Guest Speakers

Meet the minds behind the magic

USA

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Esther Allen

(New York)
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Geoffrey Brock

(Arkansas)
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Kareem James-Abu Zeid

(Santa Fe)
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Padma Viswanathan

(Arkansas)
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Perundevi Srinivasan

(Loudonville)
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Peter Constantine

(New York)
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Rohan Kamicheril

(New York)
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Thomas Hitoshi Pruiksma

(Seattle)
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Vivek Narayanan

(Fiarfax)

Canada

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Janika Oza

(Toronto)
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Kalam Selvam

(Toronto)

UK

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Giridharan Rajagopalan

(London)

Malaysia

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Navin Monogaram

singapore

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Azhagunila Panchaksharam

Switzerland

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Sayanthan

(Kathiresampillai Sayenthiran)

India

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Ajithan Jayamohan

(Chennai)
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Chandra Thangaraj

(Virudhunagar)
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Chaidhanya Jayamohan

(Chennai)
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Elangovan Balakrishnan

(Coimbatore)
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Gopalakrishnan Murugesan

(Coimbatore)
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Kalyana Raman Natarajan

(Chennai)
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Kalaiselvi Lakshmanan Subramanian

(Trichy)
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Lakshmi Saravanakumar

(Raja Saravanakumar)
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G.S.S.V. Navin

(Coimbatore)
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Pavannan

(Baskaran Balaraman)
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Priyamvada Ramkumar

(Chennai)
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Ramya Raja Kumar

(Chennai)
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Samraj Rathinam

(Chennai)
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Saravanakarthikeyan Chinnadurai

(Bangalore)
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Senthilkumar Subramanian

(Madurai)
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Senthilnathan Jeganathan

(Chennai)
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Suneel Krishnan

(Chennai)
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Tamizh Prabha

(Prabakaran Pushparaj)
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Thirusenthalai Balasubramanian

(Madurai)
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Vennila Ambalavanan

(Chennai)
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Veyyil

(Veilmuthu Perumal)
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Venugopal Surulivel

(Coimbatore)
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Yuvan Chandrasekar

(Chandrasekaran Ramanathan)

We're thrilled to welcome you to our event! Join us on Apr 3rd and 4th at New York for Living Tamil LitFest 2026.

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Esther Allen
(New York, USA)

Esther Allen is a writer and translator and a professor at City University of New York, where she is appointed to three Ph.D. Programs at the Graduate Center and directs the Sidney Harman Writer-in-Residence Program at Baruch College. Her most recent translation, of Antonio Di Benedetto’s 1967 novel The Suicides, came out from New York Review Books in 2025. Her translation of Di Benedetto’s 1956 novel  Zama won the 2017 National Translation Award in Prose from the American Literary Translators Association.  Her most recent essay, “Borges & Borges,” appeared in the Winter 2026 issue of Nimrod.

Geoffrey Brock
(Arkansas, USA)

Geoffrey Brock is the author of three books of poems (most recently After), the editor of The FSG-Book of 20th-Century Italian Poetry, and the translator of more than a dozen volumes of poetry, prose, and comics. His awards include fellowships form the Guggenheim Foundation, the Academy of American Poets, and the National Endowment for the Arts. His translation of Giuseppe Ungaretti’s Allegria received the 2021 National Translation Award in Poetry.

Kareem James-Abu Zeid
(Santa Fe, USA)

 Kareem James Abu-Zeid, PhD, is a translator of poets and novelists from across the Arab world, including Najwan Darwish (Palestine), Adonis (Syria/Lebanon), and Dunya Mikhail (Iraq). He translates from Arabic, French, and German. He has received the Sarah Maguire Prize, PEN Center USA’s translation prize, Poetry Magazine’s translation prize, a Fulbright Fellowship, and an NEA translation grant, and has thrice been a finalist for the PEN America Translation Prize. He is also the author of the book “The Poetics of Adonis and Yves Bonnefoy: Poetry as Spiritual Practice” (Lockwood, 2021), and served as the ALTA mentor for Priyamvada Ramkumar’s translation of the Tamil novel “White Elephant” by Jeyamohan (FSG, 2026). 

