LitFest-2023

Preethi Urs
Festival Director

Preethi Urs is originally from Bengaluru and is now a proud New Yorker. She credits these two cities for birthing and nurturing her love for literature and the arts. She started her career in public relations where she helped international companies connect with their American counterparts. ... After completing an MS in education from Bank Street College of Education, she taught kindergarten and first grade. She and her husband live in Manhattan, where their two children were born and raised.

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Jennifer Acker

Jennifer Acker is founder and editor in chief of The Common, and author of the debut novel The Limits of the World. Her short stories, essays, translations, and reviews have appeared in Amazon Original Stories,... Washington Post, Literary Hub, n+1, The Yale Review, and Ploughshares, among other places. Acker has an MFA from the Bennington Writing Seminars and teaches writing and editing at Amherst College, where she directs the Literary Publishing Internship and organizes LitFest. She lives in western Massachusetts with her husband.jenniferacker.com

Dr. Ravi Shankar

Pushcart prize winning poet, translator and professor Ravi Shankar has published, edited or has forthcoming over fifteen books, including the Muse India award-winning translations of 9th century Tamil poet/saint, Andal, 'The Autobiography of a Goddess' (Zubaan/University of Chicago), 'The Golden Shovel: New Poems Honoring Gwendolyn Brooks" (University of Arkansas) and 'The Many Uses of Mint: New and Selected Poems 1997-2017' (Recent Works Press).... Along with Tina Chang and Nathalie Handal, he co-edited W.W. Norton's "Language for a New Century: Contemporary Poetry from the Middle East, Asia & Beyond" and he founded one of the world's oldest electronic journals of the arts, Drunken Boat. He has taught and performed around the world and currently holds a research fellowship from the University of Sydney. His collaborative chapbook, 'A Field Guide to Southern China' written with T.S. Eliot Prize winner George Szirtes was just published in the UK August 2019 by Eyewear Publishing.

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Professor Narayan Hegde

Professor Narayan Hegde is Emeritus Professor of English at SUNY College at Old Westbury, where he taught English, Indian, and World Literatures. As a Senior Fellow of the American Institute of Indian Studies, he has translated several works of Kannada literature, ... including Stallion of the Sun and Other Stories by U. R. Ananthamurthy, Annayya's Anthropology by A. K. Ramanujan, and a 19th-century drama, The Marriage Farce of Iggappa Hegade. He is a recipient of the Katha Translation Award. Translation of Avasthe, a Kannada novel by the eminent Indian author, U.R.Ananthamurthy, was recently published by HarperCollins India. He is currently part of a team translating the 15th century Kannada epic Kumaravyasa Bharatha for publication by Harvard University Press in its Murty Classical Library of India series.

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Professor S.N. Sridhar

Professor S.N. Sridhar is SUNY Distinguished Service Professor, Professor of Linguistics and India Studies, and Director of the Mattoo Center for India Studies at Stony Brook University, where he has been teaching since 1980.He graduated from Central College, Bangalore University, with a B.A. (Honors) and M.A. in English literature and linguistics with a first class and the first rank for the University. ... He did a Ph.D. in Linguistics with distinction from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.Professor S.N. Sridhar is an internationally recognized expert on multilingualism, Indian linguistics, World Englishes, and Kannada. His research concerns many areas, including: bilingualism (language contact and convergence); sociolinguistics of code-switching and code-mixing, language modernization, language spread; second language acquisition in non-native settings; Indian English and other World Englishes; reference grammar of Kannada (syntax, morphology, social dimensions); psycholinguistics (sentence production, code-mixing), applied linguistics (scope and relation to linguistic theory), historical linguistics (acquisition of subjecthood, contact-induced language change), and history of linguistics (Indian grammatical tradition). Currently, he is working on a monograph on multilingualism in India and another on the classic Kannada poet Kumara Vyasa and another on multilingualism in India. He heads an international consortium of scholars translating the Kannada classic Mahabharata by Kumaravyasa into English, to be published in three volumes in the Murthy Classical Library by Harvard University.

Professor S.N. Sridhar is author of three books: Kannada: Descriptive Grammar (Routledge, 1990 and Manohar 2001), Cognition and Sentence Production: A Cross-Linguistic Study (Springer Verlag, 1986), and India Kannada (Contemporary Kannada, Kannada University, 1995 and Abhinava, 2009); co-editor of two reference volumes ( Ananya: A Portrait of India (AIA, 1997), and Language in South Asia (Cambridge, 2008) and seven special issues of journals, and author of numerous peer-reviewed articles, book chapters, and encyclopedia entries.

Professor S.N. Sridhar’s research has been supported by the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of Education, and the American Institute of Indian Studies. He was designated Senior/Superior Scholar in the Humanities by the National Endowment for the Humanities. He has been a plenary or keynote speaker at many international conferences, including the Linguistic Society of India in 2013, and member of editorial board of journals, evaluator of publication projects and academic programs. He was conferred the select faculty rank of Distinguished Service Professor by the State University of New York in 2011. He is Vice-President and President Elect of the International Association of World Englishes.

Professor S.N. Sridhar is a co-founder of South Asian Languages Analysis (SALA) and organized its international conferences at Stony Brook in 1983 and 2004. He has also organized or co-organized conferences on Dravidian Linguistics, India Studies, the Teaching of Linguistics, and Teaching of Asian Languages.

Professor S.N. Sridhar is the founding Director of the Center for India Studies at Stony Brook, which has evolved over two decades into a national model of Indian American community-public university partnership in developing India Studies. He also served as the Founding Chair of the Department of Asian and Asian American Studies from 2002-2008.Professor S.N. Sridhar is also active in the community. He founded the India Society of Stony Brook in 1989 and served as its first President until 1994. He has also served as a member of the Board of Trustees of the Association of Indians in America and of the American Institute of Indian Studies and the Board of Governors of the Indo-American Arts Council, New York.He lives in Stony Brook with his wife and collaborator, Professor Kamal (Meena) Sridhar.

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Meena Kandasamy

Book Talk: The Book of Desire

Described by the Independent as a ‘one-woman, agit-prop literary-political movement’, Meena Kandasamy is a poet, writer, translator, anti-caste activist and academic based in India.

Her extensive corpus includes two poetry collections, Touch (2006) and Ms Militancy (2010), as well as three novels, The Gypsy Goddess (2014), When I Hit You (2017) and Exquisite Cadavers (2019). In 2022, she was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature (FRSL) and was also awarded the PEN Hermann Kesten Prize for her writing and work as a ‘fearless fighter for democracy, human rights and the free word.’ Her latest published work is The Book of Desire, a translation of the love poetry of Thirukkural.

In conversation with - moderator

Nimmi Gowrinathan

Nimmi Gowrinathan is an activist, writer, and scholar and founder of the Politics of Sexual Violence Initiative where she directs, Beyond Identity: A Gendered Platform for Scholar-Activists at the City College of New York, the Publisher of Adi Magazine, and the creator of the Female Fighter Series at Guernica Magazine. Her book, Radicalizing Her(Beacon Press 2021), examines the politics of the female fighter. Her political essays, which have appeared in Harper's Magazine, Freeman's Journal, McSweeney's Quarterly, Guernica Magazine, and Foreign Affairs, among others have been described as "searing in a search for answers" (Publisher's Weekly).

Sarah Thankam Mathews

Book Talk: All This Could Be Different

Sarah Thankam Mathews is the author of All This Could Be Different, which was shortlisted for the 2022 National Book Award in Fiction. It was also a New York Times Editor's Choice and named a Best Book of the Year by NPR, Vogue, Vulture, Los Angeles Times, TIME, Slate, and Buzzfeed.

Mathews grew up between Oman and India, immigrating to the United States at seventeen.

In conversation with - moderator

Mallika Rao

Mallika Rao is a writer of prose and fiction, born in Texas to immigrants from India. Her work spans a range of themes, with a focus on displacement and belonging. Her essays, profiles, podcast scripts and reportage have been recognized and honored by the LA Press Club, the Ambie Awards, Longreads, Pop Up Magazine, the Best of American series, and more. Her byline appears regularly at New York Magazine, The Believer Magazine, and other major publications. She is an adjunct assistant professor of creative writing at Columbia University's School of the Arts, and is currently at work on her first book, a collection of short stories.

