan Dutt Award, Kolkata in 2001, H.D. Thoreau Fellowship, Dhvanyaloka, Mysore in 2000 and the best chosen poet for 2003, Poetry Chain, Mumbai in association with Poetry Society of India, New Delhi. http://kvraghupathi.webs.com/ & http://drkvraghupathi.blogspot.com

Kanwar Dinesh Singh is a bilingual award winning poet. He has published 10 & 02 collections of poems in English & Hindi respectively. He is the recipient of the Sahitya Akademi Award from the Government of Himachal Pradesh for his poetry book House Arrest, and the Acharya Mahavir Prasad Dwivedi Samman for his book of Hindi poems entitled PUT-BHED. His poems, reviews and articles have also appeared in several leading newspapers, journals and magazines. Currently, he teaches English in a College and edits literary journals, LITCRIT INDIA and HYPHEN.

Karan Singh (b. 1931) is a poet and senior politician. He is an M.A. and Ph. D in Political Science from Delhi University.  He received the Padma Vibhushan in 2005. He is author of more than 15 books. He is a member of India’s Upper House of Parliament, the Rajya Sabha and senior member of the ruling Indian National Congress Party and titular Maharaja of Jammu and Kashmir. From 1967 to 1980, and in 1990, he served as a MP in the Lok Sabha; since 1996, he has been a MP in the Rajya Sabha. He served as Chancellor of Banaras Hindu University, Jammu and Kashmir University, and Jawaharlal Nehru University.

Katta Rajamouly (b. 1952) is Professor of English by vocation and a poet, short story writer, essayist, critic and translator by avocation. He has published The Poetry of Philip Larkin: a Critical Study, GRAMMAR, Dictionary of Grammatical and Literary Terms, Art of Speaking and Learn English through Conversation. His creative contributions appeared in Muse India, Kakatiya Journal of English Studies, TRIVENI, Commonwealth Review, etc.

Kavita Jindal (b. 1964) is the author of the critically-acclaimed poetry collection ‘Raincheck Renewed’ published by Chameleon Press.  She also writes literary criticism and fiction. Her short story ‘A Flash of Pepper’ won the Vintage Books/Foyles ‘Haruki Murakami competition’ in 2012. Her work has appeared in journals, anthologies and newspapers around the world and her poems have been translated into Arabic, German, Punjabi, and Romanian. Some poems have been set to music.  Kavita regularly reads from her fiction and poetry in London, where she is based, as well as at universities and literary festivals in Asia and Europe. www.kavitajindal.com

Khurshid Alam (b. 1974) is a Sr. Technical Writer with an IT company and has been writing web content, technical documentations, and business writing for over seven years. Besides, he writes poems, stories, short flash fiction and screenplays and on literature and culture. Some of his poems have also been included in the anthologies An Anthology of Contemporary Love Poems, Poets’ Paradise, The Feline Muse, The Fancy Realm and The Poetic Bliss. He is also the founder editor of Contemporary Literary Review India (CLRI) and is working on a novel. www.contemporaryliteraryreviewindia.com

K K Srivastava (b 1960) is a poet with three books of poetry in English. His latest book Shadows of the Real was published in 2012 by Rupa & Co, New Delhi. He is a member of International Writers & Artists Association Ohio USA and was conferred DECREE OF MERIT by Austrian Literary Society in 2010. In 2012, he was declared Poet of the Year 2012 by IWA, Ohio at their Albania Conference. By profession a Civil servant, he is currently posted as Principal Accountant General (Audit) M.P at Gwalior.

Krithika Raghavan is 15 years of age, a student studying in Bangalore. She has been writing since she was 11 years of age. She is on Wattpad, poetry.com, Writer’s Cafe, Muse India, Mibba, and many more.

Kulbhushan Kushal, Regional Director D.A.V. Institutions, Maharashtra and Gujarat, has worked in the P.G. Dept. of English at B.U.C. College, Batala for more than two decades. He is the author four books of poems in English. A number of research papers on his poetry have been published. He has already co-edited four books on Indian-English fiction. He has been Associate Editor of a prestigious journal Poetry and one of the members of the Editorial Advisory Board of Pragati’s English Journal. http://www.kbkushal.com

Kumarendra Mallick is an IIT Kharagpur graduate, Ph.D from ISM, Dhanbad and a Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize winner in Earth Sciences. He is a poet and scientist by profession. During 1969-71 he carried out research in Germany as fellow of the German Academic Exchange Programme. He was a senior faculty at IIT Bombay, visiting professor in University of Naples, Italy & visiting scientist in University of Karlsruhe, Germany. He has published three books on Geophysics and a book of verse, ‘Letters to an imaginary pen friend and other poems’. He writes short articles and poems in English, Hindi and Oriya. He is editor of Your Space, Muse India, an e-Journal.

Lakshmi Priya (b 1978) works as an Assistant Professor of English in one of the NSS colleges in Kerala. Her poems have appeared in online and print journals like Indian Literature, Good ole’ Poetry chain, The Criterion: An International Journal in English, Malayala Manorama Yuva, Bhashaposhini Literary Journal. etc. Her Poems can be read in her Personal Blog at http://lakmi-roadnottaken.blogspot.in/

Lalita Noronha is the recipient of a Fulbright travel grant to America and she earned her Ph.D. in Microbiology from St. Louis University School of Medicine. She is a widely published research scientist, poet, and fiction writer. Author of an award winning short story collection, “Where Monsoons Cry,”  she has twice won the Maryland Literary Short Story Award, a Maryland Individual Artist Award, National League of American Pen Women Award, and Maryland Writer’s Association Awards in fiction, creative non-fiction and poetry. She is also a fiction editor for the Baltimore Review.www.lalitanoronha.com & www.lalitanoronha.wordpress.com

M. V. Sathyanarayana is working as Superintendent of Salt at Naupada, Srikakulam district, Andhra Pradesh. His poems have won various poetry competitions. He published three anthologies of his poems, viz. (1) Golden Lotus, (2) Plastic faces and other poems and (3) Wheels. Two more anthologies are under publication.

