Click to read the Journey of Srilata
A poet, an author, a columnist, a translator, a writer-in-residence at the University of Stirling, at Sangam house and at the Yeonhui Art Space in Seoul, co-curator of the Chennai Mathematical Institute Arts Initiative and writing residency, Professor K Srilata teaches English literature.
Education
- Ph.D. English from Central University, Hyderabad – 1998
- M.Phil. English from Central University, Hyderabad, – 1992
- M.A. English from Central University, Hyderabad, – 1990
- B.A. English from Stella Maris College, University of Madras, – 1988
Experience
- Faculty, Department of HUmanities and Social Sciences – 21 years
- Adjunct Professor, Chennai Mathematical Institute
- Courses taught: Creative Writing, Fiction, Advanced English and Translation Studies
- Supervised 5 PhD candidates and 8 post graduate candidates to completion of higher degree research
Research Interests
- Creative Writing Theory
- Poetry
- Indian Literatures in Translation
- Women’s Writing
Funded Research Projects, Fellowships and Writing Grants
- Exploratory Research Project for a project on “Investigating Gynocritics: Interviews with Contemporary women writers in Tamil” (Collaborator: Prof.Swarnalatha, Dept. of HSS, IIT Madras); 2016-2017.
- Writing Grant from the Indo-Korean Foundation, Chennai and the Literature Translation Institute, Korea, October 2012.
- Sangam House Writing Residency (2009-2010)
- Charles Wallace Writing Fellowship cum Residency at the University of Stirling, Scotland, 2010
- Writer in Residence for the 2011 Creative writing workshop conducted by American College, Madurai and the Kodaikanal International school.
- Awarded research grant for a project on translation and women’s writing by the Sunya Foundation, Ahmedabad (March 2001).
- Fulbright Pre-doctoral fellow at the University of California, Santa Cruz, (1995-1996)
- Research project grant from the Professor V.S Sethuraman Centre for Culture Studies at Mozhi: A Trust for Resource Development in Language and Culture, Chennai. The writing of my book titled The Other Half of the Coconut: Women Writing Self-Respect History published by Kali for Women, New Delhi, was partly supported by this grant.
- Principal Investigator, research project on Gender and Tamil magazines at Anveshi, Research Centre for Women’s Studies, Hyderabad (June 1993 to March 1994)
Literary Festivals (Readings/Lectures)
- Invited participant at the Kala ghoda literary and arts festival, Mumbai, 2014, 2015, 2016
- Invited participant at the Seoul International writers festival, 2012
- Invited participant and plenary speaker at the Coimbatore Literature Festival, February 2012
- Reading from my novel Table for Four at Stella Maris College, Chennai.
- Reading from Table for Four, Hyderabad Literary Festival, January 2012 organized by Muse India (Reading from Table for Four)
- Reading with Adil Jussawala (from Arriving Shortly (collection of poems) at the Central University, Hyderabad. January 2012.
- Hindu Lit for Life festival, October 2011, Chennai.
Publications
Academic:
- All the Worlds Between: Indo-Irish Collaborative Poetry Anthology, co-edited with Fiona Bolger, Forthcoming from Yoda Press.
- Mapping the Ahampuram: Interviews with Contemporary Women Writers from Tamilnadu. (Co-edited with Swarnalatha Rangarajan), Forthcoming from Women Unlimited.
- The Rapids of a Great River: The Penguin Book of Tamil Poetry. New Delhi: Penguin/Viking, 2009. (Co-edited with Lakshmi Holmstrom and Subashree Krishnaswamy)
- Short Fiction from South India. (Co-edited with Subashree Krishnaswamy) OUP, Delhi: 2008
- Restoration Age. Tamilnadu Open University course book. (Co-authored with Anuradha Shyam). Chennai: 2004.
- Creative WritingTamilnadu Open University course book. Chennai: 2004.
- The Other Half of the Coconut: Women Writing Self-Respect History (an anthology of women’s writing from the Dravidian Self-Respect movement) published by Kali for Women, New Delhi, 2002.
Fiction, Poetry and Translations:
- Bookmarking the Oasis (a collection of poems). Paperwall/Poetrywala, 2015
- Writing Octopus(collection of poems). New Delhi: Authorspress, 2013.
- Table for Four, Penguin, India, 2011 (Long-listed for the Man Asian Literary Prize, 2009)
- Once there was a girl, translation of the Tamil novel Vattathul by Vatsala. Kolkata: Writers Workshop, 2012.
- Arriving Shortly(collection of poems) Kolkata: Writers Workshop, 2011.
- Seablue Child. Kolkata: the Brown Critique, 2002.
