Anita Roy
Anita Roy is Senior Commissioning Editor with Young Zubaan, Associate Editor at Geo magazine, and a freelance writer, enthusiastic storyteller and mother of one. She is a consultant on the Jumpstart series for the German Book Office New Delhi and was one of the founders of the Bookaroo Children's Literature Festival.
www.zubaanbooks.com
Anshumani Ruddra
Anshumani Ruddra is an author, game designer and screenwriter based in Bangalore. He predominantly writes in the speculative fiction genre. He conducts workshops for children and college students in the areas of writing, speculative fiction, scriptwriting and comic books.
He is the author of India’s first multiplayer gamebook for young adults, ‘The Enemy of My Enemy’, and its sequel ‘Banana Republic’. His short stories have appeared in several collections.
www.ruddra.net
Anushka Ravishankar
Anushka Ravishankar is a widely published children's author whose books have been translated into German, French, Spanish, Italian, Korean and Dutch. She has been invited to various international and national literary festivals. Anushka is also a playwright and has written plays for both adults and children. She has been an editor at Tara Books and is currently working with Scholastic India.
www.scholastic.co.in
Bhajju Shyam
Bhajju Shyam was born in the Gond tribal village of Patangarh. He has been paying tribute to his Gond tradition through his art since the age of 16. In 2001 he received a state award for ‘Best Indigeneous Artist’. He has been included in the prestigious International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY) 2010 Honors List, in the Illustrators category, for his art in ‘That's How I See Things’. His work has been exhibited in several countries including, France, the UK, Germany, Holland and Russia.
Anshumani Ruddra is an author, game designer and screenwriter based in Bangalore. He predominantly writes in the speculative fiction genre. He conducts workshops for children and college students in the areas of writing, speculative fiction, scriptwriting and comic books.
He is the author of India’s first multiplayer gamebook for young adults, ‘The Enemy of My Enemy’, and its sequel ‘Banana Republic’. His short stories have appeared in several collections.
www.ruddra.net
Anushka Ravishankar
Anushka Ravishankar is a widely published children's author whose books have been translated into German, French, Spanish, Italian, Korean and Dutch. She has been invited to various international and national literary festivals. Anushka is also a playwright and has written plays for both adults and children. She has been an editor at Tara Books and is currently working with Scholastic India.
www.scholastic.co.in
Bhajju Shyam
Bhajju Shyam was born in the Gond tribal village of Patangarh. He has been paying tribute to his Gond tradition through his art since the age of 16. In 2001 he received a state award for ‘Best Indigeneous Artist’. He has been included in the prestigious International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY) 2010 Honors List, in the Illustrators category, for his art in ‘That's How I See Things’. His work has been exhibited in several countries including, France, the UK, Germany, Holland and Russia.
Bhimayana Team: Durgabai Vyam & Subhash Vyam, S. Anand
Durgabai Vyam and Subhash Vyam are Pardhan Gond artists belonging to the same clan as the legendary Jangarh Singh Shyam. The artist-couple lives in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh. Durgabai has won acclaim for her paintings and for illustrations for several books, including the BolognaRagazzi Award in 2008. Subhash is an accomplished sculptor and works with multiple mediums. ‘Bhimayana’ is their first graphic book.
S. Anand is the publisher of the anti-caste imprint Navayana. Prior to that, he was a journalist for ten years.
www.navayana.org
Durgabai Vyam and Subhash Vyam are Pardhan Gond artists belonging to the same clan as the legendary Jangarh Singh Shyam. The artist-couple lives in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh. Durgabai has won acclaim for her paintings and for illustrations for several books, including the BolognaRagazzi Award in 2008. Subhash is an accomplished sculptor and works with multiple mediums. ‘Bhimayana’ is their first graphic book.
S. Anand is the publisher of the anti-caste imprint Navayana. Prior to that, he was a journalist for ten years.
www.navayana.org
Christine Morault, MeMo Publishers
MeMo Editions publishes art and story books for young readers. It was founded in 1993 by Christine Morault & Yves Mestrallet. Christine has an art background and Yves is an architect.
All their books are designed and published with the greatest care. Each picture book has special customised typeface, format and colours and is printed on thick art paper. MeMo’s aim is to create and produce books that feel like they were each, individually handcrafted. MeMo also works to make their books accessible to all.
A small team of six people, they publish about 30 titles each year.
