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…

Nissim Ezekiel, recognised as the father of Indian English poetry, was a foundational figure in introducing Modernism to the post-independence Indian literary scene. He captured the essence of everyday life through idiosyncratic descriptions of ordinary men and women. Through his…

Deborah Alma is a UK poet, editor and teacher. She has worked using poetry with people with dementia, in hospice care, with vulnerable women’s groups and with children in schools and lectured at both Worcester and Keele universities. From 2012…

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…

Arun Kolatkar was born in 1931 in Kolhapur, Maharashtra, India. He grew up in a traditional patriarchal Hindu extended family, describing their crowded home as ‘a house of cards…the rooms had mudfloors which had to be plastered with cowdung every…