Refereed Research Journal Publications:
- “Ways of Approaching a Poem: Lessons from the Field” in Kavya Bharati No.25, 2013 (pp 139-146)
- “Fissures, Continuities and a Translating Consciousness: A Reading of AK Ramanujan’s Oeuvre” in The Atlantic Critical Review, January-March 2012, Vol.11, No.1 (pp.30-42).
- “Writing, Real Work, Silences” in JSL (Journal of the School of Languages, JNU edited by GJV Prasad). Autumn 2011.
- “Green mountains outside the Kitchen Window: An Eco-critical Reading of Ambai” in Indian Journal of Eco-criticism August 2008 Vol 1. Issue 1 (pp.55- )
- “Dwelling in Place: An Ecocritical Reading of Sangam Poetry” in the ICFAI Journal of English Studies, December 2007, Volume 2, Number 4, pp 47-53.
- “From Subjugation to Celebration: A Study of Bama’s Karukku and Sangati. (co-authored with K.A Geetha in Language Forum Vol.33, No.1. Jan-June 2007. Bahri Publications, New Delhi. (pp.85-98)
- “Slipping Past Patriarchal, Literary Gate-Keepers: Kalki Krishnamurthy and the Formation of a Female Readership”. in Akshara: International Annual Research Journal of Critical and Creative Writing in English. Vol.3, No.3, March 2007. (Published by the Dept. of English, DG Vaishnav College, Chennai) (pp.18-27)
- “Creating a New Constituency of Readers: Chintamani and Jaganmohini, JSL (Journal of the School of Language, Literature and culture Studies,) published by JNU and Pencraft International, Spring 2006.
- “What Creative Writing is not: Some Theoretical and Pedagogic Issues” JEFL, No.34, December 2004
- “Indian Writing in English and Regional Literatures: The Engagement with the Local” in the Year Book of the Goethe Society of India: 2001-2002. Chennai: 2003
- “Looking for Other Stories: Women’s Writing, Self-Respect Movement and the Politics of Feminist Translations” in the journal Inter-Asia Cultural Studies (Routledge), Vol.3, No.3, December 2002
- “The Story of the Up-market Reader: Femina’s ‘New Woman” and the Normative Feminist Subject” in the Journal of Arts and Ideas (April 1999).
- “Gender and the Self-Respect Movement: The Question of Female Agency” in the Enreca Occasional Paper Series (4) published by the Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta (1999).
- “‘Romance’, Post-coloniality, Popular Culture” in the Indian Journal of American Studies (Winter 1993 – Vol.23, No.1)
Book chapters and Contributions to Anthologies/Books:
- “Trained Dogs” and an untitled poem by P.Mathiyalagan in K.Satyanarayana and Susie Tharu ed. No Alphabet in Sight (New Delhi, Penguin, 2011).
- Srilata and EV Ramakrishnan, MA English Part 2, Course 4, “Indian and Other Post-colonial literatures in English, Block 3, Indian writing in English: Poetry. (EFLU, School of Distance Education, 2011). Series editors: T.Sriraman and B.Venkat Rao.
- Translation of Vatsala’s poem “Why didn’t I become a poet?” in Ammu Joseph, Vasanth Kannabiran, Ritu Menon and Volga, Eds.in Interior Decoration: Poems by 54 Women in Ten Languages (New Delhi: Women Unlimited, 2011).
- Translation of Bama’s short story “Venayam” (Worldly Wisdom) published in Samyukta. January 2004.
- Translation of essay by Alhaj Subako in Uma Chakravarthi ed. Shadow Lives: Narratives of Widowhood. New Delhi: Kali for Women, 2002.
- Paper titled “Feminists are Modern, Families are Indian: Women’s Magazines and the Politics of Modernity” in Rosemary George ed. Burning Down the House: Recycling Domesticity (Harper Collins/Westview Press, 1998).
Short Stories (Published after a process of reviewing):
- “These things happen if you don’t watch it” (Accepted by Wasafiri Literary Magazine: An International Journal of Contemporary Literature, Published by Taylor and Francis) Due to appear in September 2013.
- “Game of Asylum Seekers” in Breaking the Bow: Speculative Fiction Inspired by the Ramayana (Edited by Anil Menon and Vandana Singh), Zubaan, 2012 (to be released shortly).
- “Sarasu” in Other People: The Sangam House Reader Vol. I”, Sangam House: 2011. (another version of this appeared in the Little Magazine cited below)
- “State of Whiteness” in The Shrinking Woman and Other Stories. Bangalore: Unisun, 2009
- “How Do I Love Thee?: Let Me Count the Ways”. in The Penguin Book of New Writing From India 2: First Proofs . New Delhi: Penguin, 2006. ays Shortlisted for the TLM New Writing Award, 2006 (New Delhi: the Little Magazine, 2006); also in the Little Magazine. Vol. 5, Issue 4, 2004