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...
Shivaji K. Panikkar teaches at the School of Culture and Creative Expressions, Ambedkar University Delhi, Delhi. His publications include Saptamatrka Worship and Sculpture: An Iconological Interpre
Seema Mustafa is a senior journalist who has reported for papers such The Pioneer, the Indian Express, the Telegraph, and Asian Age. She is currently the editor of The Citizen, which she founded.
Susan Hawthorne is a feminist activist, writer and performer. She is the author of a novel, two collections of poetry and the (co-)editor of eight anthologies. She grew up on a farm in the Riverina
