Creating classics: Kayva Gokhale, creator at Amar Chitra Katha

kayva gokhale interview amar chitra katha

Kayva Gokhale the junior sub-editor at the iconinc Amar Chitra Katha, is going to be at the Bookaroo Children’s Festival 2022 to be held in Vadodara from 19th to 20th November 2022. Her sessions include one on scripting for comics and another on fantastic folktales. Excerpts from an interview with the creator. Let’s talk a […]

Introducing reading to children with Vaishali Shroff

vaishali shroff feature

Vaishali Shroff is an award-winning children’s author, script writer, and columnist based in Mumbai. Her popular works include The Adventures of Padma and a Blue Dinosaur, Raindrops, Ari, The Missing Bat, The Strange Case of Nayantara, The Boy in the Dark Hole, There’s a Leopard in My House, among others.  She will be participating at […]

Finding wonder in the everyday: Mala Kumar on writing for children

childrens author mala kumar

Mala Kumar is the author of over 40 picturebooks for children including Up the Mountains of India, Crazy Mazy Maths Puzzles, I Want that One, Paper Play, Happy Maths series, Rupaiya Paisa Series, Sir M Visvesvaraya: The Man Who Built Dams, Bridges and a Nation, among many others. She will be attending the Bookaroo Children’s […]

Can food stories speak to the concerns of our time? Yamini Vijayan answers

photo of yamini vijayan, a woman, holding a book. She is the editor of the food stories venture, The Locavore

Prakruti spoke to Yamini Vijayan, editor of The Locavore, about what editing food stories has taught her, her favourite books on food and otherwise, switching between writing and editing, and more. Excerpts from an email interview. You are a storyteller first – how did you come to work with The Locavore? What has your relationship […]

On art exhibitions, food writing and everything in between: Tanya Abraham

screenshot of instagram about art exhibitions

Art education, curating art exhibitions, journalism, teaching, food – what came first to Tanya? Does your engagement with each of these arts feed (pun intended!) into each other? If yes, how so?  Tanya Abraham: I started writing for local newspapers as a young mother and went into serious journalism a few years later. Enroute I […]

Need to bring out the othering of north-east India: Dr. Moushumi Kandali

interview with Dr. Moushumi Kandali, author from north-east India

Purple Pencil Project spoke to the author of Black Magic Women, Dr. Moushumi Kandali about how she brought the collection together, perceptions of north-east India, her interest in art, the books that inspired her, and more. Excerpts. How did The Black Magic Women originate? Was it something you read, heard, or saw, that made you […]

Literary Awards in India 2022

literature award winning books

Literary awards in India are not limited to Sahitya Akademi Awards or JCB Literary Prize. For even though they are prestigious honours, regional languages often go unrecognised and authors are left unknown to the majority of the population. Here’s a list of lesser-known but distinguished literary awards honouring long-standing literary icons of Tamil, Telegu, Malayalam, […]

The Stars are His Bones: A photography-haiku book you cannot miss

feature image for an interview with haiku writer Gabriel Rosenstock and photographer Debiprasad Mukherjee

Haiku inspired by the Upanishads, photographs that capture Calcutta. One written by an Irish poet in Irish and English, one clicked by an Indian photographer. Seemingly disconnected dots are joined beautifully by Irish poet Gabriel Rosenstock and Kolkata-based photographer Debiprasad Mukherjee, whose latest collaboration, The Stars are His Bones, a photography-haiku collection that takes the […]

Capturing the essence of Mumbai city with Anju Makhija

mumbai traps author anju makhija

Prakruti Maniar caught up with Sahitya-Akademi-winning author Anju Makhija, whose Mumbai Traps is a collection of plays, which help us “experience Mumbai, where glamour, greed, communalism, social and surreal situations depict life in a state of perpetual restlessness.” Excerpts. How did Mumbai Traps come about? Why did you decide that it should be a play […]

Kanishka Gupta, founder of one of the best literary agencies in India

kanishkagupta_literaryagentinindia

P3’s Prakruti Maniar caught up with Kanishka Gupta, founder of one of the best literary agencies in India, Writer’s Side. The agent, who represents Daisy Rockwell, translator of Geentajali Shree’s Ret Samadhi (Tomb of Sand) which won the International Booker Prize this year, was at the Jaipur Literature Festival 2022. Excerpts.  How is it to […]