Malay Roy Choudhury is the author of more than 50 books, a Bengali poet, novelist, dramatist, essayist, translator, and social critic. He translates his own poems into English. He has been a central figure in the Hungry Generation’s attack on the Indian Cultural Establishment in the early 1960s. Gale Research, based in Ohio, United States, published an autobiography of Roy Choudhury (in CAAS vol. 14), and both the Bangla Academy and the Northwestern University (Illinois), have archives of Roy Choudhury’s “Hungry Literary Generation” publications. He was bestowed with the Sahitya Academy Award for translating Dharamvir Bharati‘s Suraj Ka Satwan Ghora in 2003.

Mani Rao is the author of eight poetry collections, and a translation of the Bhagavad Gita as a poem. She was a Visiting Fellow at the Iowa International Writing Program in 2005 and 2009, and held the 2006 University of Iowa International Programs writer-in-residence fellowship. She is co-founder of OutLoud, a regular poetry-reading gathering, in Hong Kong. Her poems have been translated into Latin, Italian, Korean, Chinese, Arabic, French and German. She has performed at literary festivals in Hong Kong, Singapore, Melbourne, Vancouver, Chicago, and at the 2006 New York PEN World Voices. She worked in advertising and television from 1985 to 2004, and was the Senior Vice-President, Marketing and Corporate Communications at Star (TV) Group Ltd., based in Hong Kong. She has an MFA from the University of Nevada-Las Vegas. www.manirao.com

Menka Shivdasani (b. 1961) is the author of two books of poetry and co-translator of Freedom and Fissures, an anthology of Sindhi Partition poetry, published by the Sahitya Akademi. She is also a Founding Member of the Asia Pacific Writers & Translators Association. In 1986, she had played a key role in setting up the Poetry Circle in Mumbai. Her work has appeared in several literary journals and anthologies, both in India and elsewhere. Her career as a journalist includes a stint with South China Morning Post in Hong Kong and publication of eight books co-authored with Raju Kane. She is also the Mumbai coordinator for the global movement 100 Thousand Poets for Change.

Michelle Cahill was born in Kenya in 1969 and migrated to the UK and Australia. She lives in Sydney and is the author of two collections of poetry, The Accidental Cage and Vishvarupa, shorlisted in the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award. She has received many awards and fellowships, notably the Val Vallis Award, highly commended in the Blake Poetry Prize, a fellowship at Hawthornden Castle and the CAL/UOW International Fellowship at Kingston University London. She is the editor of Contemporary Asian Australian Poets and Mascara Literary Review. http://michellecahill.com/

Mihir Chitre (b. 1988) has. previously been published in magazines such as Indian Literature, Reading Hour, Kritya, Blue and Yellow Dog, Enchanting Verses, Pyrta Journal and The Challenge for both fiction and poetry. He was born and brought up, and is still put up, in Mumbai. He works as a copywriter with an advertising agency.

Mohineet Kaur Boparai (b. 1985) has published three books of poetry, Poems That Never Were (2007), Windows to the Ocean (2012) and Lives of My Love (2012). She is teaching English at the Panjab University Constituent College, Nihalsinghwala. She is 27 and lives at Moga. http://sipping-sunshine.blogspot.in/

Mona Dash is an Engineer in Telecommunications and MBA in Marketing and works as a senior manager in a global Telecom company.  Dawn Drops, her book of poems was published by Writers Workshop, India. Her poems have also been published in journals in the UK and India – such as Moon Dance, Black Rose, Acumen, The Journal, Kavya Bharati to name a few; and anthologies such as In this Life and Bright Voices(United Press UK) and Passion, Cyberwit (India). http://www.monadash.net.

Monika Pant (b. 1965) has had her short stories and poems published in several anthologies. She is awaiting the release of her debut novel and her memoir as a cancer survivor; and is currently writing a couple of historical novels. An English teacher for over 15 years, she also writes course books in English Grammar and literature for students. Her real life snippets are published in the ‘Chicken Soup for the Indian Soul’ series and her short story was longlisted for the Commonwealth Short Story Prize.

http://monikapant.blogspot.in/

 Mukta Sambrani earned an MFA in Creative Writing from San Francisco State University. Her first book of poems was published by Writer’s Workshop. Her work has appeared in journals and anthologies such as Verse, EmLiterary, Cipactli, Fourteen Hills, Hyphen Magazine, Laundry Pen, The Scribbler, Poetry Chain, Fulcrum, Bloodaxe book of contemporary Indian poets and Sixty Indian Poets and an anthology of contemporary Indian women’s poetry published by Sahitya Akademi- We Speak in Changing Languages. She is the recipient of the 2003 AudreLorde creative writing award and an honorable mention for the Starcherone prize.

