Rabindranath Tagore, known as the Bard of Bengal, was born in 1861 to an aristocratic family of social reformers in Calcutta (now Kolkata), then the seat of the British government in India. His prolific output spanned poetry, plays, songs, novels,…

Sarojini Naidu, famously known as ‘the Nightingale of India,’ was a remarkable female political activist and freedom fighter in pre-colonial India. Her poetic works are celebrated for their lyrical romanticism, capturing the beauty and diversity of Indian culture with sweetness…

Amarjit Chandan is a celebrated poet, essayist, and editor, known for his distinctive voice in contemporary Punjabi literature. Born in Nairobi, Kenya, in 1946, Chandan’s upbringing was marked by both the richness of his Sikh heritage and the complexities of…

Vikram Seth is a poet and novelist whose contributions to literature are harboured in various eclectic and traditional forms. The sites of his poetry and prose are intercontinental, creating literary habitats of far away lands and cultures. In the modern…

Bhanu Kapil is a contemporary Punjabi Indian performance artist and poet. Born and raised in West London to Punjabi immigrant parents, Kapil recalls an early inclination toward poetry, composing her first verses as “poem(s) to the stars” as a young…

Arundhati Subramaniam is a celebrated contemporary female poet. Born in Mumbai, 1973, she recalls, from a young age, wanting to ‘be around words – listen to them, utter them, play with them, and string them into patterns’.1.  After gaining her…

Sampurna Chattarji is a poet, writer, editor, translator, and teacher whose work propels through the boundaries of language and identity. With over 20 published works to her name, Chattarji has emerged as a prominent voice in contemporary Indian literature. Through…

David Dabydeen (David Horace Clarence Harilal Sookram) was born in 1955, in Berbice, Guyana. His second name, Dabydeen, is taken from his mother, Veronica Dabydeen, who raised him, along with his maternal grandparents, after her divorce. Dabydeen regards his time…