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Sangam House comes to Chennai

Actor-writer Tom Alter

A clutch of well known writers will read from their works and interact with the audience at an event organised by Sangam House International Writers Residency on January 5 at The Park hotel. Among them are Tom Alter, Salma, Sharanya Manivannan, Leonora Christina Skov, Joshua Furst, Susan Mridula Koshy, N. S. Koenings and Lavanya Sankaran.

Here are brief bios of the writers:

Tom Alter’s (India) writing include books like The Longest Race, Rerun at Rialto, and The Best in the World. Tom is an avid cricket fan and a sports journalist. He has written extensively in sports journals.

Sharanya Manivannan (India) writes fiction and poetry. As a spoken word artist, she has performed extensively since 2001. Her first full-length book of poems, published in October 2008, is Witchcraft. She is working on a novel, Constellation of Scars.

Salma (India) writes in Tamil. Her poems and her novel have been translated into English and published in India. She is currently working on a collection of short stories.

N.S. Koenings (US) is a fiction-writer and visual artist. Her novel, The Blue Taxi, was published in 2006 by Little, Brown and Company, followed by her short story collection, Theft, in 2008. Holder of a Dutch passport, she was born in Belgium and grew up in East Africa and Europe. She is currently working on two projects in prose and experimenting with the graphic novel form.

Leonora Christina Skov (Denmark ) is a novelist based in Copenhagen. She has published the highly acclaimed novels Champagnepigen (The Good Time Girl, 2007), and Rygsvømmeren (The Backstroke Swimmer, 2003). She has also published a couple of children’s books, an introduction to queer theory, and a feminist anthology. She holds a Masters Degree in Comparative Literature and works as a debater and high profile literary critic for Danish weekly Weekendavisen.

Joshua Furst (US) is the author of the novel, The Sabotage Café, and a collection of stories, Short People. His work has been published in a variety of journals and periodicals, including the Chicago Tribune, Conjunctions and PEN America. He teaches at The Pratt Institute.

Lavanya Sankaran’s (India ) works have been published in the Atlantic Monthly and the Wall Street Journal. She attended Bryn Mawr College and has worked in investment banking in New York and as a consultant in India. Her The Red Carpet: Bangalore Stories brought to life the new and old social worlds of Bangalore.