Mustansir Dalvi teaches architecture in Mumbai, India. His poem  ‘Choosing Trains’ was awarded first prize in the Indian national daily Asian Age’s Poetry Contest in 2001. His published translations of Muhammad Iqbal’s ‘Shikwa and Jawaab-e-Shikwa’ as “Taking Issue and Allah’s Answer’ (Penguin Classics, 2012) won the Runner Up award at the Muse India National Literary Translation Award 2012. His first book of poems in English is ‘Brouhahas of cocks’, published by Poetrywala in 2013.

Naina Dey (b. 1973), teaches English at Maharaja Manindra Chandra College, Kolkata under the University of Calcutta. She is a critic, translator, reviewer and creative writer and her works appear in esteemed newspapers, books and academic journals. She has authored two critical books and edited one critical anthology on English Literature.  She was awarded the “Excellence in World Poetry Award, 2009” by the International Poets Academy, Chennai in 2009. She has been anthologized in Roots and Wings: An Anthology of Indian Women Writing in English, Kerala.

Nandini Sahu (b. 1973) is an Associate Professor of English in IGNOU, New Delhi, India. She is a poet, creative writer, literary critic and author/editorof eight books and more than 40 research papers published in India, U.S.A., U.K. and Pakistan. She is a double gold medalist in English literature and the award winner of All India Poetry Contest and Shiksha Rattan Purashkar. She is the Chief Editor of the bi-annual refereed journal, Interdisciplinary Journal of Literature and Language (IJLL). www.kavinandini.blogspot.com

Nikesh Murali has appeared in more than 80 publications worldwide which include comics, poems and short stories. His poems have been translated into Spanish, Italian, Portuguese and French.  He won the Commonwealth Short Story Prize for the Asian region in 2011. His poetry was nominated for the Pushcart Prize in 2007. He has completed his Masters in Journalism from Griffith University for which he was awarded the Griffith University Award for Academic Excellence in 2005, and his Masters in Teaching from James Cook University and a Bachelors degree in English Literature and World History from University of Kerala. He is working towards his Doctorate in Creative Writing. www.nikeshmurali.net

Nuggehalli Pankaja (b. 1929) is an established writer both in Kannada and English. She has many Kannada novels, children’s books, collection of humourous works, short stories and dramas to her credit. Two popular Kannada movies- Sepoy Ramu and Gagana were based on her novels. English publications in Deccan Herald, Times, Illustrated weekly, Women’s era, Mirror, India-Review etc are widely appreciated. She was conferred with ‘Excellence in World Poetry Award’ by the International Poetry Academy.  She is mentioned in ‘Women of India’, ‘Reference Asia’ and ‘Who’s Who’ of Central Academy. Recipient of many prestigious awards, she has been honoured by various literary organisations. http://nuggehallipankaja.wordpress.com/

O. P. Arora is a poet and novelist. He has to his credit four volumes of poems and his poems have been published in the leading literary journals, magazines, dailies and anthologies. He has also authored two novels, A Bite of Paradise and The Silken Traps. He has to his credit two books in Hindi – one, a novel, and the other, a collection of short stories.

P C K Prem (p c katoch) is a trilingual author of more than forty books in English and Hindi. He has Master’s degree in English Literature from   Punjab University, Chandigarh and taught English in various colleges of Punjab and Himachal before shifting to civil services. After retiring from IAS, he served HP Public Service Commission as a member.  A recipient of several awards (including HP State & Academy Literary awards) he is a poet, novelist, short story writer, essayist and critic in Hindi and English from Himachal, India.

P K Joy, an Indian poet and author of engineering management books, lives in Chennai, India. He has several volumes of poetry and professional books to his credit. He is the Vice-President of The World Poetry Society Intercontinental. For more details about Joy please visit http://www.pkjoypoet.com/

P K N Panicker is an accomplished Chemical Engineer, Former President of the Indian Institute of Chemical Engineers and has published several technical articles, including in prestigious publications like Encyclopedia of Chemical Process and Design. A bilingual poet, he has published three anthologies of poems in English. His other titles in English are: Swami Vivekananda, Our Earth and Our Environment; in Malayalam: Lohangalude Lokam (popular science essays), Palamukhangal (One Act Plays), Alcohol (popular science) and seven volumes of folk-stories (78 stories in all), from different parts of the world translated and retold from English.

Pashupati Jha (b. 1952), a Ph.D. on the Poetry of Sylvia Plath from  IIT Delhi, is Professor of English at I.I.T. Roorkee, where he guides research for Ph.D. Degree and teaches various English courses. Besides numerous academic publications, he has published three widely reviewed poetry collections in English so far. He has received the Outstanding Teacher Award of IIT Roorkee twice, in 2003 and 2007, and Star Performance Commendation from the Director in 2005. He has been the Chairman of Indian Association for English Studies from Jan. 2006 to Dec. 2011, and was President of the 57^th All India English Teachers Conference.

Poornima Laxmeshwar (b. 1983), an MBA, is working in a reputed BPO in Bangalore. Her collection of poems has been published by Writer’s Workshop, Kolkata. Few of her poems have been previously published in online literary magazines like Kritya and Muse India.

Prabhanjan K. Mishra (b. 1950) is the poet and working as a General Manager in a corporate hospitality sector, a former I.R.S. officer with the central government; has published three collections of poems.  He edited from 1986 to 1996 the poetry journal POIESIS belonging to THE POETRY CIRCLE, BOMBAY, an association of poets writing in English. He also remained the president of this poets’ group from 1990 to 1996. His poems have been extensively published.

