Golchakkar: Indian Literature from a Queer Lens
Golchakkar Series - The August panel of our virtual literary talk featured Ruth Vanita and Aditya Tiwari: Indian Literature from a Queer Lens. Hosted by Kiran Bhat.
The Chakkar welcomes you to our reading series, GOLCHAKKAR. Every month, we will host an online panel discussion of Indian artists in conversation with the world.
Indian Literature from a Queer Lens: Ruth Vanita and Aditya Tiwari
This month on Golchakkar, we were joined by authors Ruth Vanita and Aditya Tiwari to discuss their experience of writing from an LGBT perspective from India, and how their identities have shaped their literary life. The session was hosted as ever by world traveler, polyglot, and author Kiran Bhat.
Participants
RUTH VANITA taught at Delhi University and is now professor at the University of Montana. She was the founding volunteer co-editor of Manushi, India’s first nationwide feminist magazine, and an activist in the Indian women’s and civil liberties movements from 1978 to 1991. Vanita is the author of many books, including Sappho and the Virgin Mary: Same-Sex Love and the English Literary Imagination; A Play of Light: Selected Poems; Love’s Rite: Same-Sex Marriage in India; and Dancing with the Nation: Courtesans in Bombay Cinema. She has published over 70 scholarly articles and translated several works of fiction and poetry from Hindi and Urdu. She co-edited the pioneering Same-Sex Love in India: A Literary History. Her first novel, Memory of Light, appeared in 2020. Her next two books, A Hidden Player: Poems and Translations and The Dharma of Justice in the Sanskrit Epics: Debates on Gender, Varna and Species will appear early next year.
ADITYA TIWARI is is a poet and queer activist from India. His first book of poems April is Lush (2019) received international acclaim and was featured on Lambda Literary in the spirit of uplifting the work of queer Indian artists. He writes on a variety of themes ranging from politics, colour, intersectionality, age, queerness, gender, and revolution. His writings have appeared in Firstpost, The Wire, Feminism In India, Homegrown, The Alipore Post, Vice, and elsewhere. He has been a Youth Economic Fellow and has also spoken at various literary festivals including New Delhi’s Rainbow Lit Fest, one of the largest LGBT literary festivals in India.
KIRAN BHAT is an Indian-American novelist, short-story writer, and educator. He is the author of We of the Forsaken World, Afora Adentro, Autobiografia, Kiran Speaks, Tirugaatha, and more. An avid world traveler, polyglot, and digital nomad, he has currently travelled to over 130 countries, lived in 18 different places, and speaks 12 languages. He currently lives in Melbourne.
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