B Jeyamohan

Bio

B. Jeyamohan, based in Nagercoil, is a pre-eminent writer in modern Tamil literature. One of the most prolific writers in India today, he has authored more than two hundred books, spanning novels, short fiction, travelogues, literary criticism and essays on heritage and philosophy, amongst others. Apart from containing critically acclaimed works such as Vishnupuram (1997) and Kottravai (2005), Jeyamohan’s oeuvre includes a 26-part novel called Venmurasu (The White Drum), a post-modern reimagination of the Mahabharata in 2020. Spanning more than 25,000 pages, it is perhaps the longest literary work in the world. Also a master of the short story form, Jeyamohan wrote a sequence of 125 stories, one for each day of the pandemic-induced lockdowns in 2020.

In 2022, his immensely popular collection of short stories, Aram, was translated into English by Priyamvada Ramkumar (Stories of the True, Juggernaut). Forthcoming translations include The Abyss, a translation of the novel Ezhaam Ulagam by Suchitra Ramachandran (Juggernaut, 2023).

Jeyamohan has received many honours, including the Akilan Memorial Prize, the Katha Award, the Sanskriti Samman and the Iyal Award (Canada). Jeyamohan’s engagement with literature goes beyond writing. Vishnupuram Literary Circle, an organization formed under his aegis, holds literary conferences, meet-the-author sessions, as well as writing workshops for emerging writers. He recently launched the Tamil Wiki encyclopaedia, a mammoth effort to organise information pertaining to Tamil literature and culture in a single place.

Jeyamohan is also a renowned screenwriter in the Tamil and Malayalam film industry. Ozhimuri (2012), a Malayalam film written by Jeyamohan based on his book Uravidangal, won him a Best Scriptwriter Kerala Film Critics Award. Jeyamohan has written for many successful films including Naan Kadavul, Kadal, 2.0, Venthu Thaninthathu Kaadu and Ponniyin Selvan.