Prabhat K. Singh (b.1952) is literary critic, bilingual poet, translator and Professor of English, MGKV University, Varanasi. He has 11 books of critical and creative writings and 30 research papers in Indian and foreign journals to his credit, and has attended/chaired forty national/international seminars/conferences in India and abroad. A recipient of National Millennium Honour 2000 and Michael Madhusudan Award 2003, he has been on academic visits to several countries of South East Asia and Europe.

Prahlad Singh Shekhawat is an Ex-Associate Professor; the Institute of Development Studies, Jaipur. He has authored three books on aspects of human development, culture & well-being, and a poetry book. His articles have been published in national and international newspapers and journals such as The Hindu, The Times of India, Tehelka, Resurgence, New Quest, Seeds of Peace (Bangkok) etc. He has presented papers and chaired at several international conferences and has lectured on Indian culture and civil society in Europe and Japan. At present, he is the director of the Alternative Development and Research Centre, Jaipur India. www.prahladsingh.com

Pramila Venkateswaran (b. 1959), author of Thirtha (Yuganta Press, 2002), Behind Dark Waters (Plain View Press, 2008), Draw Me Inmost (Stockport Flats, 2009), and Trace (Finishing Line Press, 2011), is an award winning poet who teaches English and Women’s Studies at Nassau Community College, NY. She is the 2011 Walt Whitman Birthplace Association Long Island Poet of the Year.

Prathap Kamath (b. 1966) holds a doctorate in English literature and is Associate Professor of English. He has published a collection of poems Ekalavya: a book of poems, and his poems have appeared in several journals of national and international repute. He has published two collections of stories in Malayalam. Blood Rain and Other Stories is his first collection of stories in English.

Pravat Kumar Padhy (b.1957) is a widely published and anthologized poet. His poems appeared in The Times of India, The Indian Express, Commonwealth Quarterly, Poetcrit, Literary Endeavour, Art and Poetry Today, Poet, The Enchanted Verses Literary Review, The Houston Literary Review, Diogen, Red River Review, Harvest of New Millennium etc. His poetry won the Editors’ Choice award at Asia American Poetry, Poetbay, USA and Writers Guild of India. His Japanese short form of poetry appeared in many international journals and anthologies. His third collection of verse, “Songs of Love: A Celebration” was published in 2012 by Writers Workshop, Calcutta.  http://pkpadhy.blogspot.com

Preeta Chandran (b. 1977) is a writer/poet and a corporate professional. She is the author of the book “The Painted Verse”, an amalgamation of poetry by Preeta and painting by artist Pankaj Kumar Saxena. Her poems, “The Butterfly” and “A Whole New World”, have received Honorable Mention in popular literary journal Muse India.

Priscila Uppal (b. 1974) is a poet, fiction, non-fiction writer, playwright and York University professor. Among her international publications are 9 collections of poetry and 2 novels, including Ontological Necessities (shortlisted for the $50,000 Griffin Poetry Prize), Traumatology, and To Whom It May Concern. Upcoming in 2013: Projection: Encounters with My Runaway Mother. www.priscilauppal.ca

Pritha Kejriwal (b. 1978) is the Editor-in-Chief of Kindle Magazine, a national, political and cultural monthly journal being published from Kolkata. She has completed her Masters in Journalism from Calcutta University in 2001 and was employed with the Hindustan Times and NDTV, before she founded Kindle Magazine. She is currently working on two collections of poetry -’The Book of Questions’ and ‘The Book of Dreams’. Poems from both the collections have been published in various journals including ‘Contemporary World Poetry Journal’ and ‘Pens on Fire’.

Puneet Aggarwal is a student of medicine and a Junior Lecturer in NHL Medical College, Ahmedabad. He is passionate about photography, and is also an avid blogger on food, poetry and photography. His work was exhibited at a leading art gallery of Ahmedabad.   drpuneetaggarwal.wordpress.in

R C Shukla (b. 1943) is a prolific poet and retired as HOD in English from K. G. K. College at Moradabad. He has, so far, published ten volumes of poetry including two trilogies: The Parrot Shrieks and Ponderings. He has published his English poems in several leading poetry journals in India including the Delhi-based Indian Literature.

R J Kalpana is an erudite scholar, a poet and perceptive critic. She has published a three volume set on Feminist Issues in Indian Literature which was released during the International Conference for Commonwealth Literature. In addition, she has published a book of poetry titled – Temple Dreams and a three-volume set of the biography of R. Jagannathiah: An Atheist Disciple, Collected Writings in English, and Collected Writings in Telugu. She won the first prize in the Muse India Poetry contest in 2008. Her second collection of poems is to be published soon.

Ram Krishna Singh is a poet and university professor, teaching English language skills in Indian School of Mines, Dhanbad. He has authored over 160 articles, 170 book reviews and 37 books, including fourteen collections of poems.  Widely anthologized and translated, he has received several awards and honours, including honorary Litt.D. from the World Academy of Arts and Culture, Taiwan, 1984, Michael Madhusudan Award, Calcutta, 1994 and Peace Museum Award from Ritsumeikan University, Kyoto, 1999. rksinghpoet.blogspot.in

R. Raj Rao (b. 1955) is a poet, short story writer, novelist, playwright, biographer, literary critic and professor of literature at the University of Pune. In 1996, he attended the International Writing Program, Iowa. He is the author of 02 poetry collections and 02 novels. He has also authored One Day I Locked My Flat in Soul City (short stories), The Wisest Fool on Earth and Other Plays and Nissim Ezekiel: The Authorized Biography. He has edited Ten Indian Writers in Interview and co-edited Image of India in the Indian Novel in English (1960–1980). He is one of India’s leading gay-rights activists. The Boyfriend is his first novel and the first gay novel from India which won newly-established Quebec-India awards.