Padma Viswanathan
(Arkansas, USA)

Padma Viswanathan’s first book, The Toss of a Lemon, a historical novel set in Tamil Nadu, was published in eight countries and shortlisted for the PEN USA Prize and others. Her three other books of fiction and nonfiction include, most recently, The Charterhouse of Padma, a hybrid novel. A translator of Brazilian Portuguese, she is also co-editor of the forthcoming Penguin Book of Brazilian Short Stories. She has published short fiction, essays and translations in Granta, BRICK, and elsewhere, and is Professor of Creative Writing (Fiction and Translation) at the University of Arkansas—Fayetteville.

Perundevi Srinivasan
(Loudonville, USA)

Perundevi is a distinguished voice in contemporary Tamil literature, enriching its cultural landscape through bold experimentation and versatility. Over the past two decades, she has published ten poetry collections, two volumes of microfiction, three essay collections, and a short story collection, in addition to editing a volume of literary criticism and Tamil: The Best Stories of Our Times, a collection of contemporary Tamil short stories for HarperCollins India. Her translations include two poetry anthologies rendered into Tamil, and her poems, translations, and articles regularly appear in leading Tamil literary magazines. Her poetry is noted for its anti-poetry style, subverting conventional forms, while she has experimented with other approaches. In Tamil literary circles, it is widely speculated that she writes lyrical poetry under the pseudonym Srivalli. Deeply engaged with contemporary Tamil society and its literary milieu, Perundevi divides her time between the United States and Tamil Nadu. She is currently a Professor of Religious Studies in upstate New York and holds a Ph.D. in interdisciplinary human sciences from George Washington University.

Peter Constantine
(New York, USA)

Peter Constantine’s translations include works by Rousseau, Machiavelli, Gogol and Tolstoy for Random House, Modern Library.  He is a Guggenheim Fellow and was awarded the PEN Translation Prize for Six Early Stories by Thomas Mann, and the National Translation Award for The Undiscovered Chekhov. His translations of Isaac Babel received the Koret Jewish Literature Award and a National Jewish Book Award citation. He is a professor of translation studies at the University of Connecticut and publisher of World Poetry Books.

Rohan Kamicheril
(New York, USA)

Rohan Kamicheril is a senior editor at Farrar, Straus and Giroux and acquires books in translation and writing on food that is bold, thoughtful, and distinctive. His authors include Ananda Devi, Péter Nádas, Judith Hermann, Eva Baltasar, Agustín Fernández Mallo, Jeyamohan, Daniela Catrileo, Yasmine Seale, Marion Nestle, Darra Goldstein, and Shiamin Kwa, among others. At Picador he works with the estates of Tom Wolfe, Andrea Dworkin, Robert Fitzgerald, Georges Simenon, M.F.K. Fisher, and others. He is the founder of Tiffin, a website dedicated to exploring regional Indian cuisine.

Thomas Hitoshi Pruiksma
(Seattle, USA)

Thomas Hitoshi Pruiksma is an author, translator, teacher, and performer. His translation of the classical Tamil masterpiece on ethics, power, and love, The Kural: Tiruvalluvar’s Tirukkural, was published by Beacon Press and awarded the 2025 Ancient Tamil Literature Promotion Award by the government of Tamil Nadu, India. Other books include The Safety of Edges (poems), Give, Eat, and Live: Poems of Avvaiyar (translated from the Tamil) and Body and Earth (with the artist C.F. John). He speaks and performs widely, mentors writers and translators one-on-one, teaches for the Cozy Grammar series of online video courses, and has received grants and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, 4Culture, Artist Trust, and the U. S. Fulbright Program. thomaspruiksma.com

Vivek Narayanan
(Fiarfax, USA)

Vivek Narayanan’s most recent books of poems are After (New York Review Books / HarperCollins India, 2022) and The Kuruntokai and its Mirror (Hanuman Editions, 2024).  His work has appeared in Poetry, The Paris Review, The Penguin Book of the Prose Poem and The Bloodaxe Book of Contemporary Indian Poetry. He has held fellowships at the Radcliffe Institute and at the New York Public Library and teaches in the MFA Poetry program at George Mason University.

