Description

As I lie dead,

my double would be roaming

the world in revolt

watching the moon rise

in different lands at different hours

turning words with his magic wand

into stars that blossom in every tongue.

No one is just one.

Satchidanandan’s poetry is a lyre with many chords: it may seem light with joking tunes, it can be harsh and nearly cruel: sometimes it seems to unite all these characteristics together, especially when his poems have the form of a dialogue. — Antonio Menniti Ipplito, Italian critic

K Satchidanandan is definitely not a poet who keeps aloof from the world. He is a poet on a journey. Poetry for him is a cry against all walls. — Dr Wolfgang Kubin, German critic

K Satchidanandan (b 1946) is a bilingual poet, critic, playwright, editor, fiction writer and travel writer. He has a doctorate in post-structuralist literary theory; has served as a Professor of English in Kerala, editor of Indian Literature, a bi-monthly published by Sahitya Aakdemi, the Chief Executive of the Academy, Professor and Director of Translation Studies and Training at the Indira Gandhi Open University, Delhi, and National Fellow at the Indian Institute of Advanced Studies, Shimla. He has thirty collections of poetry in Malayalam, nine in English and thirty-three collections in other languages, including Arabic, Irish, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Chinese and Japanese, besides all major Indian languages. This is besides his five books in English on Indian literature and dozens of collections of translations from world poetry and around twenty edited works. He has won fifty awards for poetry/total literary contribution, including the Sahitya Akademi Award, Dante Medal from Italy and Poet Laureate Award from Tata Literature Festival, Bombay, JLF Kanhaiahlal Sethia Award from Jaipur, Rajasthan, Ezhuthachan Award, the highest award for literature from the Govt of Kerala, Mathrubhumi Literary Award, ONV Memorial Award from Kerala University, five awards in five genres from Kerala Sahitya Akademi, besides the topmost awards for poetry and total literary contribution from Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Orissa and Maharashtra. He has read his poetry and lectured at several festivals and bookfairs in over thirty countries in six continents. His latest books of poetry in English include While I Write (HarperCollins), Misplaced Objects and Other Poems (Sahitya Akademi), The Missing Rib, Not Only the Oceans (Poetrywala), The Whispering Tree, No Borders for Me (Hawakal), Questions from the Dead (Copper Coin) Singing in the Dark and Greening the Earth (global anthologies of poetry, both edited with Nishi Chawla, Penguin Random House India). His essays on Indian literature, selected from his five books, Positions, was published by Niyogi Books in 2020 and a collection of resistance writing, Words Matter, edited and introduced by him came out from Penguin Random House in 2018. Satchidanandan lives with his family in Kerala and is at present the President of the Kerala Sahitya Akademi.