Raja Nand Jha (b. 1946) is a poet, lyricist, multi linguist and award winning translator. He retired as a professor of English from L.N. Mithila University Darbhanga. He is a bilingual poet and writes in both English and Maithili. He has authored 15 books of Maithili and English Literature. He is conferred with Sahitya Akademi Award for Translating Bengla Novel, “Kalbela” into Maithili. His anthology of poems in Maithili, “Time Moves Clockwise Only” (once shortlisted for Sahitya Akademi Award, New Delhi) has been translated into English by Vivekanand Jha.

Rajashree Anand (b. 1981) has been an educator in international schools in India and Malaysia, teaching English Literature and Language for the International Baccalaureate and IGCSE. Her writing is an exploration of her Indian idiolect. She continues to share her reflections in her personal blog http://in-visibleink.blogspot.in

Ramendra Kumar (b. 1963) has 27 books to his credit published by well known names and translated into several Indian and foreign languages. His work has found a place in several textbooks and anthologies, both in India and abroad. http://ramendra.in

Ranu Uniyal (b.1962) is PhD from the University of Hull, U.K and Professor of English at Lucknow University. She has 02 poetry collections in English. She has also written three books of criticism. Her poems have been widely published, including in Northern Poetry Vol. 2 (UK), Sketch Book (USA), and Indian Literature. She has read her poetry at literature festivals both in India and abroad. Her English poems have been translated into Hindi, Malayalam, Urdu and Uzbek languages.  She is currently working on a book of poems in Hindi.

Ravi Shankar (b. 1975) is the founding editor and Executive Director of Drunken Boat, one of the world’s oldest electronic journals of the arts. He has published or edited seven books and chapbooks of poetry, including the 2010 National Poetry Review Prize winner, Deepening Groove. Along with Tina Chang and Nathalie Handal, he edited W.W. Norton’s Language for a New Century: Contemporary Poetry from Asia, the Middle East & Beyond. He has won a Pushcart Prize, been featured in The New York Times and the Chronicle of Higher Education, appeared as a commentator on the BBC and NPR, received fellowships from the MacDowell Colony and the Connecticut Commission on the Arts, and has performed his work around the world. He is currently Chairman of the Connecticut Young Writers Trust, on the faculty of the first international MFA Program at City University of Hong Kong and an Associate Professor of English at CCSU. http://www.drunkenboat.com/

Rizvana Parveen (b. 1973) is an Indian poet based in the UAE. Her work has appeared in The Enchanting Verses Literary Review, The World Haiku Review, Taj Mahal Review, Asian American Poetry and Kafla Inter-Continental.

Romi Jain (b. 1979) is an independent researcher, novelist, and Vice President of the Indian Journal of Asian Affairs. She did her MBA from San Francisco State University, California. Her creative writings include: The Storm Within (2008; 2011), Poetry! You Resurrect Me (2011) and Voices of Rocks in the Dusk. Her poems have appeared in anthologies titled The Poetic Bond I, The Poetic Bond II, and A Posy of Poesy, and in journals such as Journal of Poetry Society and International Zeitschrift. Besides, she published numerous articles in international journals such as International Journal of Development and Conflict (London) & Asian Profile (Canada). www.ijaaworld.com; www.romi1jain.wordpress.com

Rudra Kinshuk (b. 1971), a poet, transcreator and critic has to his credit a number of publications in English, including Footprints on the Sands (1996), Portrait of a Dog as Buddha (1998), Marginal Tales of the Galloping Horses (2002), Meditations on Matricide (2012) and Fragrant Anchors (2013). His poems have been translated into French and German. A collection of his poems translated into French is in print with the title Ancres Odorantes (2013). He was awarded a fellowship in literature by M.H.R.D, New Delhi for research in Santal Oral Literature.

Ruth Vanita (b. 1955) is a poet, translator, academic and activist. Her book of poems, A Play of Light (Penguin India) was published in 1994. Her second collection A Hidden Player is under submission. Her poetry is appeared in several anthologies and in journals like Wasafiri, Indian Literature, Boxcar Poetry Review, and Ink, Sweat & Tears. She is Professor at the University of Montana, formerly Reader at Delhi University. She was founding co-editor of Manushi: a Journal about Women and Society, from 1978 to 1990.She is the author of several books in lesbian and gay studies, gender studies, and British and Indian literary history.

Samartha Vashishtha (b. 1983) is a bilingual poet. He has published two volumes of poems in English and is working on his first book in Hindi. He has also contributed poems to leading literary magazines like Chandrabhaga, Indian Literature and The Journal of Literature and Aesthetics. He received a Poetry Society India – Poetry Chain Prize in 2003 for his long poem, “Simla.” His work in Hindi has appeared in influential magazines like Pahal and Vartaman Sahitya.

Sarada Purna Sonty is PhD (Sanskrit), PhD (Telugu) and DLit (cont) Musicology. She is Director – Center for Telugu Studies Chicago and Founder, Executive Director SAPNA.

Satish Verma (b. 1935) taught botany for 35 years and was writing poetry, privately and solemnly and published twenty seven collections. He worked silently with social causes. His scions, doctors and engineers are living in USA. He chose to live back in his beloved country and resides in Ajmer (INDIA) with his spouse Kanta running the Charitable Holistic Institute of SEWA MANDIR FOUNDATION.

