Room 113, School of Arts and Sciences
Central Campus
Ahmedabad University
The line between fiction and non-fiction has been blurred by theory and practice. As a practitioner of both forms, Jerry Pinto looks for a space of reconciliation.
Anukrti Upadhyay believes in the truth of stories and the necessity of telling them honestly and authentically in the context of desh, kaal and patra. She holds that they are the only way to knit experiences with imagination and offer hope.
As a writer of narrative non-fiction, the challenge for Radhika Iyengar has been to write true stories while keeping it engaging for the reader; to provide an authentic portrayal of lived experiences grounded in reality that celebrates the spirit of human resilience.
Jerry Pinto has published three novels: Em and the Big Hoom (2012), Murder in Mahim (2017) and The Education of Yuri (2022). He has edited anthologies including Bombay Meri Jaan: Writings on Mumbai (2003) and Reflected in Water: Writings on Goa (2006). He has translated several books such as Cobalt Blue by Sachin Kundalkar 2013; I the Salt Doll by Vandana Mishra (2016); and When I Hid My Caste by Baburao Bagul (2018). His latest nonfiction work is Citizen Gallery: The Gandhys of Chemould and the Birth of Modern Art in Bombay (2022). His books for children include Anya and Her Baby Brother (2019) and others. Pinto has won several illustrious awards.
Anukrti Upadhyay has written a doctoral thesis on human relationships in Hindi short stories of the post-1960s. She writes fiction and poetry in both English and Hindi. Her English works, twin novellas Daura (2019) and Bhaunri (2019) and novel Kintsugi (2020), have been published by the 4th Estate imprint of HarperCollins India and have been nominated for awards. She has been awarded the Sushila Devi Award for the best work of fiction written by a woman author in 2020 for Kintsugi. Her latest work, a short-story collection titled The Blue Women (2023) has recently been released by HarperCollins India. Her Hindi works, a short-story collection, Japani Sarai (2019) and novel Neena Aunty (2021) have been published by Rajpal and Sons. Her writings have appeared in Scroll, Kitaab, The Bombay Review, The Bangalore Review, The Bilingual Window and several Hindi publications.
Radhika Iyengar is an award-winning journalist based in Mumbai, who writes on arts and culture, marginalised communities, history and gender. She is the author of a debut non-fiction book, Fire on the Ganges: Life among the Dead in Banaras, published by HarperCollins India, for which she won the Gaurang River Prize for Best Non-Fiction (2024) and the Kalinga Literary Award (Youth). Fire on the Ganges was longlisted for the Times of India AutHer Awards for Best Debut Book 2024 as well. Iyengar is a graduate of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, New York. She won the Red Ink Award for Excellence in Indian Journalism (2018) and has been a recipient of the Charles Wallace India Trust Fellowship and Sanskriti Prabha Dutt Fellowship, and has been a writer-in-residence at the Sangam House Residency. Her work has appeared in Al Jazeera, Slate, Atlas Obscura, Hyperallergic, The Indian Express, Open magazine, Scroll.in, Vogue, Conde Nast Traveller, among other publications