Janika Oza
(Toronto, Canada)

Janika Oza is the author of the novel A History of Burning, winner of the 2024 Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature, a finalist for the 2024 Carol Shield’s Prize, the 2023 Governor General’s Award for Fiction, and the Dayton Literary Peace Prize, and a New York Times Editor’s Choice. She is the winner of a 2022 O. Henry Award and her stories and essays have appeared in publications such as BOMB Magazine, Apartamento, and The Kenyon Review. She teaches creative writing at the University of Toronto.

Kalam Selvam
(Toronto, Canada)

Kalam Selvam is the editor of the Canada-based literary magazine Kalam and the author of three books. His book Ezhuthi Theera Pakkangal,about his life as a refugee, is popular for its natural humor. He followed this up with a sequel named Sorkalil Suzhalum Ulagam. He is the founder of the literary organization Vazhum Tamil, and an active participant in street theater and other literary activities.

Giridharan Rajagopalan
(London, UK)

Giridharan is a Tamil writer who has written several books covering short stories, science fiction, essays on music and literary criticism. He is also the translator of Introduction to Carnatic music by S.Mahadevan. Some of his stories are set against the background of western music and hard science fiction which isn’t typically found in Tamil literature. Giridharan’s writing style is intense, free flowing and metaphorical. He is one of the literary editors of Solvanam dot com, an online Tamil literary magazine. He is the Winner of Aroo 2019 Science fiction short stories contest – Palkalanum Yaam Anivom,  Vamsi Short stories contest 2012, Newham London short story winner 2009.

Navin Monogaram
(Malaysia)

Alongside being a teacher in a Malaysian Government Tamil school, Navin is the editor of Vallinam online magazine, the author of eighteen books, and has contributed to Malaysian Tamil Cinema. He runs the literary organization, Vallinam, and its subsidiaries such as Sadaku.

Azhagunila Panchaksharam
(Singapore)

Azhagunila, an author of fiction, creative non-fiction, and children’s literature,  has won the Singapore Literature Prize in 2022 and 2024. Her work was shortlisted for S.L.P. in 2020. To date, she has authored thirteen books. She won ‘Beyond Words’ Competition by Singapore Book Council. She was selected as a writer-in- residence for the National Arts Council- Sangam House Residency(2022-23). Her nursery rhymes were transformed into animated videos with the support of the Lee Kuan Yew Fund for Bilingualism.

Sayanthan
(Kathiresampillai Sayenthiran)

Sayanthan gained wide recognition among readers through the novels Aaravadu, Aathirai and Ashera, which are important examples of Srilanka war literature. Sayanthan is involved in the work of bringing out Sinhala-Tamil translated works through his publishing house , Aathirai started in 2020.

Ajithan Jayamohan
(Chennai, India)

Ajithan is a writer and filmmaker. He has authored two short story collections Marubhoomi (2023) and Aasirvatham Studios (2026).  His first novel, Maitri, was published in 2022 and received widespread acclaim from readers. His second novel Al Kisa was published in 2023. His film contribution as an assistant director includes Oh Kadhal Kanmani  and Kaatru Veliyidai and as dubbing supervisor in Ponniyin Selvan. Ajithan possesses a profound intellectual framework in western philosophy and western music and travels frequently to share his learnings on those two topics.

Chandra Thangaraj
(Virudhunagar, India)

Chandra Thangaraj is a poet, writer, journalist, and film director.  She worked at Vikatan and Kumudam magazines from 1999 to 2003. Her first short story collection, ‘The House Without Cats’, was published by Uyirmmai Publications in 2007. To  her credits , she has published four collections of short stories, four collections of poems. Her works are characterized by realistic depictions of rural life, a longing for what has been lost, the influence of folk tales, and subtle observations of the female psyche. The Devadevan Award for the best poetry collection was awarded to the poetry collection ‘Milagu‘ by Kottai Tamil Mandram (2021).Kalaignar Gold Medal Award, for the short story collection ‘Cholam‘ was awarded in 2022. 

Chaidhanya Jayamohan
(Chennai, India)

Chaidhanya is founder of Manasa Publications with a mission to reclaim forgotten and suppressed voices of women, illuminating their stories across cultural, linguistic, and gendered frontiers.  Chaidhanya regularly writes articles in  Tamil magazine neeli. She oversees the English translation activities of the Tamil Wiki encyclopedia. 