Christopher Lloyd
Christopher Lloyd has had a broad and comprehensive career as a journalist, writer and as a general manager in the education business. In January 2001, after 10 years with News International, he was recruited to become chief executive of Immersive Education. In 2006 he left Immersive Education to travel around Europe with his wife and two children, who are home-educated. The time spent on the road inspired him to come up with the concept of ‘What on Earth Happened?’ Christopher now divides his time between writing, publishing and giving lectures to schools, museums and literary festivals.
www.whatonearthbooks.com
Devdutt Pattanaik
Devdutt Pattanaik studied medicine but decided he loves telling stories better. He feels stories are like eclairs - if you chew long enough, you get a burst of chocolate that is locked inside. So rather than working in the pharmaceutical industry and selling medicines to doctors, he decided to write and tell sacred stories and reveal the idea-chocolate locked within them. He believes these sacred stories are the gifts of our ancestors. He has been doing this for a long time and even uses the wisdom of these stories to help businesses. He is currently Chief Belief Officer of Future Group.
www.devdutt.com
Eva von Jordan-Bonin
Eva von Jordan-Bonin has been Head of the School Library Division of the Public Library Frankfurt/Main since 1998, and Deputy Director of the Public Library since 2006.In addition to management responsibilities and the continuous advancement of services offered by the School Library Division, designing and implementing further training opportunities for various target groups make up an important part of her tasks. From 2003 to 2009, Eva von Jordan-Bonin managed the ‘Library and School’ expert panel of the German Library Association (DBV).
www.stadtbuecherei.frankfurt.de/sba
Helga Hoffman
Helga Hofmann, graduate librarian, has a wide range of professional experience in various fields of library work. From 1992 to 2000, she was chief librarian of a public library and manager of a branch library. Since 2000 she has been Deputy Head of the School Library Division of the Public Library Frankfurt/Main. Her main areas of responsibilities are centrally organized and managed services – including media processing. She is also in charge of the implementation of school library projects and reading promotion programs. She is an active member of the ‘Library and School’ expert panel of the German Library Association and is nationally and internationally active with consultancy assignments, lectures, and workshops.
www.stadtbuecherei.frankfurt.de/sba
Karthika V.K.
Karthika V.K is responsible for the growth and vision of the local publishing programme including the management of the editorial and rights teams at HarperCollins India. She joined HarperCollins India in 2006 from Penguin India, where she served as Executive Editor and Rights Director, with the additional roles of Publisher- Puffin, Ladybird and Penguin Malayalam. Boasting a premier track record and 11 years in the publishing industry, Karthika has helped to build many top writers and brands.
www.harpercollins.co.in
Kenn Nesbitt
Kenn Nesbitt is an award-winning children’s poet. His poems have appeared in several bestselling anthologies, including the popular series ‘Kids Pick the Funniest Poems’. His works have also been included in school textbooks across the world, and numerous children's magazines. He has also been featured in several television programmes. Kenn intteracts with children in schools as well as online. His website - Poetry4Kids, is one of the most popular and visited children's poetry websites.
www.poetry4kids.com
Ministry of Stories: Lucy Macnab and Ben Payne
The Ministry of Stories was founded by Nick Hornby and co-directors Lucy Macnab and Ben Payne. Hidden away at the back of The Monster Shop (where else would you expect it?), the Ministry of Stories provides a free space for fresh writing by young people. The MoS is inspired by young people, and aims to inspire them to transform their lives through writing.
Lucy Macnab has a background in participation, writer development and teaching and learning. Her work is about finding ways to help people tell their stories: in print, performance, digitally and through collaboration. Most recently, Lucy was Participation Producer for Literature at Southbank Centre, where among many projects she created the Global Poetry System website, a children’s production of ‘The Rime of the Ancient Mariner’ and an oral history of the Royal Festival Hall.
Ben Payne is a writer, director and dramaturg, specialising in new writing for theatre. He was previously Literary Manager and Associate Director at Birmingham Repertory Theatre where he established ‘Transmissions’, the company’s ground-breaking young playwrights’ scheme and programmed the work of ‘The Door’, the Rep’s new writing theatre.
www.ministryofstories.org
Marc Aronson
Marc Aronson is a member of the graduate faculty of the School of Communication and Information Science at Rutgers University where he shares print and digital materials for children and teenagers, with students seeking a Masters in Library and Information Science. A historian by training, he is the author of many award-winning works of non-fiction.
www.marcaronson.com
Marina Budhos
Marina Budhos is an author of award-winning fiction and nonfiction. Her latest book, Sugar Changed the World: A Story of Magic, Spice, Slavery, Freedom & Science, co-authored with her husband Marc Aronson, is a 2010 Los Angeles Times Book Award Finalist. Her prior novel, Ask Me No Questions, was an ALA Notable and winner of the first James Cook Teen Book Award and is currently being developed as a feature film. She has also written two other YA books: Tell Us We're Home and Remix: Conversations with Immigrant Teenagers. Ms. Budhos has received an EMMA (Exceptional Merit Media Award), a Rona Jaffe Award for Women Writers, and a Fellowship from the New Jersey Council on the Arts.
