Ruth Vanita is a poet, editor, translator, academic and activist. Her book of poems, Play of Light (Penguin India) was published in 1994. She is Professor at the University of Montana. She was founding co-editor of Manushi, an influential journal about women and society, from 1978 to 1990. Her poetry has appeared in several anthologies, and she has translated several works of fiction and poetry from Hindi and Urdu to English. She is deeply engaged in the fields of lesbian and gay studies, gender…

Dr. L. Ayu Saraswati is professor in women, gender, and sexuality studies at the University of Hawai`i. She is the author and co-editor of five books, including Seeing Beauty, Sensing Race in Transnational Indonesia, which won 2013 National Women's Studies Association Gloria Anzaldúa book award, and Scarred: A Feminist Journey through Pain, which won 2024 Association of American Publishers PROSE book award for Biography/Autobiography. Her work has been included as one of Meridians journal’s most…

Chitra Divakaruni is an award-winning writer and teacher and the author of 23 books such as Mistress of Spices, Sister of My Heart, Palace of Illusions, The Forest of Enchantments, The Last Queen, and Independence. Her newest book is a biography, An Uncommon Love: The Early Life of Sudha and Narayan Murthy. Her work has been translated into 30 languages, including Dutch, Hebrew, Bengali, Hungarian, Turkish, Hindi and Japanese. They have made into films, plays and dance dramas, and performed as o…

Bionote: Sundeep Bhandari is the Founder Trustee for Craft and Community Development Foundation and Gondwana Art Project. He has been a veteran of the oil and gas industry in India. He was responsible for establishing the projects for Cairn Energy in India which led to the discovery and development of significant projects contributing to over 25% of India’s domestic oil production. Sundeep advised many international companies for oil and gas projects in India and overseas, and severed as Board m…

Bionote: Rouble Nagi is a social worker and activist and an author; she is the Founder of Rouble Nagi Art Foundation. Born in a small village in Jammu & Kashmir to Sikh parents and growing up as an army officer's daughter in Military cantonments all over the country has influenced her work and love for the nation. Rouble Nagi has been a social worker and activist all of her adult life, and believes that learning to extend the range of our compassion is activity and work available to all. She is …