Elizebeth Varghese

Book Talk: Stellar Singularity - Navigating the Space Faring Economy

Author Biography:
Elizebeth has over a decade of business and operational experience and managed significant P/Ls. She is a Principal and Co-Leader of the Cloud Enabled Workforce team at Deloitte. Elizebeth also leads Human Capital Services for the Space Sector. She is a Board Member of the Columbia Business School Women's Circle and the Co-Chair of the Innovation and Entrepreneurship committee. She is on the Council of Advisors for The SETI Institute, which works with NASA and other space agencies to explore, understand, and explain the origin and nature of life in the universe and the evolution of intelligence. Elizebeth is a bestselling author whose works include 'Stellar Singularity—Navigating the Spacefaring Economy', '[Block]Chain Reaction—The Future of How We Live and Work' and 'Significant Women: Leaders Reveal What Matters Most'. She is recognized as among the Top Experts and Inspirational Leaders of 2022 per The HR Gazette, and 'The Outstanding Asian Americans in Business' awardee in 2021. She was also recognized as among the Top Global Influencers of 2022 (and 2020) for HR Strategy and Analytics. Elizebeth has MBAs from both, the Columbia Business School, New York and the London Business School, UK. She also has a Master's in Management from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, and a Bachelors in Pharmaceutical Sciences from the University of Mumbai, India. She lives in NYC with her husband, two daughters, and their Yorkie—Chutney.
Reviews:
"This book is a must-read...it provides a great summary of historical and technological developments through to shifts in democratization, policy and value chain realization." —Steve Ramage, Chief Engagement Officer - Group on Earth Observations (GEO), Governing Board - Digital Earth Africa, Earth Observation Advisory Committee - UK Space Agency
"Elizebeth Varghese may not be the first space philosopher, but she certainly deserves the title. Stellar Singularity integrates the technological aspects of our expansion into space with imperatives for human behavior—particularly economic, diplomatic and ethical behavior." —Gordon Roesler, Ph.D., President, Robots in Space LLC, and former DARPA space robotics program manager
"A Grand Tour of the issues, options, promises, and challenges! Elizebeth touches every side of the multifaceted, and daunting, notion of a spacefaring economy. A fascinating read!" —Dan Geraci, President, Voyager Space Services, Chairman, The Planetary Society

A.C.Charania

As agency chief technologist, A.C.Charania serves as principal advisor to NASA’s administrator on technology policy and programs. He leads technology innovation at the agency and aligns NASA’s agencywide technology investments with mission needs across its six mission directorates.

Charania also oversees technology collaboration with other federal agencies and the private sector while coordinating with external stakeholders. He works within NASA’s Office of Technology, Policy, and Strategy (OTPS). He is an experienced leader in entrepreneurial space and aviation ventures. His private sector work includes projects under contract for NASA, the Air Force, and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). His experience spans multiple areas including launch vehicles, hypersonics, human/robotic exploration, lunar landers, planetary defense, small satellites, and aviation autonomy. He has previously served in positions at Reliable Robotics, Blue Origin, Virgin Galactic/Orbit, and SpaceWorks Enterprises. He received a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in aerospace engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology, and a bachelor’s in economics from Emory University.

In conversation with - moderator

Joya Dass

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Neerja Chowdhury

Book Talk: How Prime Ministers Decide

Neerja Chowdhury is an award-winning journalist, columnist, and political commentator. In the course of a distinguished career of over forty years, she was political editor of the Indian Express for ten years and covered the terms of eight prime ministers and ten Lok Sabha elections. She has won several prestigious awards for her journalism including the first Chameli Devi Jain Award for Outstanding Women Mediapersons (1981), the India Today–PUCL Journalism for Human Rights Award (1983), and the Prem Bhatia Award for Best Political Reporting (2009–10).
Reviews
‘Chowdhury seeks to share her knowledge gleaned over decades, of her subjects’ thought-paths, working methods and political instincts. And she does it with a raconteur’s aplomb combined with a chronicler’s punctiliousness.’ – Gopalkrishna Gandhi, The Hindu
‘Highlighting historic events like the Babri Masjid demolition and the nuclear deal with the U.S., the book offers a fresh perspective on India’s political landscape.’ – Times Now
‘Neerja Chowdhury's book revisits numerous incidents of the pre-Modi era, shedding light on aspects of the past that offer a perspective on the present times.’– NDTV.com

In conversation with - moderator

Suhel Seth

Suhel Seth is the Managing Partner of Counselage India Private Limited, which is a branding and marketing consultancy. He advises Chairpersons and CEOs across the globe.
He has been the principal brand advisor to MNCs who are either looking at entering India or are in India and facing headwinds either from a brand perspective or a corporate issue.
He has advised political campaigns across the world including the PM Campaigns for many Prime Ministers both in India and overseas.
He has sat on many Boards: he was on the Global Advisory Board of British Airways, on the boards of Coca Cola India; Samsung India; Reliance IMG; Reliance Jio Media and International Tractors to name a few.
He today sits on the boards of Reliance Brands Limited, Samsung and Reliance Rise.
He is the mentor to many start-ups across the world.
He is an author of three national best-sellers; a prolific actor both on stage and screen having acted in 167 plays and 8 films as also a well-known television commentator. He has over 4.7 million followers on Twitter. He regularly addresses Institutes of Management across the world as also Chambers of Commerce and business.
Suhel is the Chairman of the Branding Committee of India’s foremost business chamber CII for the year 2023-24. And is also a member of the CII National Council

Makarand R. Paranjape

Book Talk: Identity's Last Secret

Makarand R. Paranjape has been Professor of English at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, for over 22 years. Prior to that he taught at IIT-Delhi, the University of Hyderabad (Central University), and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champain, where he got his Masters and PhD in English. The author/editor of over 50 books, he has also published over 175 academic papers, and thousands of newspaper/periodical articles and op-eds. His recent publications include Identity’s Last Secret (BluOne Ink, 20220, JNU: Nationalism and India’s Uncivil War (Rupa, 2022), and Swami Vivekananda: Hinduism and India’s Road to Modernity (HarperCollins, 2020). He is currently a columnist in Open magazine, Gulf News, FirstPost, and The New Indian Express. Twitter: @makrandparanspe

In conversation with - moderator

Dr. Sthaneshwar Timalsina

Dr. Sthaneshwar Timalsina (Professor, Stony Brook University) completed his Master’s degree at Sampurnananda Sanskrit University, Benares, and received his Ph.D. from Martin Luther University, Germany. He works in the areas of Hindu and comparative philosophies and Tantric traditions. Before joining the Mattoo Chair of Indic Studies at Stony Brook, Timalsina has taught in San Diego State University, Washington University in St Louis, and University of California Santa Barbara. His areas of research include image and imagination, consciousness studies, time and memory, and cognition and concepts. He has authored five books and over eighty articles and book chapters. Recently, he has started Vimarsha Foundation and he offers free online courses on Kashmir Shaivism and other related subjects.

Raj Tawney

Book Talk: Colorful Palate

Raj Tawney is a writer and journalist whose work largely reflects his New York–area upbringing and sensibility. Raised in an Indian, Puerto Rican, and Italian-American household, Tawney has explored his own race and identity through stories published in The New York Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, USA Today, Smithsonian magazine, and many other outlets throughout the country. His debut memoir, Colorful Palate: A Flavorful Journey Through a Mixed American Experience, was released October 3, 2023 from Empire State Editions/Fordham University Press. He is currently working on a Middle Grade novel for Paw Prints Publishing/Baker & Taylor, due out fall 2024.

