Vanamala Viswanatha

Bio

An acclaimed academic and an award-winning translator, Prof. Vanamala Viswanatha taught English language and literature for over four decades in premiere institutions in Bengaluru such as the Indian Institute of Science, Regional Institute of English, PG Centre of Bangalore University, and Azim Premji University. Deeply engaged with various facets of Kannada culture, Prof. Vanamala Viswanatha anchored the Kannada news on Doordarshan from 1984-94. She was Associate Director, Katha Regional Academic Centre, Bangalore, an initiative that promoted Indian literatures in translation. She also worked as Honorary Director, Centre
for Translation, Sahitya Akademi, New Delhi. Prof Vanamala Viswanatha served as a member on the National Translation Mission as well.

Working between Kannada and English over the last four decades, Prof Vanamala Viswanatha has translated and introduced several well-known Kannada writers such as Sara Aboobacker, Lankesh, Tejasvi, Vaidehi, and Ananthamurthy. The Life of Harishchandra (Harvard University Press, 2017), her translation of a medieval Kannada poetic classic in the Murty Classical Library of India Series, is a landmark publication. Prof Viswanatha’s translation (with Shivarama Padikkal) of Indira Bai, the first social novel in Kannada, published by Oxford University Press (2019), is yet another milestone in presenting the literary treasures of Kannada to a global readership. This novel in English translation received the Best Translation award in 2020 from Kuvempu Bhasha Bharathi Pradhikara, Government of Karnataka.
Kannada text from the Jain tradition (forthcoming, MCLI, Harvard University Press) and Malegalalli Madumagalu, an epic novel by Kuvempu, the literary colossus from Kannada (forthcoming, Penguin Random House).