Elangovan Balakrishnan
(Coimbatore, India)

Elango Krishnan is a poet who writes modern poetry in Tamil. He writes poems characterized by metaphor and musicality. He is also known as a critic and a commentator on aesthetic theories of poetry. His poems were published in 2007 as a book titled ‘Kayachandikai‘. There are five collections by him titled ‘Kayachandikai’, ‘Patchiyin Charitham’, ‘Basheerukku Ayiram Velaigal Theriyum’,  ‘vyanulugu vathiyum perumalar ‘ and ‘poornamaiyuria sevvari kayal’.  He was awarded Vasagasalai Virudhu (2021) and Chennai Ilakkiya Virudhu (2015). 

Gopalakrishnan Murugesan
(Coimbatore, India)

Gopalakrishnan is a literary critic, translator, and writer. He has written five novels, two novellas, and six collections of short stories. His stories and characters are very raw. Anyone would fail to separate his characters from real life people. It can be experienced by reading his novel , Manal Kadigai. He was awarded the Sparrow Literary Award – 2021. His translation work includes both from Hindi to Tamil as well as from English to Tamil. He was given Vasaga Salai Virudhu  2022 for best translation. 

Kalyana Raman Natarajan
(Chennai, India)

Kalyan Raman is a translator of contemporary Tamil fiction and poetry into English. Over the past twenty-five years, he has published translations of fifteen works of Tamil fiction by important writers such as Ashokamitran, Poomani, Devibharathi, Perumal Murugan, Vaasanthi and Salma. His translations of contemporary Tamil poets have been published widely in journals and anthologies in India and abroad. His translation of Perumal Murugan’s Poonachi was shortlisted for the inaugural JCB Prize (2018), longlisted for the National Book Award for Translated Literature (2020) and awarded the Sahitya Akademi’s Translation Prize—English (2022). He received the prestigious Vilakku Pudumaipithan Memorial Award in 2017 for his contribution to the cause of Tamil literature through his translations and the A. Muttulingam award in 2025 in recognition of his work as a translator over the years. 

Kalaiselvi Lakshmanan Subramanian
(Trichy, India)

Kalaiselvi has published seven short story collections, six novels and one essay collection so far. Kalaiselvi’s first novel, Sakkai, was published in 2015. Her short stories have been translated into Telugu and Kannada. Kalaiselvi’s ‘Maya Nadi‘ is an important collection of short stories. Her stories based on the life of Gandhi have received widespread attention. She is also the one who wrote the most stories in Tamil with Gandhi as the narrator.  She has won many awards including the Sparrow Literary Award (2021) and Ilakkiya Sinthanai Viruthu (2018).

Lakshmi Saravanakumar
(Raja Saravanakumar)

The winner of the Sahitya Akademi Yuva Puraskar – 2016, Lakshmi Saravanakumar is a Tamil writer and film maker.   He has published nine novels, eight short story collections, one poem collection, and four books of essays to his credit. His Tamil novel, Kaanagan has been translated into English as Huntsman. Uppu Naaigal has been translated into Albanian language and yet to be released.  As a film director, his first web series is to be released soon. 

G.S.S.V. Navin
(Coimbatore, India)

Navin is a fictional writer and editor of  a monthly online magazine kavithaigal.in  that is exclusively dedicated to modern Tamil poems.  His stories have been published in Tamil magazines including Vallinam, Kanali and Akazh.

Pavannan
(Baskaran Balaraman)

A recipient of Iyal Virudu 2022 by the Tamil Literary Garden (Canada), Pavannan is a well-known writer of the post-1980s era, who was vital in bringing a direct and realistic style to Tamil writing and opening up previously unexplored regions of existence. Through his works, the language and people of the Pondicherry-Cuddalore region were featured in literature. He facilitated the incorporation of Kannada literature into the Tamil literary canon by means of translation. The Kannada translations of Dalit literature by Paavannan significantly contributed to the advancement of Dalit literature in the Tamil language. 