Paro Anand
Paro Anand has published over 20 books for children and is a performance storyteller. She runs a program - Literature in Action. She holds the world record for helping 3000 children make the world's longest newspaper.
www.paroanand.com
Radhika Menon
Radhika Menon’s deep interest in children and their reading, inspired her to set up Tulika Publishers in 1996. Fifteen years and around 1000 titles later, Tulika is regarded as the benchmark of children’s publishing in India, producing books in nine languages – English, Hindi, Tamil, Malayalam, Telugu, Kannada, Marathi, Gujarati and Bangla. Tulika’s publishing philosophy is underlined by the belief that translating across different languages gives voice and image to cultural diversity in a way publishing in one language does not. A hands-on publisher, she is closely involved with the visualising, editing, designing and marketing of all Tulika books.
www.tulikabooks.com
Paro Anand has published over 20 books for children and is a performance storyteller. She runs a program - Literature in Action. She holds the world record for helping 3000 children make the world's longest newspaper.
www.paroanand.com
Radhika Menon
Radhika Menon’s deep interest in children and their reading, inspired her to set up Tulika Publishers in 1996. Fifteen years and around 1000 titles later, Tulika is regarded as the benchmark of children’s publishing in India, producing books in nine languages – English, Hindi, Tamil, Malayalam, Telugu, Kannada, Marathi, Gujarati and Bangla. Tulika’s publishing philosophy is underlined by the belief that translating across different languages gives voice and image to cultural diversity in a way publishing in one language does not. A hands-on publisher, she is closely involved with the visualising, editing, designing and marketing of all Tulika books.
www.tulikabooks.com
Ram Kumar
Ram Kumar is a traveller, angler, writer and carpenter. He runs Last Resort, a company focused on reversing information entropy. A nuclear physicist with a PGDM from IIM Ahmedabad, Prof. Kumar has a rich and diverse experience of over 23 years that includes working in multinationals, Indian private sectors, government, NGO, Section 25 and TRIPS organizations along with teaching, training and consulting.
Ram Kumar is a traveller, angler, writer and carpenter. He runs Last Resort, a company focused on reversing information entropy. A nuclear physicist with a PGDM from IIM Ahmedabad, Prof. Kumar has a rich and diverse experience of over 23 years that includes working in multinationals, Indian private sectors, government, NGO, Section 25 and TRIPS organizations along with teaching, training and consulting.
Reena Puri
Reena Puri is Editor at ACK-Media. Reena has led the team in the revival of the Amar Chitra Katha series. Helping create a new range of picture story books for younger readers in the narrative format which come under the series – ‘Amar Chitra Katha Junior’ and ‘Tumku and the Jungle of Adventure’.
Reena worked directly under the legendary Anant Pai. She was Associate Editor of Tinkle from 1991 to 2005.
www.ack-media.com
Samit Basu
Samit Basu is an Indian writer of novels, short stories, comics and screenplays. He has written five bestselling fantasy novels starting at the age of 23. Samit’s first young adult novel was released in summer 2010 as Scholastic India's lead title. His new novel, ‘Turbulence’, is currently Hachette India's most successful Indian title.
Samit has written several short stories in anthologies for adults and children. In comics, he has written two series, ‘Devi’ and ‘The Tall Tales of Vishnu Sharma’, and a graphic novel, ‘Untouchable’, co-written with Mike Carey (Lucifer, X-Men).
www.samitbasu.com
Reena Puri is Editor at ACK-Media. Reena has led the team in the revival of the Amar Chitra Katha series. Helping create a new range of picture story books for younger readers in the narrative format which come under the series – ‘Amar Chitra Katha Junior’ and ‘Tumku and the Jungle of Adventure’.
Reena worked directly under the legendary Anant Pai. She was Associate Editor of Tinkle from 1991 to 2005.
www.ack-media.com
Samit Basu
Samit Basu is an Indian writer of novels, short stories, comics and screenplays. He has written five bestselling fantasy novels starting at the age of 23. Samit’s first young adult novel was released in summer 2010 as Scholastic India's lead title. His new novel, ‘Turbulence’, is currently Hachette India's most successful Indian title.