In conversation with - moderator

Dr. Nirmal Mattoo - IAAC Chairman

Dr. Nirmal K. Mattoo is the Chairman of the Indo American Arts Council. He is also the co-founder and owner of Atlantic Dialysis Management services, the largest private dialysis provider in New York State. Previously, he was the CEO of Wyckoff-Heights Medical Center and co-chairman of the Chief Medical Officer’s Council of the Columbia Presbyterian system. He is the President of the Mattoo Center of India Studies at State University of New York. He is also the Co Editor of the book Ananya. A Portrait of India.

Brinda Charry

Book Talk: The East Indian

Brinda Charry came to the United States from India as a graduate student in 1999 and has been living here since. She is a novelist-turned-academic-returned-novelist. A specialist in English Renaissance literature (Shakespeare and contemporaries), she has published numerous books and articles in that field. The East Indian is her first novel published in the United States. She currently lives in Keene, New Hampshire, with her husband and dog.

Geetika Rudra

Book Talk: Here to Stay

GEETIKA RUDRA is an amateur history buff with a deep love of American history. She is the daughter of Indian immigrants from Queens, New York. She studied creative writing and American studies at Columbia University, where she also got her masters at the Columbia Journalism School. She was a reporter for ABC News, based in New York covering criminal justice and race. She is now head of community product at Chief, a startup valued at 1.1 billion dollars, with the mission of increasing the number of female C-Suite executives. She is also the founder of www.craftabooks.com , a digital publishing service that creates custom and diverse children's books. Here to Stay: Uncovering South Asian American History is her first book. 
BLURBS AND AWARD:  "Here to Stay" by Geetika Rudra was selected by Min Jin Lee as a recommended read for Good Morning America's Book Club.
Reviews "Here to Stay reflects a great deal of primary source research that the author has conducted along with a compelling narrative that braids aspects of her life story into the historic narrative of America’s whiteness as well as the biographies of A.K. Mozumbar, Bhagat Singh Thind, Kala Bagai, and many other early Indian emigres. This book makes a strong contribution to South Asian American Studies scholarship." -- Himanee Gupta- Carlson ― author of Middletown and Asian America

In conversation with - moderator

Sayu Bhojwani

For over three decades, Sayu has activated change in nonprofit and government settings, founding and leading three organizations, and speaking and writing on how immigrants and women of color can shape the world we want to see. Born in India, and raised in Belize, she is a proud New Yorker who served as the City’s first Commissioner of Immigrant Affairs. For the 2023-2024 academic year, she is a Leader in Residence at the Moynihan Center at the the City University of New York.
Her career as a social entrepreneur began in the 1990s, when she started South Asian Youth Action (SAYA), the first organization in the United States specifically focused on supporting youth who trace their ancestry to the Indian subcontinent. In 2010, she founded New American Leaders to support first- and second-generation Americans to run, win and lead in public office. In 2021, she founded Women’s Democracy Lab (WDL), to support women of color and Indigenous women, post-election.
Sayu began her academic journey as an English major and remains passionate about reading and writing fiction. She holds a PhD in Politics and Education from Teachers College, Columbia University, is the author of People Like Us: The New Wave of Candidates Knocking at Democracy’s Door (New Press, 2018) and a TED speaker. She writes frequently on Medium, as No. 1 Immigrant Daughter and for national news outlets.
She serves on the board of directors for the Center for Fiction and the North Star Fund.

Teri Degler

Book Talk: Gopi Krishna--A Biography

Award-winning author Teri Degler has twelve books to her credit including The Fiery Muse: Creativity and the Spiritual Quest and The Divine Feminine Fire.A student of Sanskrit, Teri has spent many years researching the divine feminine known as Shakti, Sophia, and Shekinah in Hinduism, Christianity, and Jewish mysticism and the saints from these traditions.

Her books have been translated into French, German, and Italian, and her freelance writing on topics ranging from environmental issues to parenting have appeared in many publications in the US and Canada. Teri teaches workshops in those countries and has an MA from the University of New Mexico. Her latest book, Gopi Krishna—A Biography: Kundalini, Consciousness, and Our Evolution to Enlightenment has just been published by the Institute for Consciousness Research in Canada where she currently lives.
Gopi Krishna—A Biography: Kundalini, Consciousness, and Our Evolution to Enlightenment is a literary biography of the life of the renowned Kashmiri yogi and social justice leader Gopi Krishna. Because the author had access to Gopi Krishna’s lifelong correspondence and was able to interview members of his family and his distinguished supporters from India, Europe, the United States, and Canada, the biography contains never-before-told stories from his extraordinary life. Hailed by The Encyclopedia of Yoga and Tantra to have given the world the most comprehensive account of kundalini awakening ever written, Gopi Krishna was also a revolutionary thinker—even building a shelter for abused women and fighting for women’s rights decades before the rest of the world. From his fight for social justice to his own momentous spiritual awakening and his impassioned plea for scientific research into yoga's transformative power, his biography is not just a compelling, powerful story, it is a roadmap for living life to the fullest.
Reviews
“Gopi Krishna—A Biography is such an accomplishment. It is easy to read. It flows. It is packed with information, and it presents the best review of Gopi Krishna’s life there is. It portrays the importance of his life so well.” — Joan Shivapita Harrigan, PhD, author of Kundalini Vidya and Stories of Spiritual Transformation
“Gopi Krishna—A Biography is an inspiration. It offers us a vivid story of one human journey even as it reveals the heart and purpose of an extraordinary spiritual teacher. With meticulous care, Teri Degler puts this story in the context of the always changing local and global cultures, politics, and movements, and in this way offers us insight into how we are shaped by and are, at the same time, able to contribute to the collective dream. This book is an invitation to us all to dream awake for the sake of the planet.” — Oriah House, author of The Invitation, the Dance, and the Call
“I highly recommend this book! Degler’s work is both scholarly in its meticulous research on Gopi Krishna’s life and devotional in her respect for his accomplishments and teachings. Relying on his own best efforts to understand the directives of the innate power of the divine, known as kundalini in Tantra and yoga, he lived his life dedicated to making the world more aware of how this power radically transforms an individual, from their biology to their state of consciousness, as it hastens their evolution to enlightenment. Degler brings the reader’s attention to Gopi Krishna’s extraordinary poetry, writings, and lectures and to how he saw Kundalini as the evolutionary power we must draw on to literally save humanity from the dire circumstances we find ourselves in. Through this biography one can be inspired by the depth of his dedication to following this path and by the sacrifices he made to remain true to the Infinite while he lived fully engaged in the world.” — Lawrence Edwards, PhD, author of The Soul’s Journey: Guidance from the Divine Within, founder and director of Anam Cara Meditation
“I was captivated by the simple yet lucid manner in which this book has been written Degler can breathe easy in the knowledge that she has written Gopi Krishna’s biography exactly as it should beAnd ag ain I say: Bravo, bravissimo, three cheers. You've written a totally engaging account of the life and work of Gopi Krishna, and you've done it with a writing style and selection of facts which are perfectly suited to your audience. — John Warren , author of Kundalini, Evolution, and Enlightenment

In conversation with - moderator

Eddie Stern

Eddie Stern is a yoga teacher, author, and researcher based in New York City. He has a multi-disciplinary approach to yoga which includes studying traditional texts and combining the application of the practices contained within them to science, research, technology, and collaboration. He is involved in evidence-based research in the healing capacities of Yoga, recently completing a masters in science for yoga research. He has published several scientific papers and books, including the best-selling One Simple Thing, A New Look at the Science of Yoga and How it can Change Your Life. Eddie has been practicing yoga since 1987 and has spent the past 35 years traveling yearly from New York to study yoga, philosophy, ritual, and Sanskrit with his teachers in India. His upcoming book release is an Audible Original on breathing, due out in January, 2024.

Dr. Vandana Bhandari

Book Talk: India in Fashion

During the journey of over thirty five years as an academician Dr. Bhandari has worked as an educator, author, administrator with an active social engagement in the fashion and textile sector. She has held the position of Dean Academics at National Institute of Fashion Technology, (NIFT).

Published in journals and magazines Dr. Bhandari has authored and compiled books on Fashion and Textiles. She is currently a Design Advisor for the Export Promotion Council of Handicrafts. She also serves on the as Director on the Board of Textile Society of America. And on the board of Delhi Craft Council and Sadhna- A women’s enterprise in Rajasthan.

