K. Satchidanandan

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K. Satchidanandan (born 28 May 1946) is an Indian poet<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and critic, writing in Malayalam and English. A pioneer of modern poetry in Malayalam, a bilingual literary critic, playwright, editor, columnist and translator,<ref name="Featured Writer K.Satchidanandan: Biographical Note">Template:Cite web</ref> he is the former editor of Indian Literature journal and the former secretary of Sahitya Akademi.<ref name="Kerala's top literary award for K. Satchidanandan">Template:Cite web</ref> He is also social advocate for secular anti-caste views, supporting causes like environment, human rights and free software and is a well known speaker on issues concerning contemporary Indian literature. He is the festival director of Kerala Literature Festival.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Life and career

Koyamparambath Satchidanandan was born in 1946 in Pulloot, a village in Kodungallur in the Thrissur District of Kerala.<ref name="K. Satchidanandan -- Malayalam Writer: The South Asian Literary Recordings Project (Library of Congress New Delhi Office)">Template:Cite web</ref>

After his early education in a village school, he was graduated in biology from the Christ College, Irinjalakuda, and had his Masters in English from Maharaja's College, Ernakulam. He obtained his PhD in post-structuralist poetics from the University of Calicut. He joined as a lecturer in English at K.K.T.M. Govt. College, Pulloot in 1968, and moved to Christ College, Irinjalakuda, in 1970 where he became a professor of English. He voluntarily retired from this post in 1992 to take up the editorship of Indian Literature, the English journal of the Indian National Academy in Delhi. In 1996 he was nominated Secretary, the chief executive, of the academy, a post from which he retired in 2006. Later he served as a Consultant to the Indian Government's Department of Higher Education and to the National Translation Mission. He also worked as Director, School of Translation Studies<ref name="K Satchidanandan - Manipal International Literature and Arts Platform 2017">Template:Cite web</ref> and Training at the Indira Gandhi National Open University, Delhi.<ref name="K. Satchidanandan (poet) - India - Poetry International">Template:Cite web</ref> He edited 'The Katha Library of Indian Literature', 'The Library of South Asian Literature' and Beyond Borders, a journal of South Asian literature and ideas.

Satchidanandan's literary career began with the publication of 'Kurukshetram', a collection of essays on poetry (1970) and 'Anchusooryan', a collection of poems (1971). Since then he has published several books of poetry, criticism, plays, travelogues and translations of poetry and plays and edited several magazines like 'Jwala', 'Uttaram' and 'Pachakkutira' besides many anthologies of poetry and essays in Malayalam, English, Hindi and Slovenian. He has represented India at several national and international literary events like Valmiki World Poetry Festival (Delhi,1985), Sarajevo Poetry Days (1985), Festival of India in the USSR (1988), Printemps des Poetes, France (2003), Berlin Literary Festival (2005), Frankfurt Book fair (2005, 2006), Paris Book fair (2007), Jaipur International Literary Festival (2008, 9, 10, 11,12), London Book fair (2009), Indo-Arab Literary Festival, Abu Dhabi (2008), Blue Metropolis Literary Festival, Montreal (20110, Hay Festival, Trivandrum, 2011) Rotterdam Poetry Festival (2012), Medellin Poetry Festival (2013), Festival of India in Latin America (2013), Sharjah Book fair (2013) and Vilenica Literary Festival, Slovenia (2014, 2015). This is besides readings in Lahore, Manchester, Dubai, Damascus, Aleppo, Bonn, Rome, Madrid, Avila, Segovia and all major cities in India. One of the most widely anthologised and translated of modern poets in India, he has 32 books of poems in 18 languages. He was given the Indo-Polish Friendship Medal by the Government of Poland in 2005 and the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic in 2006.<ref name="Satchidanandan, K. (1946--) - Routledge Encyclopedia of Modernism">Template:Cite web</ref> He was in the Ladbroke list of Nobel probables in 2011.^[3]<ref name="An intuitive poet">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="Satchidanandan in contention for literature Nobel race - Times of India">Template:Cite web</ref> A film on him, 'Summer Rain' was released in 2007.<ref name="Summer Rain">Template:Cite video</ref>

Satchidanandan is a National Fellow at the Institute of Advanced Study, Simla. He co-edits two on-line journals, Guftugu and 1 Over the 8th. His poems appeared in many prestigious poetry anthologies like Anthology of Contemporary Indian Poetry,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The Dance of the Peacock.<ref name=brook>Template:Cite news</ref><ref name=press>Template:Cite web</ref>

He worked from 1996 to 2006, as the secretary of Sahitya Akademi. He returned to teaching after retiring from Sahitya Akademi, and worked as Director and Professor of the School of Translation Studies and Training at the Indira Gandhi National Open University in New Delhi until 2011.<ref>cite web|title="Poetry International": Profile Poet K Satchidanandan|url=http://www.poetryinternationalweb.net/pi/site/poet/item/2723/27/K-Satchidanandan Template:Webarchive</ref>

Satchidanandan is married, and has two daughters.

K. Satchidanandan

Life and career

Awards and honours

Academic awards

Other major awards and fellowships

Works in Malayalam

Poetry

Plays

Prose

Poetry translations in other languages

Prose translation in other languages

Original works in English

Translations into Malayalam

Poetry

Plays

Works on K. Satchidanandan

In Malayalam

In English

In German

In French

In Italian

References

Further reading

External links

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