Seema Aarella (b.1979) is a passionate reader and writer; she published her first book of English poems ‘Letters from the Heart’ in 2009. She is currently pursuing Master Degree in the University of North Texas, in Texas, USA.

Semeen Ali is the author of three books of poetry, Broken Barriers, Rose and Ashes & Origins. The first two have been published by Writers Workshop, Calcutta while the third one has been published by Poets Printery, South Africa. Her poems have also featured in journals like A Hudson View Poetry Digest, Muse India etc.  Her book, Rose and Ashes was nominated for the Young Writers Award at the Hyderabad Literary Festival 2012 and received the Jury Commendation Award.

Shamsud Ahmed is an accomplished poet and has authored many books, including ‘I Am Dirty; I Need Washing,’ which has been critically acclaimed and has got an overwhelming response from the readers. His recently published book “Rousing Cadence” is collaboration with various poets across the world and the book has successfully secured a good number of readers. These days he is busy scripting for a Prime Time TV show ‘Zindagi.Com’ which is on Air (Rang Tv). You can see his work at www.shamsud-ahmed.com

Shanta Acharya was born and educated in Orissa, India. She won a scholarship to Oxford, where she completed her doctoral thesis in English, before going to Harvard as a Visiting Scholar. Her study, The Influence of Indian Thought on Ralph Waldo Emerson (2001), was published in the USA. The author of nine books, her latest collection of poems is Dreams That Spell the Light (2010). Her poems, articles and reviews have appeared in major publications in the UK, USA, and India. She was elected to the board of trustees of the Poetry Society, UK, in 2011. www.shantaacharya.com

Sharad Chandra is a Specialist of Albert Camus and has published over twenty books in English, Hindi, and French which include Short Stories, poetry, monograms, translations from French and Portuguese, and numerous articles and academic papers. Widely travelled, she is a recipient among other awards, of a Grand Prix from the Academie francaise, Paris.

Shefali Shah Choksi (b. 1964) teaches Literature and Composition at the Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale. She has an MA (English) and MPhil (Women’s Studies) from the MS University of Vadodara (Gujarat, India) and lived in Florida since 1988, when she immigrated from Mumbai. She published her first book of poetry, Frontier Literature, in 2011, and has published short stories, reviews, and reflective essays in a variety of anthologies and publications. http://wwwshefalishahchoksi.blogspot.com/

Shloka Shankar (b. 1989) holds a master’s degree in English Language and Literature, from Madras Christian College. She works as a freelance content/creative writer and has had her poems published in reputed literary journals and anthologies including Urban Confustions, Page Turners’ Cross Cultural Anthology – Traversal of Lines, Ekphrasis, and others.

Shobhana Kumar (b. 1974) is a writer and poet. Her first volume of poetry, ‘The Voices Never Stop,’ was published by Writers Workshop, Calcutta. She has been previously published by Muse India and Kritya Journal of Poetry among others. She has also published four books of non-fiction—Coimbatore, The Emerging Indian Cosmopolis, SIMA—A journey Through 75 Years, Lakshmi, An Inspiring Legacy and An Event Called Life, Dr. P.C. Thomas in Conversation with Shobhana Kumar. She also works as an advertising consultant, communications trainer and storyteller.

Sindhu Rajasekaran (b. 1987) is an emerging Indian novelist, poet, essayist, playwright, short-story writer and Bharata Natyam artiste. Her debut novel, Kaleidoscopic Reflections, was longlisted for the 2011 Vodafone Crossword Book Award. Her experimental flash fiction, ‘Devadasi – The Temple Dancer,’ was chosen to be a part of an anthology of international writers and artists, in the book Two in the Bush. She graduated from the University of Edinburgh with a Master’s in Creative Writing in 2011. Recently, she and her husband have set up a production house, Camphor Cinema, and its first film is expected to release later this year. http://sindhuwriting.blogspot.in/

Smita Agarwal (b. 1958) is a poet and professor of English at Allahabad University. She attended Loreto Convent in Delhi, before pursuing her higher studies in English Literature. In 1999, she was writer-in-residence at the universities of Stirling (Scotland) and Kent, U.K. She also is a Hindustani music vocalist and has performed on All-India Radio. Her poems have been widely anthologized and her critical work has been published in journals such as the Poetry Review (London) and the Journal of Commonwealth Literature (UK). She is also an editor and translator for Plath Profiles, the Sylvia Plath online journal, published by Indiana University, USA.

Smitha Sehgal (b.1976) is a legal professional with a leading Govt of India Undertaking and lives in Delhi. Writing from the age of seven, her early works appeared in Mathrubhumi, a leading Malayalam literary publication and The Indian Express. After a sabbatical, she is back to writing and her works have featured in the Reading Hour, Brown Critique, Kritya and Muse India.

Sneha Subramanian Kanta is a poet, writer, critic from Mumbai, India. She works as a lecturer of English in Mumbai. She is also the Assistant Editor of Rangoli, a journal pulished by Charnwood Arts, United Kingdom. Her works have been featured in several national and international anthologies and journals.

Sonjoy Dutta-Roy (b. 1958) is Professor of English, University of Allahabad. He has directed and acted in several plays; and he has published three collections of poems in English.  He has been a Visiting Professor at Louisiana State University and UC Berkeley as a Fulbright Scholar and read his poems at various Universities and venues in the USA and India. His poems have been shortlisted thrice in the All India Poetry Competition organized by the Poetry Society (India) and the British Council, and anthologized in their volumes of shortlisted poems.