In conversation with - moderator

Prof. Preeti Gopinath

Prof. Preeti Gopinath is an internationally experienced designer, educator and philosopher based in New York. She is the founding Director of the acclaimed MFA Textiles program in the School of Fashion at Parsons School of Design. A graduate of the National Institute of Design (India), a researcher and a CAD expert with over 25 years of design experience in the textiles industry, Preeti is passionate about conscious design and sustainable innovation. Her textiles practice ranges from creative textile design to craft research and managing fabric development for several major textile companies in India, Canada and USA. She is also a Bharatanatyam dancer. As the founding Director of the MFA Textiles program at Parsons, Preeti is pioneering a novel pedagogical system that prepares global citizens to create meaningful and transformative textiles that address the pressing concerns of the 21st century. Supported by an exceptional team of faculty, Preeti’s students are creating groundbreaking, award-winning, hybrid textiles that integrate timeless philosophical principles with craft and technology, on the bedrock of sustainability, social justice, beauty and wellbeing.

Shobha Tharoor Srinivasan

Book Talk: Good Innings: The Extraordinary, Ordinary Life of Lily Tharoor.

Bio - Shobha Tharoor Srinivasan is an author of a dozen works of fiction and nonfiction and an award-winning voice-over artist who won the 68th National Film Awards, India for Best Narration Voice Over for the film Rhapsody of Rains- Monsoons of Kerala in 2022. She is also a former non-profit development professional who spent two decades as an advocate and fundraiser for persons with disabilities. Shobha has published children’s books in India and the United States, and has been recognized with awards for many of them. Her poetry book for children, It's Time to Rhyme won the prestigious Publishing Next Best Book of the Year Award (8+) in 2022. Shobha is a regular speaker on panels and a frequent guest at Literary festivals. She has been featured on radio and TV, profiled in magazines and one of her stories was dramatically performed by Silicon Valley Shakespeare, California. Her books have been included in school curricula in India. Good Innings, a tribute to her mother and to women everywhere has been translated into Malayalam. Shobha’s love of words and stories began in childhood with storytelling sessions and word-play with her siblings. When she is not traveling in search of stories, Shobha lives in Campbell, California, with her husband.

Vandana Saxena Poria

Book Talk: Let Me Hijack Your Mind Aloue Padamsee

Vandana Saxena Poria, the co-author of this book, is an OBE and top 100 UK-India influencer. She is known as the ‘Human Alarm Clock’, due to her disruptive thinking which ignites people into action.

She has lived across the world and built start-ups, including selling one to a listed company. Gleaning insights as a Chartered Accountant and systems thinker, she links them together as a master storyteller, to get people thinking differently. Vandana spent three years collaborating with Alyque on this book prior to his passing away. Vandana is based in India and works across Asia and Europe with blue chip corporates, entrepreneurs and street cleaners.

In conversation with - moderator

Ritesh Batra

Ritesh Batra (born 12 June 1979) is an Indian film director and screenwriter.
Batra's Hindi-language debut feature film The Lunchbox premiered at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival and won the Rail d’Or (Grand Golden Rail).
Batra also won the Toronto Film Critics Association Award for Best First Feature Film in 2014. The Lunchbox was the highest-grossing foreign film in North America, Europe and Australia for 2014 grossing over US$25 Million.
The film was also nominated for a BAFTA Award for Best Film Not in the English Language in 2015.
He then directed the English-language film The Sense of an Ending (2017), an adaptation of Julian Barnes’ Booker Prize-winning novel. 2017 also saw the release of Batra's Our Souls at Night on Netflix. Batra's latest film is Photograph, released in 2019.

Jai Chakrabarti

Book Talk: A Small Sacrifice For An Enormous Happiness

Author Bio
Jai Chakrabarti is the author of the novel A Play for the End of the World (Knopf ‘21), which won a National Jewish Book Award, was the Association of Jewish Libraries Honor Book, was short-listed for the Tagore Prize, and was long-listed for the PEN/Faulkner Award. He is also the author of the story collection A Small Sacrifice for an Enormous Happiness (Knopf ‘23), which was a Good Housekeeping Book of the Month and which was recommended by the New Yorker and the NYT. His short fiction has appeared in Ploughshares, One Story, Electric Literature, A Public Space, Conjunctions, and elsewhere and has been anthologized in The O. Henry Prize Stories, The Best American Short Stories, and awarded a Pushcart Prize and also performed on Selected Shorts by Symphony Space. His nonfiction has been published in The Wall Street Journal, Fast Company, Writer’s Digest, Berfrois, LitHub, and elsewhere. He was an Emerging Writer Fellow with A Public Space and received an MFA in Creative Writing from Brooklyn College and is a trained computer scientist. Born in Kolkata, India, he now lives in New York with his family.
Reviews
“Jai Chakrabarti is an elegant writer with clarity of vision and greatness of heart. His new book expands the world in some mys- terious way.” —Luis Alberto Urrea, Pulitzer Prize finalist and author of The House of Broken Angels
“A Small Sacrifice for an Enormous Happiness is a gift. Through stories that capture the depths and expanse of love, longing, faith, and identity, Jai Chakrabarti brilliantly illuminates the moments— big and small—that define our shared humanity. Poignant, incan- descent, and unforgettable.” —Qian Julie Wang, New York Times best-selling author of Beautiful Country
“Jai Chakrabarti offers real magic with A Small Sacrifice for an Enormous Happiness, opening worlds upon worlds with each sen- tence.T o follow him is to succumb to the pure joy of disappearing into a book completely.” —Mira Jacob, author of Good Talk
“A Small Sacrifice for an Enormous Happiness is a tender, exqui- site blessing of a book, from an author whose compassion, wit and imagination feel as vast as the world itself. Whether in Brooklyn, Kolkata, upstate New York or elsewhere, these characters captured my heart and endure in my memory like loved ones.” —Mia Alvar, author of In the Country
“With a poet’s sense of compression and a wonderful feel for the catastrophic gaps that can open up between countries, people, and behaviors, Jai Chakrabarti’s A Small Sacrifice for an Enormous Happiness is essential reading for its title story alone. It is a mov- ing, immersive, timely collection about what we hear and don’t hear when we try to talk to one another.” —Jonathan Lee, author of High Dive and The Great Mistake
“I meant to read only the first story of Jai Chakrabarti’s master- ful collection, A Small Sacrifice for an Enormous Happiness, but the characters quickly swept me away. They linger and charm, find and refuse their happinesses, parent themselves and others in end- less, enigmatic ways. This is a collection that turns on breathtaking mettle and heart-rending delicacy. I can’t imagine a reader who wouldn’t find something precious in these pages.” —Marie-Helene Bertino, author of Parakeet and Safe as Houses

In conversation with - moderator

A.N. Phiroze

A.N. Phiroze is a graduate of the MFA program at Columbia University’s School of the Arts. Her writing has appeared in the New England Review, Guardian, Lit Hub, Poets & Writers, Wasafiri Magazine, Chicago Review of Books, and many more. Her debut novel, Mirror Made of Rain, was published by Unnamed Press in May 2022 and by HarperCollins India.

Dr. Balram Bhargav

Book Talk: GOING VIRAL - MAKING OF COVAXIN: THE INSIDE STORY

A global public health leader. Mission driven, results oriented health professional with more than 35 years of experience in leading medical research, strengthening health systems, health care innovation, managing pandemic preparedness and health care delivery in resource poor settings. As a global leader he has been in the forefront of south-south cooperation, promoting equity in access to health care, democratisation of scientific research and promoting public-private cooperation to bring new technologies and affordable innovative products into the health systems.
He has led India’s Department of Health Research as its Secretary and Director-General of the Indian Council of Medical Research. He is also a Professor of Cardiology at the All-India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi and serves as the Executive Director for Stanford India Biodesign Centre, School of International Biodesign (SiB). An extensively published scientist with more than 300 articles in peer reviewed journals and editor-in-chief of the British Medical Journal Innovations and of the Indian Journal of Medical Research.
His experience ranges from treating more than a quarter million patients, training and mentoring super specialised cardiologists to setting health care policies and standards and advising several Ministers of Health and Heads of Government. In recent years he has been at the forefront of managing several public health crises in India including covid-19 and brought Indian research in shaping contemporary global practice through vaccine development and describing role of plasma therapy. He has also received numerous international and national awards for his contributions to health and development and has delivered more than 50 orations across the globe. He has international experience of more than 6 years in USA, Europe and the Middle East.

