Adhavan Deetchanya (born 1964) is a Tamil writer of poetry and short fiction. Since his first book, Purathirunthu (1996), he has published three collections of poetry: Poojjiyatthilirunthu Thuvanum Aattam (2003), Thanthugi (2005) and Adhavan Deetchanya Kavithaigal (2011). He is also editor of the magazine Pudhuvisai. Born and raised in Utthamachozhapuram, near Salem, he works currently as a cashier in Hosur in the state of Tamil Nadu.

K. Srilata is a Chennai-based poet, fiction writer and translator. She writes in English. Her first book of poems, Seablue Child, was published in 2000, followed by Arriving Shortly, published earlier this year. As translator and editor, she has worked on two volumes of poetry and short fiction: Rapids of a Great River: The Penguin Book of Tamil Poetry (co-edited with Lakshmi Holmstrom and Subashree Krishnaswamy) and Short Fiction from South India (co-edited with Subashree Krishnaswamy). She is Associate Professor of English at the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, IIT Madas.

Kamlesh (born 1937) is a senior Hindi poet and translator. He writes prolifically but publishes sparingly. His two collections of verse include Jaratkaroo (1985) and Khule Mein Aawaas (2008). Hindi poet Udayan Vajpeyi describes him as “one of the most well-read writers of his generation”. He lives in Delhi.

Sampurna Chattarji (born in 1970, in Dessie, Ethiopia) is a poet, novelist and translator. She has written two books of poetry: Sight May Strike You Blind, published in 2009, and Absent Muses, published last year. Her poems have been published in several leading journals and anthologies, including Sixty Indian Poets, Fulcrum, The Bloodaxe Book of Contemporary Indian Poets, among others. Her evocative translations of the Bengali poems of Joy Goswami, which were undertaken for the India domain of the PIW, are in the process of being consolidated into a book. She is based in Thane, near Mumbai.

Sunil Gangopadhyay (born 1934) is a distinguished figure in Bengali literature. A poet and novelist with a bibliography that includes over three hundred books, he was founder editor in 1953 of Krittibas, a significant poetry magazine that ushered in a new generation of experimental Bengali poets in the 1950s. In 2008, Gangopadhyay was elected President of the Sahitya Akademi. He has received various awards and honours in the course of his literary career, including the Sahitya Akademi Award (1985) and the Ananda Puraskar (1972, 1989). While his work in the prose genres – the novel, essay, short story, travelogue and children’s fiction – has been highly acclaimed (and turned into films in two famous instances by Satyajit Ray), he maintains that poetry is his “first love”.