Shrikant Verma (1931-86) was a central figure in the Nai Kavita movement in the late 1950s and the early 1960s. Born in Bilaspur, he did his Masters in Hindi from Nagpur University in 1956, then moved to New Delhi, where he worked in journalism and politics. Verma served as a special correspondent for Dinman, a major Hindi periodical, from 1966 to 1977. In 1976, he was elected a member of the Rajya Sabha on a Congress (I) ticket, and served as spokesman to the party through the late 1970s and early '80s. He published two collections of fiction, a novel, a travelogue, literary interviews, essays and five collections of poetry, including Jalsaghar (1973) and Magadh (1984). Verma was a visitor at the Iowa International Writing Program twice (1970-71 and 1978), and won the Tulsi Puraskar (1976), the Kumaran Asan Award, and the Sahitya Akademi Award (posthumously, for Magadh, in 1987).
Magadh, Shrikant Verma's crowning achievement, was published in Hindi in 1984 and is one of the key works of late 20th century Indian poetry. Speaking both archly and urgently through unre...
Shahnaz Rouse teaches Sociology at Sarah Lawrence College, New York. She is the author of various articles on women, religion, nationalism and the State which have been published in South Asia, the
Deepa Bhasthi is a writer based in Bengaluru. She occasionally works on contemporary art projects. Her research interests are in the areas of sociolinguistics, land/landscape and food politics.
Sunaina Marr Maira is Assistant Professor of Asian American Studies in the English and Anthropology Departments at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst; she is the co-editor of Contours of the
Saskia Wieringa is Director of the International Information Centre and Archives for the Women's Movement in Amsterdam. She has written and edited 14 books, including two books of fiction, and num
Arupa Patangia Kalita is an Assamese novelist and short-story writer. She has received several literary honours including, in 2014, the Sahitya Akademi Award for her book of short stories Mariam Au
