Building Blocks from Life: On Narrative Non-Fiction
Bachi Karkaria, Manu S Pillai, Shoba Narayan with VK Karthika
Bachi Karkaria
Bio
Bachi Karkaria is among India’s senior most journalists and was the first Indian board member of the World Editors Forum. Her specialisations are urbanisation, gender and public health. She conceptualised the now highly regarded Times of India Litfest, Mumbai in 2011, and has continued to be its director. In the past seven years it has become a top-draw, and top-draw hub of ideas from all fields. Its participants have ranged from Thomas Piketty and Arianna Huffington to the reclusive Rohinton Mistry. It has hosted the best names from India and abroad in literature of course, but also economics, science, films, the arts, music, media and even food. She writes two widely followed columns: the satirical `Erratica’ in the Times of India, and Giving Gyan, playing Agony Aunt; in the Mumbai Mirror. She appears regularly on television news channels and is a media trainer in India and abroad. Ms Karkaria’s books include the critically acclaimed In Hot Blood: The Nanavati Case That Shook India ( 2017), Dare to Dream, a best-selling biography of MS Oberoi; Mills, Molls And Moolah, Behind The Times, Mumbai Masti, and The Cake That Walked.
Manu S Pillai
Bio
Manu S Pillai is the author of the award-winning The Ivory Throne (2015), Rebel Sultans (2018), The Courtesan, the Mahatma & the Italian Brahmin (2019), and most recently, False Allies (2021). Formerly Chief of Staff to Dr Shashi Tharoor MP, he has in the past worked at the House of Lords in Britain, and with the BBC on their ‘Incarnations’ history series. A winner of the Sahitya Akademi Yuva Puraskar, he has been a columnist at Mint Lounge, while his other writings have appeared in The Hindu, Open Magazine, the Times of India, Hindustan Times, The New Statesman, and other publications. Manu is currently studying for a PhD at King’s College London.
Shoba Narayan
Bio
Shoba Narayan owns a cow. She also spends a lot of time thinking about how to improve her memory, and become fit without exercising. She is the author of four books, Monsoon Diary, Return to India. Katha and The Cows of Bangalore. A long time ago, she won a couple of awards, which allow her to conveniently add the phrase ‘award-winning author” to her books. She is a columnist for HT Brunch and has written for a number of publications. She is an alumnus of the Columbia Journalism School, Mount Holyoke College and WCC. She spends her spare time chasing cows off road dividers and evangelizing A2 milk to anyone who will listen.
Karthika V. K.
Bio
Karthika V.K. is Publisher, Westland Books. She has spent over twenty-five years editing and publishing fiction, non-fiction, translations, poetry and graphic novels. She started her career at Penguin Books India and spent a decade as Publisher, HarperCollins Publishers India before moving to Westland, where she set up Context, an imprint that focuses on literature and politics. She has published several award-winning and commercially successful writers including Anita Nair, Aravind Adiga, Devapriya Roy, Josy Joseph, Jyotirmaya Sharma, Manu Joseph, Manu Pillai, M. Mukundan, Nilanjana S. Roy, Nisha Susan, Paul Zacharia, Perumal Murugan, Ranbir Sidhu, Rohini Mohan, Rukmini S. and Shashi Deshpande.
You must be logged in to post a comment.