Sonnet Mondal is an award winning poet and the founder of The Enchanting Verses Literary Review. He has authored eight collections of poetry. His works have appeared in several international literary publications including The Sheepshead Review, The Penguin Review, Two Thirds North, California State Poetry Quarterly and Friction Magazine  to name a few. Most recently, he has been enlisted as a National Record Holder as “The First Indian to write a new type of Sonnet Poetry” at the Indian Book of Records.

Soumyen Maitra was born in West Bengal, India, and now lives with his family in England. He retired from hospital, and writes full time. A doctor by profession, he has worked in the U.K., Saudi Arabia and rural hospitals in India, which is the base for some of his writings. He writes poetry, hospital-based fiction thrillers, crime stories and novels. He is also a visual artist. He regularly contributes to Forward Book of poetry, various magazines, and poems and artwork for the feature Poetising Indian Heritage.

Sreelatha Chakravarty is the author of the novel, An Eternal Romantic. She is M.B.B.S from V.S.S. Medical College, Burla, Orissa. She has worked in various capacities as a doctor and was bitten by the writing bug when she took a breather in life in Accra, Ghana, where her husband was posted for work. She has produced a collection of poetry she hopes to publish someday. She is currently editing and polishing her second novel.

Stephen Gill, Poet Laureate of Ansted University and an Adjunct Professor of EAU, is an expressive voice of Canada, India and Pakistan.  He has authored more than twenty books, including novels, literary criticism, and collections of poems. His poetry and prose have appeared in more than 500 publications, mostly in Canada, the United States of America and India. He received numerous awards and recognitions, including four honorary doctorates. He is also honorary editor/ advisor to several publications. www.stephengill.ca

Subhash Misra is a poet, development worker and UNICEF staff. His book Gangasmriti & Other Poems was published by Writers Workshop, Kolkata, India. He worked for UNICEF and has headed the Tsunami Recovery Program in Andaman & Nicobar and then contributed to the Afghanistan National Development Strategy as an adviser with UNDP, Kabul. He started the development organisation OASES in 1982. He has also contributed personal experiences to various Indian newspapers. He is currently working for UNICEF, Iraq.

Sukrita Paul Kumar is a noted poet and critic, has published several collections of poems and many critical books. An invited poet at the prestigious International Writing Programme, Iowa and a poet-in-residence in Hong Kong, China, she is a former Fellow of the IIAS, Shimla. At present, a Fellow and Programme Coordinator at Cluster Innovation Centre at the University of Delhi, she is also a translator and has held an exhibition of her paintings.

Sunil Sharma is India-born, suburban-Mumbai-based story-teller, poet, critic, freelance journalist, literary editor, reviewer, interviewer and essayist. He is a college principal. His debut novel, The Minotaur, is inching towards critical acclaim, and, short fiction and poetry are featured in many prestigious international and national print and online journals. He also edits NFJ (New Fiction Journal) and is on the board of many literary journals. He is also recipient of UK-based The Destiny Poets’ inaugural award as the poet of the year 2012. http://sunilsharmafictionwriter.blogspot.com/

Sunita Jain (b. 1941) completed her M.A. at the State University of New York, Stonybrook, and her Ph.D. at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln, U.S.A. She chaired the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences and was Professor of English at IIT, Delhi till her retirement a few years ago. A bilingual writer, she writes poetry and fiction in both English and Hindi. She has written over 80 books other than her writing for children which includes 8 Poetry Collections in English. She has received numerous awards in the U.S. and in India including the Padmashree. www.sunitajain.com

Syed Faizan (b.1987) obtained his M.B.B.S degree at the Mysore Medical College and Research Institute (M.M.C&R.I) in 2012 and intends to continue his medical studies by specializing in Psychiatry. His poetic efforts have especially been directed at adapting the traditional English poetic idiom and European forms like the Sonnet to an Indian context and vice versa, trying to write English poetry in Indian or Oriental forms like the Ghazal. The rich heritage of Indian literary traditions like Vachana Sahitya, Bhakti and Sufi poetry have profoundly influenced and molded his poetic consciousness.

T. Vasudeva Reddy (b. 1943) is a renowned poet, critic & novelist of international repute. He is the author of seven books of poetry, two novels and two critical books on Jane Austen. He retired as Principal of Govt. Degree College in 2001. He received the Awards of International Eminent Poet, Hon. D. Litt. from the WAAC, San Francisco, Best Teacher Award from the Govt. of A.P., Best Poetry award for his third poetry book The Fleeting Bubbles from Michael Madhusudan Dutt Academy, Calcutta and the prestigious U.G.C Award of National Fellowship. His biography figures in the American Biographical Institute (N. Carolina, U.S.A), International Biographical Institute (Cambridge), Reference India & Asia (New Delhi) and Sahitya Akademi (New Delhi). M.Phil and Ph.D. theses have been produced on his works. Recently he received the international Award of “Excellence in World Poetry” in 2009.

Tejdeep Kaur Menon, Police officer by profession; poet by passion. Has published four anthologies assessed in at least three books by academics on critical perspectives, trends and techniques in contemporary Indian English Poetry. Poems What About Me? (1999) and An Easel Called Life (2002) were presented as dance ballets. Other poems translated into several languages and used by the police and NGOs, including Andhra Pradesh AIDS Society and Red Cross, to heighten awareness about donating blood, pledging corneas and other social campaigns. Awarded the Charles Wallace Fellowship for the Literature Seminar, University of Cambridge, UK, 2003.  Now, Additional Director General of Police (Training), Andhra Pradesh.