Samit has written several short stories in anthologies for adults and children. In comics, he has written two series, ‘Devi’ and ‘The Tall Tales of Vishnu Sharma’, and a graphic novel, ‘Untouchable’, co-written with Mike Carey (Lucifer, X-Men).
www.samitbasu.com
Sampurna Chattarji
Sampurna Chattarji is a poet, novelist and translator with eight books to her credit. Her translation of Sukumar Ray’s poetry and prose Wordygurdyboom! is a Puffin Classic. Her books for children include Mulla Nasruddin (Puffin 2008), Three Brothers and the Flower of Gold (Scholastic 2008) and The Fried Frog and other Funny Freaky Foodie Feisty Poems (Scholastic 2009). Her latest books for adults are her novel Rupture (HarperCollins, 2009) and her second poetry book Absent Muses (Poetrywala, 2010). Her second novel, The Land of the Well, will be out in October 2011 from HarperCollins.
www.sampurnachattarji.wordpress.com/
Sampurna Chattarji is a poet, novelist and translator with eight books to her credit. Her translation of Sukumar Ray’s poetry and prose Wordygurdyboom! is a Puffin Classic. Her books for children include Mulla Nasruddin (Puffin 2008), Three Brothers and the Flower of Gold (Scholastic 2008) and The Fried Frog and other Funny Freaky Foodie Feisty Poems (Scholastic 2009). Her latest books for adults are her novel Rupture (HarperCollins, 2009) and her second poetry book Absent Muses (Poetrywala, 2010). Her second novel, The Land of the Well, will be out in October 2011 from HarperCollins.
www.sampurnachattarji.wordpress.com/
Sekhar Mukherjee
Sekhar Mukerjee heads the animation film design department in National Institute of Design (NID). Sekhar has varied experience in both media and education- working as a teacher, cartoonist, illustrator, graphic novelist, in film production, consultancy and writing. Since 2007 he has been curating the Biennale, ‘Chitrakatha’ - a festival of animation and comics, held in NID.
www.nid.edu
Shobha Viswanath
Children’s writer and educator, Shobha is Publishing Director and co-founder of Karadi Tales Company. A postgraduate in Literature from the University of Bombay and in Special Education from Eastern Michigan University, Shobha has worked as a consultant for several schools, developing resource material for children with learning difficulties. She has also directed workshops for teachers and parents on early childhood learning. Shobha has written over 25 books for children.
www.karaditales.com/
Children’s writer and educator, Shobha is Publishing Director and co-founder of Karadi Tales Company. A postgraduate in Literature from the University of Bombay and in Special Education from Eastern Michigan University, Shobha has worked as a consultant for several schools, developing resource material for children with learning difficulties. She has also directed workshops for teachers and parents on early childhood learning. Shobha has written over 25 books for children.
www.karaditales.com/
Siddhartha Sarma
Siddhartha Sarma is a journalist and writer based in Delhi. His debut novel, ‘The Grasshopper's Run’, won the 2009 Vodafone-Crossword Children's Book Award.
www.edain.blogspot.com
Sirish Rao
Sirish Rao is the author of 20 books, ranging from commentaries on popular culture to children’s books, fiction and retellings of Greek plays. He is also a former Director of the award winning visual arts publisher Tara Books.
Sirish lives between Canada and India and is the Director of Idefix & Co. www.idefixandco.com a publishing, arts and culture consultancy, working with publishers, museums and cultural institutions around the world. He is also the Artistic Director of Indian Summer (a festival of arts and ideas) www.indiansummerfestival.ca
Sirish lives between Canada and India and is the Director of Idefix & Co. www.idefixandco.com a publishing, arts and culture consultancy, working with publishers, museums and cultural institutions around the world. He is also the Artistic Director of Indian Summer (a festival of arts and ideas) www.indiansummerfestival.ca
Suzanne Singh
Suzanne Singh is the Managing Trustee of Pratham Books, a not for profit, multi lingual children’s book publisher. She has a deep interest in education and believes that producing quality books that are affordable in languages that children speak and learn in will democratize the joy of reading. She also serves on the boards of Akshara Foundation and United Way Bengaluru.
www.prathambooks.org
Trisha Ray
Trisha Ray is an undergraduate student of English literature at Jadavpur University. She lives in Kolkata with her family and a vintage collection of Polynesian stamps. In her spare time, she likes reading SF/F books, watching action movies in which everyone dies at the end and practising roundhouse kicks on a resigned brown cushion in a vain attempt to get back into prime karateka form.
Umesh Malhotra
Umesh Malhotra’s vision is to inspire children to read more and improve their ability to absorb their education. He believes encouraging reading, especially among young children, will result in better learning. His approach is novel in customising solutions for different socio-economic classes. Umesh endeavours to make reading fun for children.
Umesh is the CEO and founder of Hippocampus. In 2008, he was selected an Ashoka fellow for the pioneering work done by him in the area of promoting reading for children.
www.hrfindia.org
Usha Mukunda
Usha Mukunda has more than 25 years of experience in working with school libraries, children, teachers, librarians, writers and other book lovers. She has also started her own school and has worked with various organizations and agencies including the Karnataka Library Association, NCERT, local governments and schools across India – both rural and urban. In August 2009 she was given the Karnataka State award for her service to school libraries. Usha is passionate about books and encouraging reading among India’s youth – and continues to work tirelessly in this field, by conducting seminars and workshops, writing in various media, and organizing book related cultural activities.
www.cfl.in