Priyamvada Ramkumar
(Chennai, India)

Priyamvada Ramkumar translates literary fiction from Tamil to English. Her debut translation, Jeyamohan’s Stories of the True (Juggernaut Books, 2022) was a finalist for ALTA’s National Translation Award – Prose (2023). She was part of the inaugural cohort of South Asia Speaks’ mentorship programme in 2021 and selected into the 2022 ALTA Emerging Translator Mentorship Program. She was also awarded a 2023 PEN/Heim Translation Fund grant for her work on Jeyamohan’s White Elephant. Her works have been published in various journals including Usawa, Spillwords Press, and Asymptote. Her first two books in translation are forthcoming from Farrar, Straus and Giroux. She co-founded Mozhi, a translation initiative for Indian languages. 

Ramya Raja Kumar
(Chennai, India)

Ramya is a short story writer, the editor of the Neeli online magazine, and a contributor to the Tamil edition of the Tamil Wiki encyclopedia. She has been working in the Tamil Nadu Government’s Commercial Taxes and Registration Department since 2020. Her first short story collection, Neelathavini was published in 2024. 

Samraj Rathinam
(Chennai, India)

Samraj writes stories and poems that are humorous and parodic. Samraj’s stories speak not only about loss, but also about life that continues after loss, beyond sorrow. Samraj’s first novel, Kodaimadam, was published in 2023. He is also working as an assistant director in the film industry. He received the Canada Tamil Literary Garden Award for his non fiction novel, Moovanthiyil Sulurum Marmam, in 2023.

Saravanakarthikeyan Chinnadurai
(Bangalore, India)

Saravanakarthikeyan is a Tamil writer who has authored four novels, five short-story collections, four poem collections, six non-fictional books and sixteen essay collections. He runs an online magazine called Tamizh. He has been rewarded with five awards including best book award in the technology category from the State Government’s Tamil Development Department (2009), Uyirmmai Sujatha Viruthu (2017), Thiruppur Ilakkiya Viruthu (2019) and CKK Arakkattalai Viruthu (2025). His short-stories are translated into English and Kannada. He conducted a short-story workshop for young writers in Singapore.

Senthilkumar Subramanian
(Madurai, India)

As a  fiction writer, Senthilkumar Subramanian  portrays  realistic depictions of life, without exaggeration. He holds six  novels, eight short story collections, three poems collections, and a book of essays to his credit. The books Manjal Nira Paithiyangal, Vilagi Chellum Paruvam, Mazhaikkup Piragu Purappadum Rail Vandi have been released into multiple editions. He has won nearly five awards including the Sparrow Award for 2018.

Senthilnathan Jeganathan
(Chennai, India)

Senthilnathan’s short stories are made up of everyday moments from two domains. One that is written in the backdrop of the farming family of lower Thanjavur and its small village and another that has a cinema industry background. Senthil Jagannathan, who alternates between these two worlds, is an artist who transcends the mere depiction of life into a rare poetic moment.

Suneel Krishnan
(Chennai, India)

An ayurvedic physician, and neo-Gandhian , Suneel Krishnan writes short stories and novels in Tamil. His writing is influenced by the literary pioneers Jeyamohan, Yuvan Chandrasekhar, A. Muttulingam, and Ashokamithran. Critics hailed his first  novel Neelakandam explored the various aspects of childbirth in tradition, rituals, religion, psychology, and medicine, and succeeded in presenting a fundamental problem of human beings. He is a recipient of the Yuvapuraskar award for literature given by the Kendriya Sahitya Akademi. In September 2022 he was honoured by the Dalai Lama for his Gandhian works. 

Tamizh Prabha
(Prabakaran Pushparaj)

Tamizh Prahba is a Tamil novelist and screenwriter. He started his writing career as a journalist for the weekly magazine Ananda Vikadan.  His first novel titled Pettai was published in 2018. His second novel, Kosalai, was  published in 2022. He is considered an important writer in Tamil literature because he depicts not only tragedies but also celebrations and struggles. He was awarded the Sujata Viruthu for best novel (2018) and the Tamil Nadu Progressive Writers and Artists Association Award (2018). His contribution includes five films as a scriptwriter. The New York Times listed Sarpatta Parambarai scripted by Tamil Prabha as one of the five best International films to stream on digital platforms.