Usha Uthup

Book Talk: The Swinging Singing Saree

Crossing boundaries through music. For over 50 years now Uthup has spread a message of love and unity, peace and harmony, tolerance and integrity, and happiness - through music. From discotheques to concerts across India and the World, she has addressed the youth about the values of music that makes us human. She lives as she believes, presenting even the most contemporary songs dressed in traditional attire projecting the fact that India is a true melting pot of world cultures with its own distinctive cultural identity.

Ambassador for traditional Indian values Born in 1947 Usha Uthup, or Didi as she is fondly called, comes from a traditional middle class South Indian family. Her career began in 1969 at Chennai nightclub called Nine Gems and she has recorded more than a hundred albums. She sings in Seventeen Indian languages and Eight Foreign languages. Usha has served as a role model for generations of young Indians and has been an unwavering ambassador for traditional Indian values. She has always worn a Sari (Kanjeevaram) fresh flowers in her hair, and her beaming smile has won her many fans.
I believe in music Usha Uthup's music has charmed generations of Indians, young and old. People smile, tap their feet, clap their hands, forget their worries when she performs. Usha&'s melody speaks a universal language and transcends religion, race, nationality and caste. She has given people in far flung cultures an unexpected image of an Indian woman: strong, independent, humorous, intelligent and loaded with talent.

Subhash Kak

Book Talk: The Idea Of India: Bharat as a Civilisation

Subhash Kak is Regents Professor at Oklahoma State University in Stillwater, USA and a Distinguished Academic Scholar at Chapman University. As a scientist he is best known for the theory that space is not quite 3-dimensional, but rather e-dimensional (e=2.718), and his discovery that ancient Indians were aware that the sun and the moon are about 108 times their respective diameters from the earth.

He is the author of thirty books that include Matter and Mind and The Architecture of Knowledge. He is currently a member of the Indian Prime Minister’s Science, Technology and Innovation Advisory Council (PM-STIAC).

In conversation with - moderator

Rakesh Kaul - IAAC Vice Chairman

Rakesh K Kaul is the author of the bestseller The Last Queen of Kashmir published by Harper Collins and the critically acclaimed Dawn The Warrior Princess of Kashmir published by Penguin India. He has had a distinguished business career as a CEO of major, publicly traded US corporations. He was a founding contributor to the first Chair of India Studies at the University of California, Berkeley and to the Center for the Advanced Study of India at University of Pennsylvania as also a contributor to the Mattoo Center for India Studies at State University of New York. He has an MBA from the University of Chicago where he was the Leon Carroll Marshall Fellow, an MS from Brown University and was a gold medalist from IIT Delhi. He was instrumental in the recovery from the German government of the stolen Tengapura Durga, the oldest continuously worshipped Durga in the world. A human rights activist for peace, he has written extensively for leading newspapers and magazines and been a keynote speaker on the history, politics, and culture of Kashmir and its civilizational connect with India and the world.

Ravi Shankar

Book Talk: Tallying The Hemispheres

DR. RAVI SHANKAR is a Pushcart prize-winning poet, translator and professor who has published 15 books, including The Many Uses of Mint: New and Selected Poems 1998-2017.

Along with Tina Chang and Nathalie Handal, he co-edited W.W. Norton's Language for a New Century: Contemporary Poetry from the Middle East, Asia & Beyond called "a beautiful achievement for world literature" by Nobel Laureate Nadine Gordimer. Called "a diaspara icon" by The Hindu, he has taught and performed around the world and appeared in print, radio and TV in such venues as The New York Times, NPR, BBC and the PBS Newshour. He has won awards to the Corporation of Yaddo and the MacDowell Colony, fellowships from the Rhode Island and Connecticut Counsel on the Arts, founded one of the oldest electronic journals of the arts Drunken Boat, is Chairman of the Asia Pacific Writers & Translators (APWT) and recently finished his PhD from the University of Sydney. He currently teaches creative writing at Tufts University and his memoir “Correctional” called "the work of an absolutely brilliant writer" was published by University of Wisconsin Press in 2022.

In conversation with - moderator

Susan Shapiro, Shobha

Susan Shapiro writes for the NY Times, Washington Post, WSJ, LA Times, NY Magazine, Salon, Elle, Oprah, Wired & New Yorker online. She's the bestselling author/coauthor of 18 books her family hates like Five Men Who Broke My Heart, Unhooked, The Bosnia List, The Forgiveness Tour and American Shield. An award-winning professor, she uses her writing/publishing guides the Book Bible and Byline Bible to teach her popular "instant gratification takes too long" courses at The New School, NYU, Columbia University and in private classes & seminars - now online.

Jose Thomas

Book Talk: By Choice: The Unconventional Story Of Jose Thomas

Mr. Jose Thomas: A Pioneering Leader With over half a century of in-depth experience in the seafood industry, Mr. Jose Thomas stands as a beacon of visionary leadership and unwavering dedication. He is the catalyst behind Choice Canning Co.’s groundbreaking introduction of IQF (Individual Quick Freezing) technology to India, setting a new benchmark in food processing innovation.

Throughout his illustrious career, Mr. Jose Thomas’s commitment to quality, sustainability, and continuous innovation has been indisputable. His influence has not been confined to just one sector; it has spanned across diverse fields, from the intricacies of sustainably processed shrimp to the vast expanses of real estate and construction.
Guided by strategic acumen, The Choice Group has transformed into a global powerhouse, marking its presence with offices around the globe. Under Mr. Thomas’s leadership, the conglomerate has successfully forayed into various sectors, including international-quality frozen meal kits, shipping, IT services and real estate. Further testifying to his multifaceted expertise, he has played an instrumental role in establishing world-class schools and a cutting-edge performing arts stage. Mr. Jose Thomas is more than just a business tycoon; he is an educator, a patron of the arts, and a relentless innovator. His legacy serves as an inspiration to many, embodying the true essence of leadership in an ever-evolving global landscape.

In conversation with - moderator

Sree Sreenivasan

ABOUT SREE:
Sree Sreenivasan is a NYC-based expert in digital communications. He is CEO and co-founder of Digimentors, a digital, social, events and training consultancy [ http://digimentors.group & brochure: http://bit.ly/digimentorsbrochurenew ]
He has served as Chief Digital Officer of New York City, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Columbia University (where he was a full-time professor of journalism for 20+ years).
Since 2022, he has served on the board of Nobel Prize Foundation Outreach. In 1994, he co-founded SAJA, the South Asian Journalists Association, and in 1999, ONA, the Online News Association.
In 2020, the President of Italy awarded Sree the knighthood of the Order of the Star of Italy for his role in promoting US-Italian relations.