Usha Akella, author of two books of poetry and one musical is a widely
published, interviewed, traveling and invited poet to many international poetry festivals. She scripted and produced ‘Ek. An English musical on the life of Shri Shirdi Sai Baba,’ in Austin and Houston.  She writes travel articles and has a passion for interviewing writers and artists. She founded the Poetry Caravan in Greenburgh, New York and Austin that offers Poetry readings and workshops to the disadvantaged.

Usha Kishore (b. 1962) is an internationally published poet and translator. Her work has been anthologised by Macmillan, Hodder Wayland, Oxford University Press (UK) and Harper Collins (India) among others. She has won prizes in UK poetry competitions, including the Ottakars and Faber Poetry Competition (Regional, 2002). She was shortlisted for the Erbacce Poetry Prize (UK) in 2012 and was recently highly commended in the Gregory O’ Donoghue International Poetry Competition, Ireland (January, 2013). Her poetry has been included in many international projects and is part of the UK Primary and Indian Middle School syllabus. Her first book of translations from Sanskrit entitled Translations of the Divine Woman is to be published by Rasala Books, India in 2013. Her poetry has been translated into German, Spanish and Gujurati. www.ushakishore.co.uk

V.V. B. Rama Rao (b.1938) is a retired ELT professional.  He has published more than fifty books several genres both in English and Telugu: Novels, Short Fiction, Biography, Hagiography, Criticism and Review. He has translated extensively from Telugu to English and English to Telugu. His poems, essays, short stories and novel-excerpts have also been carried in Kohinoor, Re-Markings, Indian Book Chronicle, Academy of Indo-Asian Lit on the Internet and online journals.

Vandana Kumari Jena (b. 1955) is an IAS officer by profession and a writer by inclination. Currently she is Principal Adviser, Planning Commission, New Delhi. She has published over 250 middles in leading newspapers. Her short stories have appeared in over fifteen anthologies. Her novel “The Dance of Death,” was published in 2008 by HarAnand Publications. Her four upcoming literary projects are two collections of short story and two novels.

Vasuprada Kartic (b. 1969) is a holistic councellor, psychotherapist, Healer and a volunteer, working towards the prevention of disabilities and maitenance of mental health. She is one of India’s first Anthroposophic Psychotherapists. She is a published poet in English, translating the language of human mind and its intricacies.

Vibha Batra is an advertising consultant, author, poet, lyricist, and columnist. Her published books include: Sweet Sixteen (Yeah, Right!), Seventeen and Done (You Bet!), both  Young Adult novels published by Penguin, Ishaavaasya Upanishad, a translation of her grandfather, Shri Vishnu Kant Shastri’s book, Tongue-in-cheek, a poetry collection, and A Twist of Lime, a collection of short stories.  She has written for various magazines and has contributed short stories and poems to several national and international anthologies.

Vihang A. Naik (b. 1969) is an Indian poet writing in English and translates poetry from Gujarati into English. His poems have appeared in Indian P.E.N., Indian Literature, Kavya Bharati, POESIS, The Brown Critique, Poetry Chain, The Journal of Indian Writing in English etc. He is the author of 03 volumes of poems in English and 01 in Gujarati Language. He now teaches English at Shree Ambaji Arts College, Ambaji in Gujarat, India since 1997. His literary info can be found at www.vihang.org  

Vinay Capila (b. 1943) has worked in various organizations and finally retired in 2010. He is now devoting his time to writing, and has published a collection of short stories and another one of poems in 2012. www.vinaycapila.org

Vinita Agrawal (b. 1965) is a writer and poet based in Mumbai. She has been published in Mandala, Asiancha, Fox chase review, Golden sparrow literary review, Spark, Constellations, Brown critique, Kritya, Touch-the journal of healing, Poetry24 etc and in several national and international anthologies.

Vitasta Raina (b. 1981) is a Delhi based Architect-Urban Planner and artist. She is author of the novella “Writer’s Block” published by International Authors, Brookline, Mass. Her poetry has also been published in Indian Literature by the Sahitya Akademi in 2008 and 2012; and in Emanations: an anthology of literature (Vol 1 and 2) by International Authors. Her book of Poetry titled “Someday Dream” is currently under publication by the Sahitya Akademi.

Vivek Narayanan is the author of two volumes of poetry. His work has been included in several recent anthologies like 60 Indian Poets (Penguin), The HarperCollins Book of English Poetry, The Bloodaxe Book of Contemporary Indian Poetry and Language for a New Century: Contemporary Poetry from the Middle East, Asia, and Beyond (W.W. Norton). His poems have appeared in various journals like Graham House Review, Poesis, New Quest, The Little Magazine, Franks Casket, Harvard Review, Rattapallax, Indian Literature, Agni, etc. He is co-editor for the journal Almost Island and has also been an Associate Editor for the poetry annual Fulcrum.

Yasmin Sawhney  started writing at age of  56 and now she is 70 yrs old  with 85% visual impairment due to a degenerative eye  condition and housebound for last 17-16 years. Her first book ‘As the soul flies” published by Writer’s Workshop and in 2006 it was selected by Sage Publishers as part of Commonwealth Literature 2006. She is bi-lingual, English and Hindi, and translates both ways.  As a painter-poet she also exhibits her paintings to give them another dimension. Having lost her young son and her husband to two different freak accidents, some poems have that background. She can be accessed at her website www.yasminsawhney.com