Festival Team

Shinie Antony has authored short-story books The Orphanage For Words, Barefoot and Pregnant and novels When Mira Went Forth and Multiplied, A Kingdom for his Love. She has compiled the anthologies Why We Don’t Talk and Boo. Her story A Dog’s Death won the Commonwealth Short Story Asia region prize in 2002. Shinie is also the director of the Bengaluru Poetry Festival. The Girl Who Couldn’t Love is her latest novel.

Friend, Philosopher, Mentor and Ultimate Fundraiser, Ravi is the guiding spirit behind making us India’s only citizen-funded literature festival. As a self-proclaimed ‘Patron Saint of Lost Causes’, Ravi wears many hats or shall we say many camauros. He is known for his role as a Civic Evangelist, driving many pro bono initiatives for Bangalore city. His stints at BITS, Pilani, IIMA (where he was nicknamed Don) and running Feedback Consulting all sort of helped in ‘tilting at windmills’ a la Don Quixote! Ravi is presently Hon. Director of the Bangalore International Centre.

Srikrishna is a venture capital investor investing in early stage start-ups that create large scale social impact. His past experience is in consulting and implementation with organizations that improve the lives of people at the ‘Base of the Pyramid’. Passionate about travel, books, Indian classical music and radio, Srikrishna has hosted a daily show on India’s first and only wellness and lifestyle radio station.

Subodh and Lakshmi are co-founders of Atta Galatta, a Bengaluru-based bookstore with a focus on Indian, vernacular writing and is a venue for literary, art and cultural events. Since its inception 4 years ago, the bookstore has hosted over 500 events, including book launches, poetry readings, theatre performances, art shows, screenings, storytelling sessions and workshops.

Shruti is a sports management professional and her day job involves working on grassroots sport projects across India. At the Festival, she enjoys playing the operations game, making sure we run a tight ship. Give her a shout out if you’d like to volunteer with us sometime.

Sanjana Kapur is an author and editor with over 14 years of experience in children’s publishing. As the Associate Editor at Amar Chitra Katha, she has written and edited over twenty comic books across genres. Besides this, she has written several books for children, including the award-winning Who Stole Bhaiya’s Smile? Sanjana has also hosted quiz shows and children’s events in schools across India. When she is not writing Sanjana is attempting to make sense of the world for herself and the people around her.

Vikram Sridhar is a performance Storyteller and Theatre practitioner . He travels the country both performing and speaking at various spaces for children and adults. He believes in the Desi way of Storytelling as a strong medium of conservation from nature to human relationships as his stories are rooted in folklore, myths and legends inspired from various communities of the soil . He strongly believes ‘A Story a Day keeps the Doctor Away ‘ not an apple

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Prateeti Punja Ballal grew up in Bangalore and did her postgraduate work in the US. She taught Literature at various universities there, most recently at Hunter College, City University of New York. She earlier worked in the software industry for fifteen years. She has been a recipient of a Mellon fellowship for her research and several regional and international awards for her technical publications. A musician and dancer, she has a sustaining interest in the arts.

Sadhana is a research-led writer and curator in the Arts & Culture area. She has written on travel, socio-economics, literature, film festivals and music for leading newspapers and journals including The Hindu, The Economic Times and Shruti among others. As a curator of Music & Arts, Sadhana has worked with artists across music genres to weave narrative backed lecture demonstrations that break down fundamental elements of music. Sadhana curates the music performances at the Bangalore Literature Festival.

Shrabonti is a writer and editor at Mint. She has held editorial positions at The Times of India, Business Standard, and The Telegraph, writing on business, personalities, lifestyle and social trends, design, culture and startups. She has also been with Factor Daily, a tech-focused digital news website where she covered the intersection between technology and society/culture in India.