John Guy

Book Talk: Tree and Serpent

John Guy is the Florence and Herbert Irving Curator of the Arts of South and Southeast Asia at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, an elected Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, London (since 2003), and of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (since 2016). He joined The Met in 2008, having formerly served as Senior Curator of South Asian art at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London for 24 years. He has worked on a number of archaeological excavations, including maritime sites, and served as an advisor to UNESCO on historical sites in Southeast Asia.
John has curated and co-curated numerous international art exhibitions, including Chola, Sacred Bronzes of Southern India (Royal Academy, 2006), Temple Sculpture of India: The Art of Devotion (Barcelona, 2007), Shipwrecked. Tang Treasures and Monsoon Winds (Freer-Sackler D.C., 2010), Wonder of the Age: Master Painters of India (Met, 2011), and served as an advisor and contributing author to many more, including Gods of Angkor. Khmer Bronzes from the National Museum of Cambodia, (Freer-Sackler D.C. 2010), The World of Kubilai Khan. The Art of Mongol China (Met, 2010) and Agents of Faith: Votive Giving in Time and Place (Bard Graduate Center, NY, 2018),
He has published widely, with numerous articles and book chapters to his credit. His major publications include Indian Art and Connoisseurship. Essays in honour of Douglas Barrett (ed., 1995), Woven Cargoes. Indian Textiles in the East (1997), Indian Temple Sculpture (2007), Interwoven Globe: Textile Trade 1500-1800 (2013), Lost Kingdoms: Hindu-Buddhist Sculpture of Early Southeast Asia (2014) and Art & Independence: Y.G. Srimati and the Indian Style (2019).
His current project is devoted to an exploration of the early Buddhist art of the Deccan, the subject of an international loan exhibition he has curated at The Met, in New York - which runs until November 13 - about which he will speak tonight.

POETRY

Beena Kamlani

Book Talk: Book Name

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Aanchal Malhotra

Book Talk: The Book of Everlasting Things

Author Aanchal Malhotra says, “The Book of Everlasting Things is a novel about two families – one of perfumers and the other of calligraphers – entwined in each others’ lives for nearly a century by way of friendship, artistry, memory, war, betrayal, guilt, longing, exile, and above all, love. Navigating battlefields and flower fields, olfactory and amorous impulses, it is a book guided by the senses.
Since the spring of 2017, this novel has consumed me; its characters often feeling more real than reality itself, its landscape built from borrowed, researched, and dreamt up terrains. Writing it has been a demanding yet infinitely rewarding process. HarperCollins India has always been the natural home for my non-fiction work, and I’m delighted that my debut novel has found a place on their prestigious list.”
ABOUT THE BOOK
LAHORE, 1938. Drawn by an intoxicating smell, Samir Vij first locks eyes with Firdaus Khan through the rows of perfume bottles in his family’s ittar shop in Anarkali Bazaar. Over the years that follow, the perfumer and the illuminator of manuscripts fall in love, their story written in dark and delicate ink. However, with the 1947 Partition and the birth of two independent nations, Samir, a Hindu, becomes Indian and Firdaus, a Muslim, becomes Pakistani. Bound by family and fate, torn between duty and desire, as the two lovers move farther away from one other, they must decide how much of their memories to hold on to. An assured debut novel from historian Aanchal Malhotra, The Book of Everlasting Things is both intimate and sweeping. A story spanning continents and generations, braiding the threads of the past to the future, here is a book which will linger in the reader’s mind like the notes of an unforgettable perfume.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Aanchal Malhotra is a writer and oral historian from New Delhi. She is the co-founder of the Museum of Material Memory, and the author of two critically acclaimed books, Remnants of a Separation and In the Language of Remembering, that explore the human history and generational impact of the 1947 Partition. The Book of Everlasting Things is her debut novel.
Reviews
‘Tender, compassionate, extravagantly inventive. A family epic that tells the spiritual biography of a nation. The research that went into this novel is visible on every page, and I am full of admiration for its attentiveness to the infinite minutiae of love.’ —Jeet Thayil, award-winning author of Narcopolis and The Book of Chocolate Saints
‘An immersive delight, The Book of Everlasting Things enlivens history and the senses equally. Utterly transporting, it evokes with charm and precision a bygone era, bursting from these pages with restored beauty. The book traverses more than a century with astonishing grace. Aanchal Malhotra has proven herself a detail-driven researcher and an empathetic historian, but this, her gorgeous, cinematic debut novel, stamps her place as a sublime storyteller.’ —Karuna Ezara Parikh, author of The Heart Asks Pleasure First and Where Stories Gather

Manreet Sodhi Someshwar

Book Talk: Hyderabad: Book 2 of The Partition Trilogy

Manreet Sodhi Someshwar is an award-winning and bestselling writer of eight books, including the Mehrunisa series, the critically-acclaimed The Long Walk Home and The Radiance of a Thousand Suns, 
and most recently, The Partition Trilogy. Hailed as 'a star on the literary horizon' by Khushwant Singh and garnering endorsements from Gulzar for two of her books, Manreet lives in New York City with her husband, daughter and cat.
About book:
Mir Osman Ali Khan, Asaf Jah VII, is the Nizam of Hyderabad, the largest Princely State of the Crown. It sits in the belly of newly independent India to which Jawaharlal Nehru and Vallabhbhai Patel want Hyderabad to accede. The Communists have concurrently mounted a state-wide rebellion. But the Nizam’s family has ruled Hyderabad for 200 years. As the wealthiest man in the world, whom the British consider numero uno amongst India’s princes, he will not deal with two-penny Indian politicians! An ancient prophecy, however, hangs over the Nizam – the Asaf Jahi dynasty will last only seven generations. So, he keeps his jewel-laden trucks ready for flight even as he schemes with his army of militant Razakars. Meanwhile, in the palace thick with intrigue, the maid Uzma must decide where her loyalties lie: with the peasantry or the Nizam. Among the Communist recruits, Jaabili finds love in unexpected quarters. Violence escalates and lawlessness mounts. Caught between a volatile Nizam and a resolute India, what price will Hyderabad pay?

In conversation with - moderator

Kamini Dandapani

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Oindrilla Mukherjee

Book Talk: The Dream Builders

Oindrila Mukherjee is the author of the novel The Dream Builders published earlier this year by Tin House Books in the US, Scribe Publications in Australia and the UK, and Harper Collins in India.

Her short work has appeared in Salon, Kenyon Review, the Oxford Anthology of Bengali Literature, LARB and elsewhere. She has been a regular contributor to the Indian magazine Scroll.in, where she created a book series called Bottom Shelf about lesser known or forgotten books with an Indian connection. She has a PhD in literature and creative writing from the University of Houston. She grew up in India and now lives in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where she is an Associate Professor of Writing at Grand Valley State University.
Reviews:
“Oindrila Mukherjee’s !e Dream Builders is such an impressive feat of storytelling, a novel that examines the constraints of class, of gender, of history, while showcasing the sheer expansiveness of the endeavor, skillfully shifting the point of view amongst a group of characters who each demand a claim on the story. It’s a marvel of a structure, built by a great talent.” —Kevin Wilson, bestselling author of Nothing to See Here
“The Dream Builders is a novel of epic proportions that follows Maneka Roy and those around her as they each ponder the power of forgiveness and learn none of them can wield that power without !rst forgiving the self. Oindrila Mukherjee allows full life for these characters who are often real enough to remind us of ourselves, even as they betray one another . . . even as they betray themselves. "is is a lovely debut.” —Jericho Brown, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of !e Tradition

Priya Malhotra

Book Talk: Woman of An Uncertain Age

Priya Malhotra has been a writer and journalist in New York for more than 20 years and has contributed to Newsday, Time Out New York, The Times of India, The Japan Times, Asian Art News, Cosmopolitan and News India Times.

