Sessions
Owning the Narrative: Dalit Writing in Focus
P Sivakami, Vasantha Surya with Mini Krishnan
Bio
A poet, translator, journalist and children’s writer, Vasantha Surya’s The Stalk of Time and A Word Between Us are her two books of poetry in English, the third being The Ballad of Budhni, a translation from Bundeli Hindi. Among her translations of modern Tamil poetry is the anonymous narrative poem in OUP’s Tamil Dalit Writing, entitled Christmas at Kilvenmani. She has translated six Tamil novels, Cho Dharman’s Koogai, Chudamani’s Iravu Chudar (Yamini), and Vaasanthi’s Kadaisee Varai (Birthright) among them, and an anthology of short fiction (A Place to Live).
Recently released is To Plunge Within, her selection translated from Nammaazhwar’s Thiruvaimozhi, and a forthcoming collection, An Order from the Sky, of Imayam’s short stories.
Her investigative features and reviews on cultural and social change have appeared in major publications. A Matter of Method is an exhaustive report for UNESCO’s ICSU (International Council of Scientific Unions) on the Method of Science Exhibition and its dismantling in 1977.
Among her stories for children is a novel, Mridu in Madras, jointly translated with Prema Srinivasan into English, and a serialized Ramayana in Chatterbox magazine.