Thirusenthalai Balasubramanian
(Madurai, India)

Thirusenthalai has been writing short stories and poems in magazines such as Ananda Vikatan, Semmalar and Thamarai. His first collection of short stories, ‘Veil Nanban Pradhanya Oru Pradeshiyaam‘, was published in 2008 by Kalachuvadu Publishing House. His second collection, ‘Vilasam’, was published in 2021 by Attara Publishing House. His third collection, ‘Neruppil Valarbavai’  was published in 2025. 

Vennila Ambalavanan
(Chennai, India)

Vennila is a novelist, short‑story writer, poet, publisher and historian. Gangapuram and Neerathigaram are her two renowned novels. Gangapuram is a historical narrative based on the lives of Rajaraja Cholan and Rajendra Cholan, weaving political intrigue with personal drama. Neerathigaram is a fictional account centered on the construction of the Mullai‑Periyar Dam in South India, depicting challenges and human resilience tied to the dam’s creation. It has been translated into Malayalam and English. She has been contributing to the film industry as a scriptwriter and poet, and was honoured with many awards including Puthumaipithan Padaipilakkiya Viruthu.

Veyyil
(Veilmuthu Perumal)

Veyyil is a poet as well as a journalist. He works as Brand editor of the magazine, Junior Vikadan. He holds credibility towards seven collections of poems. Veil’s poems naturally brought folk imagery and grassroots myths into modern poetry.  His poems are generally selected to be  part of academic books released by Tamil Nadu Educational Board. He has been recognized with various awards including the Adamnam Award for the best poetry collection for Akka’s Bones (2019). 

Venugopal Surulivel
(Coimbatore, India)

Venugopal is known for his short stories that reflect reality. Vennilai is considered as one of the best stories published in Tamil.  He was sent to America in 1997 as an appreciation of his first novel, nunveli kiraganangal by kumudam  magazine.

Yuvan Chandrasekar
(Chandrasekaran Ramanathan)

A Tamil writer, poet, and translator whose works bring out a postmodern aesthetic. Chandrasekaran classifies his works as ‘alternate reality’ that literary critics call them as magical realism. He started off as a poet and found that poetry was not the best form to present his vision of alternative reality and so he turned to fiction. His fictional world is characterized by the fact that many events that seem unrelated on the surface are integrated by an alternate logic, through which a truth unknowable by everyday life emerges. Kulla Chitthan Charithiram, Pagadaiyaattam, and Veliyettram are well received novels by his readers. He was awarded  Iyal Virudu 2024  by the Tamil Literary Garden (Canada) for his lifetime achievement on Tamil Literary World. 

Charu Nivedita
(Arivazhagan Krishnasamy)

Charu Nivedita is considered one of the foremost writers of postmodern, post structuralist aesthetics, and the forerunner of transgressive writing in Tamil. His magnum opus Zero Degree was longlisted for the 2013 edition of Jan Michalkshi Prize for Literature. His essays, articles, and novels have the satirical parody towards being a goat in the herd, and they convey the message of humanism, peace and harmony, as an ultimate goal in life. He writes a regular column , ‘My Life, My Text’ in The Asian Review, published from Sri Lanka.

Nanjil Nadan
(Chennai, India)

Nanjil Nadan’s writing, which is satirical and uses regional dialects, is well received by readers and critics alike. He has authored short stories, novels, poems, and essays. He has been writing and giving speeches about Classical Literature. He has received twelve awards through his literary career including the Sahitya Akedemi Award (2010) for his  Soodiya Poo Sudarga short story collection and  the Iyal Virudu 2012 by the Tamil Literary Garden (Canada). 

Arun Mahizhnan

Advisor

He has spent most of his career in culture and communications fields as practitioner, policy analyst and educator. He works for the Institute of Policy Studies and taught at the National University of Singapore and the Nanyang Technological University. Beyond his professional career, he has been active in serving the Tamil community. Over four decades, he has collaborated with government agencies and community organisations to develop the community’s intellectual and cultural resources. His current project is to launch the first Encyclopedia of Singapore Tamils, an online resource in Tamil and English.