She has a Master’s degree in journalism from Columbia University in New York City and a Bachelor’ s degree in English literature from Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio. Woman of An Uncertain Age is her debut novel.
She is represented by Jennifer Lyons of Jennifer Lyons Literary Agency whose clients include luminaries such as Jesmyn Ward who made history by becoming the first woman and African-American to win the National Book Award for fiction twice. The agency also represents the estates of Gabriela Mistral, the late Chilean Poet and first Latin American to win the Nobel Prize for literature, and Oscar Hijuelos, the late Cuban-American novelist and first Hispanic writer to win the Pulitzer Prize for fiction.
Reviews:
"Debut author Malhotra investigates the difficulty of dating as a widow, shifting cultural attitudes toward modern courtship, and the complexities of parenting adult children. Fans of Marian Keyes, Kelly Harms, and Amy Sue Nathan will appreciate how Malhotra contrasts the corrosive qualities of shame with the power of forgiveness and acceptance."--Booklist
"In her debut novel, India-born, New York—based journalist Malhotra vividly portrays aspects of Indian immigrant life in the United States." — Library Journal
"With a poet's sense of lyricism, a painter's sense of color, and a novelist's sense of story, Priya Malhotra pushes her language to ever greater heights, teetering at the edge, but always pulling back in time. To me, A Woman of an Uncertain Age is about loneliness and longing, about acceptance and understanding, about the strangeness of existence, especially for Naina, who grew up in India but now lives in New York, all caught in an intoxicating range of metaphors, yet told with an honesty that cuts to the bone." — Birgitta Hjalmarson, author of Fylgia and Artful Players: Artistic Life in Early San Francisco

In conversation with - moderator

Makarand R. Paranjape

Makarand R. Paranjape has been Professor of English at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, for over 22 years. Prior to that he taught at IIT-Delhi, the University of Hyderabad (Central University), and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champain, where he got his Masters and PhD in English. The author/editor of over 50 books, he has also published over 175 academic papers, and thousands of newspaper/periodical articles and op-eds. His recent publications include Identity’s Last Secret (BluOne Ink, 20220, JNU: Nationalism and India’s Uncivil War (Rupa, 2022), and Swami Vivekananda: Hinduism and India’s Road to Modernity (HarperCollins, 2020). He is currently a columnist in Open magazine, Gulf News, FirstPost, and The New Indian Express. Twitter: @makrandparanspe

Vaseem Khan

Book Talk: Death Of a Lesser God

Vaseem Khan is the author of two crime series set in India: the Baby Ganesh Agency series, and the Malabar House historical crime novels

His first book, The Unexpected Inheritance of Inspector Chopra was a Times bestseller and has been translated into 16 languages. Midnight at Malabar House won the CWA Historical Fiction Dagger in 2021 and was shortlisted for the Theakston's Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year. Vaseem was born in London, but spent a decade working in India as a management consultant.

In conversation with - moderator

Nev March

Nev March is the first Indian-born author to receive the Minotaur Books/Mystery Writers of America Award for Best First Crime Fiction. Her debut novel, Murder in Old Bombay also won an Audiofile award and was a finalist for six national awards including the Edgar and Anthony. Her sequel Peril at the Exposition describes the gilded age which planted the seeds of today's red-blue divide. Her third book The Spanish Diplomat’s Secret traces the origins of the Spanish American war over Cuba from the perspective of her immigrant detective duo.
Nev’s books deal with issues of identity, race and moral boundaries. Murder in Old Bombay was selected as an Amazon’s Editor’s Pick. The New York Times listed it as one of the “Best crime novels of 2020”. Nev has appeared on NPR, and written for Mystery Tribune, Mystery Scene Magazine, CrimeReads, BookPage, DearReader, The History Reader, FEZANA Journal, Parsiana, and other publications.
After a long corporate career, Nev returned to her passion—writing fiction, and teaches creative writing at the Rutgers-Osher Institute. She is a member of Crime Writers of Color and sits on the NY chapter board of Mystery Writers of America. She is also Vice President of her local Zoroastrian Association.

Maulik Pancholy

Book Talk: Nikhil Out Loud

Maulik Pancholy is an award-winning actor, author and activist. He is best known for his comedic turns on television playing Jonathan on NBC’s Emmy®, Golden Globe, and SAG award-winning NBC comedy “30 Rock.”

He played Sanjay on Showtime’s hit series Weeds, and starred as Neal on the NBC comedy Whitney. He is the voice of Baljeet on Disney’s Emmy-Award winning Phineas and Ferb and the title voice of Sanjay on Nickelodeon’s Sanjay and Craig. For his work on television, he has been nominated for and won the Screen Actors Guild award on multiple occasions. On Broadway, Pancholy starred alongside James Cromwell and Jane Alexander in the Tony-nominated production of Grand Horizons and opposite Matthew Broderick and Martin Short in Terrence McNally’s It’s Only A Play. Pancholy’s debut novel, The Best at It (Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins) was named a 2020 Stonewall Honor Book, a 2019 Junior Library Guild Selection, and a Chicago Public Library Best of the Best Books. It was sold into development for television with Pancholy set to Executive Produce and co-write. His second novel, Nikhil Out Loud (Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins) was named a 2023 Lambda Literary Award Winner and a Kirkus Best Book of 2022. Pancholy is currently creating, executive producing and writing a fictional, scripted podcast for Broadway Video. It’s a murder mystery set at an Indian-American, family-owned motel. A longtime advocate for the Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) and LGBTQIA+ communities, Pancholy was appointed by President Barack Obama to serve on the President’s Advisory Commission on AAPIs. As a Commissioner, he helped launch the anti-bullying campaign ActToChange.org, an organization which he continues to chair today. Act To Change is now a national nonprofit dedicated to ending bullying for AAPI youth and fostering a world where all young people can celebrate their identities.

Shastri Akella

Book Talk: The Sea Elephants

Shastri Akella's debut novel 'The Sea Elephants' has been published by Flatiron Books (North America) and Penguin (India). He was a writing resident at the Fine Arts Works Center (2021) and the Oak Springs Garden Foundation(2023). His writing has appeared in Guernica, Fairy Tale Review, CRAFT, The Masters Review, Electric Literature, World Literature Review, The Rumpus, and elsewhere. He earned an MFA in Creative Writing and PhD. in Comparative Literature at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. He's an Assistant Professor of Creative Writing at Michigan State University.

Translation of the love poetry of Thirukkural.Shastri Akella is a queer migrant of color whose debut novel, 'The Sea Elephants', has been published by Flatiron Books (USA, Canada) and Penguin (India). He was a writing resident at the Fine Arts Works Center (2021) and the Oak Springs Garden Foundation (2023). He's winner of 2022 FracturedLit Flash Fiction Contest and the 2023 Best Microfiction Contest. His writing has appeared in Guernica, Fairy Tale Review, CRAFT, The Masters Review, Electric Literature, World Literature Review, The Rumpus, and elsewhere. He earned an MFA in Creative Writing and PhD. in Comparative Literature at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. He's an Assistant Professor of Creative Writing at Michigan State University. He divides his time between Vizag in India and East Lansing in the US.
About book:
After the sudden deaths of his beloved sisters, Shagun flees his own guilt, his mother's grief, and his father's violent disapproval by enrolling at an all-boys boarding school. But he doesn't find belonging until he encounters a traveling theater troupe performing the Hindu myths of his childhood. Welcomed by the other storytellers, Shagun thrives, embodying mortals and gods, men and women, and living on the road, where his father can't catch him. When Shagun meets Marc, a Jewish-American photographer, he finds the love, too. But not even Marc can save him from his lingering shame and from his father's ever-present threat to send him to a conversion center. As Shagun's past begins to engulf him once again, he must decide if he's strong enough to face what he fears most and claim his own happiness. 'The Sea Elephants' exposes the adversities that many queer South Asians are familiar with. But it's also a celebration of queer resilience, found family, and hard-won love—of others and for ourselves.
Reviews:
A Most Anticipated Book (GMA, Poets & Writers, BookRiot, Lambda Literary, Electric Literature, LGBTQ Reads, Debutiful, Virtuoso Magazine, San Antonio Magazine) "[A] poised, elegant debut. A story about queer desire, the comfortable lies families tell themselves to survive, and art's power. While there is a rich, stories tradition of queerness in South Asian art, culture, and mythology, queer literature is still a relatively sparse canon. This makes Akella's novel, and his voice, all the more important." --Poets & Writers
"Momentous. The most moving, frustrating and alluring part of The Sea Elephants is Shagun himself Akella uses myth as the framework for The Sea Elephants, which allows Shagun's story to feel ancient and sacred." --BookPage

In conversation with - moderator

Jennifer Acker

Jennifer Acker is founder and editor in chief of The Common, and author of the debut novel The Limits of the World. Her short stories, essays, translations, and reviews have appeared in Amazon Original Stories, Washington Post, Literary Hub, n+1, The Yale Review, and Ploughshares, among other places. Acker has an MFA from the Bennington Writing Seminars and teaches writing and editing at Amherst College, where she directs the Literary Publishing Internship and organizes LitFest. She lives in western Massachusetts with her husband.

