Ashokamitran was the pen name of Jagadisa Thyagarajan, an Indian writer regarded as one of the most influential figures in post-independent Tamil literature. He began his prolific literary career with the prize-winning play "Anbin Parisu" and went on to author more than two hundred short stories, and a dozen novellas and novels. A distinguished essayist and critic, he was the editor of the literary journal "Kanaiyaazhi". He has written over 200 short stories, nine novels, and some 15 novellas besides other prose writings. Most of his works have also been translated into English and other Indian languages, including Hindi, Malayalam, and Telugu.
Raja Rao was an Indian-American writer of English-language novels and short stories, whose works are deeply rooted in metaphysics. The Serpent and the Rope (1960), a semi-autobiographical novel recounting a search for spiritual truth in Europe and India, established him as one of the finest Indian prose stylists and won him the Sahitya Akademi Award in 1963. For the entire body of his work, Rao was awarded the Neustadt International Prize for Literature in 1988. Rao's wide-ranging body of work, spanning a number of genres, is seen as a varied and significant contribution to Indian English literature, as well as World literature as a whole.
The Jnanpith Award is the oldest and the highest Indian literary award presented annually by the Bharatiya Jnanpith to an author for their "outstanding contribution towards literature". Instituted in 1961, the award is bestowed only on Indian writers writing in Indian languages included in the Eighth Schedule to the Constitution of India and English, with no posthumous conferral.
Cingireddi Narayana Reddy, popularly known as CiNaRe, was an Indian Telugu-language poet, writer, and critic. He had produced over eighty literary works including poems, prose-plays, lyrical plays, translations, and ghazals. He was also a professor, film lyricist, actor, and Rajya Sabha politician. He also served as the Vice Chancellor of Telugu University.
Nayantara Sahgal is an Indian writer who writes in English. She is a member of the Nehru–Gandhi family, the second of the three daughters born to Jawaharlal Nehru's sister, Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit.
N. S. Madhavan is an Indian writer of Malayalam literature. Known for his novel, Lanthan Batheriyile Luthiniyakal and a host of short stories such as Higuita, Thiruthu, Chulaimedile Shavangal and Vanmarangal Veezhumpol, Madhavan also writes football columns and travel articles. He is a distinguished fellow of Kerala Sahitya Akademi and a recipient of several major awards including Odakkuzhal Award, Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award for Story, Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award for Novel, Muttathu Varkey Award, Mathrubhumi Literary Award, Crossword Book Award and Kerala State Students Federation Sahithyolsav Award.
Qurratulain Hyder was an Indian Urdu novelist and short story writer, an academic, and a journalist. One of the most outstanding and influential literary names in Urdu literature, she is best known for her magnum opus, Aag Ka Darya, a novel first published in Urdu in 1959, from Lahore, Pakistan, that stretches from the fourth century BC to post partition of India.
Jayanta Mahapatra was an Indian poet. He is the first Indian poet to win a Sahitya Akademi award for English poetry. He was the author of poems such as "Indian Summer" and "Hunger", which are regarded as classics in modern Indian English literature. He was awarded a Padma Shri, the fourth highest civilian honour in India in 2009, but he returned the award in 2015 to protest against rising intolerance in India.
Upamanyu Chatterjee is an author and a retired Indian civil servant. His works include the novel English, August: An Indian story, The Last Burden, The Mammaries of the Welfare State and Weight Loss. In 2008, he was awarded the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres for his contribution to literature.
Bani Basu is a prolific Bengali Indian author, essayist, critic, poet, translator and professor.
Bhadriraju Krishnamurti was an Indian linguist who specialised in Dravidian languages. He was born in Ongole in the Madras Presidency of British India. He was the vice-chancellor of the University of Hyderabad from 1986 to 1993, and founded the Department of Linguistics at Osmania University, where he served as a professor from 1962 to 1986. His magnum opus, The Dravidian Languages, is considered a landmark volume in the study of Dravidian linguistics.
Nayani Krishnakumari was an Indian scholar, poet, researcher, speaker in Telugu and an active participant in literary and cultural organizations. She served several institutions in various capacities. She received several awards such as Swarnakankanam, instituted by Desoddharaka Kasinathuni Nageswara Rao, Best Telugu Writer award from Potti Sreeramulu Telugu University, and Sahitya Akademi among others.
Mridula Garg is an Indian writer who writes in Hindi and English languages. She has published over 30 books in Hindi – novels, short story collections, plays and collections of essays – including several translated into English. She is a recipient of the Sahitya Akademi Award.
Chandrika Balan is an Indian writer who has published books in English and Malayalam, under the pen name Chandramathi, ചന്ദ്രമതി in Malayalam. She is a writer of fiction, a translator, and critic in English and Malayalam. Chandramathi has published four books in English and 20 in Malayalam, including 12 collections of short stories, an anthology of medieval Malayalam poetry, two collections of essays, two memoirs, and five books translated from English. The Malayalam film Njandukalude Nattil Oridavela was based on her book.
Sujit Mukherjee was an Indian writer, translator, literary critic, publisher, teacher and cricketer.
Ilapavuluri Panduranga Rao was an Indian scholar, poet, writer, linguist and orator of Telugu descent.
Mangharam Udharam Malkani was an Indian scholar, critic, writer, playwright, literary historian and professor in the Sindhi language. He was the pioneer of modern Sindhi dramas. He was recognized as the "Grand old man of Sindhi literature".
Neelum Saran Gour is an Indian English writer of fiction that depicts North India's small towns and their cultural histories. She is the author of six novels, four collections of short stories and one work of literary non-fiction. She has edited a pictorial volume on the history and culture of the city of Allahabad, where she lives and works, and has also translated one of her early novels into Hindi.
Dr. Yashodhara Mishra is a Odia writer and poet. She is a professor of English who has published poems, several collections of short stories and novels. She was a fellow at the Indian Institute of Advanced Study.
The Perishable Empire or The Perishable Empire: Essays on Indian Writing in English is an English-language collection of essays written by Meenakshi Mukherjee. The book was first published in 2001 by Oxford University Press and was awarded Sahitya Akademi Award in 2003.