Chandrika Tandon

Book Talk: Ammu's Treasures

Chandrika Tandon is a globally recognized business leader, Grammynominated artist, and humanitarian. Her stated mission is to elevate human happiness through music and education.
As The New York Times wrote, Chandrika traveled an “unlikely path to become an internationally recognized Indian singer.” Under her non-profit music label, Soul Chants Music, she has released five albums, including the Grammy-nominated Soul Call. Chandrika’s newest album, Ammu’s Treasures, is both a simple gift to her grandchildren and an expression of intergenerational love. It is a hug for the world, using songs in multiple languages, Vedic Sanskrit chants, and visual animations to help all ages, especially young children, feel the love, light, laughter that is Chandrika’s mantra. She has conducted numerous benefit concerts on world stages to sold-out audiences, including the Kennedy Center, Lincoln Center, and Berlin’s Olympiastadion.
Chandrika’s other great passion focuses on higher education, in particular STEM. She chairs the Board of the NYU Tandon School of Engineering, named after her family’s generous gift. Chandrika is a Trustee of New York University, a Trustee of NYU Langone Health, a Board member of the NYU Stern School of Business, and Chair of NYU’s Global Council. She is a Harold Acton Fellow at NYU and a Sterling Fellow at Yale, where she serves on the President’s Council on International Activities. In addition, her foundation has established faculty Chairs at Yale and Harvard Universities.
She was one of the earliest women partners of McKinsey & Company and is the founder of Tandon Capital Associates, which focuses on measurable transformation of institutions to excellence. Chandrika has worked with over 40 companies globally, on projects involving major financial and operational restructuring, global and domestic strategy, organizational redesign, core process/performance improvement, and broad-based culture change. She is the Director of the Krishnamurthy Tandon Foundation, a non-profit private foundation that supports education, the arts, and wellness.
Chandrika has received several awards including the Gallatin Medal, NYU’s highest honor, the Walter Nichols Medal for leadership and integrity, and the Polytechnic Medal recognizing her contribution to science and engineering. She was inducted into the Horatio Alger Society of Distinguished Americans and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (AMACAD), and has received the Ellis Island Medal of Honor. She has been profiled in print, on radio, and television, including in CNBC’s The Brave Ones series.

In conversation with - moderator

Melay Araya

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Arjun Raina

Book Talk: The Teaching of Kathakali in Australia

Arjun Raina was trained as an actor at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art and as a Kathakali dancer at the International Centre for Kathakali, New Delhi, India. He has been performing and teaching drama and theatre for over 30 years. Arjun holds a Ph.D. in theatre and performance from Flinders University, Adelaide, Australia, and has taught at the National School of Drama, New Delhi and at the Ambedkar and Ashoka Universities in India. His published works include Mirroring the Master:Teaching Kathakali in Australia by Routledge U.K, Speakright for a Call Center Job Penguin India, The Eye of Childhood and 9 Contemporary plays Zorba New Delhi.

In conversation with - moderator

Dr. Nirmal Mattoo - IAAC Chairman

Dr. Nirmal K. Mattoo is the Chairman of the Indo American Arts Council. He is also the co-founder and owner of Atlantic Dialysis Management services, the largest private dialysis provider in New York State. Previously, he was the CEO of Wyckoff-Heights Medical Center and co-chairman of the Chief Medical Officer’s Council of the Columbia Presbyterian system. He is the President of the Mattoo Center of India Studies at State University of New York. He is also the Co Editor of the book Ananya. A Portrait of India.

Anu Singh Choudhary

Book Talk: Bhali Ladkiyan, Buri Ladkiyan (Hindi)

Anu Singh Choudhary is one of the few truly bilingual and multi-medium writers. Her two-decade long experience as a bestselling author, documentary filmmaker, award-winning journalist and now an award-winning screenwriter make her stories an authentic chronicle of the zeitgeist.
As a Screenwriter, Anu has co-written Emmy-nominated ‘Aarya’ Season 1, 2 & 3; ‘Grahan’ for Disney+Hotstar (for which she received the SWA Awards for best story adaptation) and 'Scoop' for Netflix, all top-notch shows nominated and winners of various awards. Anu has also written the adaptation of the critically acclaimed ‘The Great Indian Kitchen’ for a national audience, and has written Additional Screenplay and Dialogues for ‘Happy Teachers Day’ - both films slated for a late 2023 release. As the Co-Founder of Dopamine Media, Anu has co-produced 'Alma Matters: Inside the IIT Dream' (a 3-part docu-series on Netflix) and has written and directed 'The Good Girl Show', a 5-part mini-series for YouTube.
Anu was awarded the Ramnath Goenka Award for Excellence in Journalism in 2013 and the LAADLI Media and Advertising Award in 2012 for her reportages from rural India. She started her career as a Journalist with NDTV, and has been a Consultant/Faculty with the Star Writers Program run by Star India. A 2015 Sangam House Fellow, Anu was the Writer-in-Residence from India at the Art Omi Residency, New York, for the Autumn Session of 2018. As a passionate and tireless champion of adaptations across mediums and formats, Anu has been the juror for the Sir Peter Ustinov Screenwriting Award at the International Emmys in 2022 and 2023. Author of three bestselling books and award winning translator of over 20 bestselling titles, Anu’s columns - often on the lives and times of Indian women - have appeared in leading publications such as Outlook, Scroll, The Wire, First Post, Rajasthan Patrika, Gaon Connection and Satyagrah. She is currently working on her next novel and is also working on a film script she will be directing and co-producing in 2024.

In conversation with - moderator

Manreet Sodhi Someshwar

Manreet Sodhi Someshwar is an award-winning and bestselling writer of eight books, including the Mehrunisa series, the critically-acclaimed The Long Walk Home and The Radiance of a Thousand Suns, and most recently, The Partition Trilogy. Hailed as 'a star on the literary horizon' by Khushwant Singh and garnering endorsements from Gulzar for two of her books, Manreet lives in New York City with her husband, daughter and cat.

Julia Regul Singh

Book Talk: My Cousin Max

Julia Regul Singh is the author of Boris the Bench (Urban Crayon Press, 2010), a children’s book for all ages. Leap of Faith is Julia’s first fiction novel (Rupa Publications, 2015). Julia wrote her second children’s story, My Cousin Max, which combines her passion for writing for young readers and promoting multi-cultural and cross-cultural understanding and acceptance. For the last two years, Julia has joined forces with her friend and fellow writer, Tina Huskins Chadha to compile stories of fellow ‘foreign bahus’ (daughter in laws) living in India – working title “The Foreign Bahu Project.”

Before turning her hand to writing, Julia worked as an Urban Planner and Urban Designer in New York City. She holds a bachelor degree of geography from the University of Bayreuth (Germany) and a master degree of urban planning and urban design from the Technical University Hamburg-Harburg (Germany). She attended Columbia University as part of her masters on a scholarship from the German government (DAAD - Deutscher Akademischer Austausch Dienst).

Julia and her family have split their time between New York, New Delhi and Bielefeld over the last 15 years. She loves bringing up her three children Punjabi style, with a German twist and a New York attitude.

Ravina Aggarwal

Book Talk: Searching For The Songbird

Ravina Aggarwal is an anthropologist who has written extensively about the Himalayas. Her publications include Beyond Lines of Control: Performing the Border in Ladakh, India and two edited volumes, Into the High Ranges: The Penguin Book of Mountain Writing and Forsaking Paradise: Short Stories from Lakakh.

She was a tenured professor at Smith College, Massachusetts, and has worked for the Ford Foundation in New Delhi, before assuming her current position as the director of Columbia University’s Global Center in India.

In conversation with - moderator

Priya Kumari

Priya Kumari is a multi-award-winning children’s author and the founder of Eternal Tree Books, which publishes uplifting books to share stories from Indian and other Asian cultures. Celebrated personalities like HH Dalai Lama, Hema Malini, Anupam Kher, Sharon Salzberg, and Prof Ved Nanda have praised her books. She is also a certified public accountant and lives in New Jersey with her husband and their two sons.