Gateway Litfest – One Venue, Countless Voices

Kannada short story collection wins International Booker

Writer, activist and lawyer Banu Mushtaq’s short story collection ‘Heart Lamp’ became the first Kannada title to win the…

Vinod Kumar Shukla from Chhattisgarh wins Jnanpith Prominent senior Hindi litterateur Vinod Kumar Shukla will be awarded the 59th…

Akademi changes award procedure

A new system is being introduced this year for inviting books for selection procedure of the country’s most prestigious…

Writer of the year

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Laxman Gaikwad (2024)

Laxman Maruti Gaikwad, hailing from Latur district of Maharashtra, is one of the most prominent names in Marathi literature. His best known work, The Branded, the English translation of his autobiographical novel Uchalaya is considered to be a masterpiece in Marathi literature. This novel brought him several international and national recognitions including Mahashtra Gaurav Puraskar and Sahitya Akademi award. The work for the first time brought to the world of letters the trials and tribulations of his tribe, Uchalya which means pilferers. The term was coined by the British, classifying them as a criminal tribe.

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Urmila Pawar (2020)

The great Marathi writer Urmila is known for her frank and direct style of writing, which reflects her own experiences of the myriad difficulties of being a woman and that, too,a Dalit.

Her 2003 autobiography Aaidan (The Weave of My Life: A Dalit Woman’s Memoirs) is a poignant story of her own life as the child of a Dalit family—that began in a little hamlet in the Konkan region of Maharashtra. Born in into a Hindu Mahar family, her family later adopted Buddhism.

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Manoranjan Byapari (2019)

The convict-turned-rickshaw puller-turned writer is a socio-political activist. Known as the pioneer of Dalit literature in Bengali, he was nakedly illiterate till he was sentenced to a jail term, from where he learnt to read and write. And since then, there was looking back and today he is the author of over a dozen novels and over a 100 short-stories, apart from quite a few non-fictions.

Born in the undivided Bangladesh, his family was living in refugee camps in Bengal. But as a child, he left home to do errand jobs to eke out a living in different cities in Assam, Lucknow, Delhi and Allahabad. He was jailed, for his links with the Naxals.

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Baby Halder (2018)

Written originally in Bengali, it was later translated into 24 languages, including 13 foreign languages. Born in Jammu and Kashmir, Halder now lives in 24.Parganas, West Bengal. She was featured in all major periodicals and newspapers in India and abroad, including The Sunday Times and The New York Times. A documentary film on Baby Halder has been made by Anu Menon from the London School of Films and features on her have been telecast by almost all TV channels including Doordarshan, NDTV, Aaj Tak, Star News, Channel 7, BBC and CNN. Aalo Andhari was translated in to English in 2006 as ‘A Life Less Ordinary’ and released by noted actor and activist Nandita Das.

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Haldhar Nag (2017)

Best known as Lok Kabi Ratna. Haldhar Nag is a Sambalpuri language poet and writer from Odisha, India. Nag was born in a poor family of Ghens in Bargarh district of Odisha on March 31, 1950. He lost his father at the age of ten.

Gateway LitFest unveils new logo at a function at the Mumbai Press Club on Friday.

The Gateway LitFest (GLF) brings India’s regional voices to life, celebrating languages and countless tales in a symphony of culture and tradition. Bridging worlds with translation, digital innovation, and cross-cultural exchanges, GLF crafts a boundless tapestry of literary unity.

Our nation, celebrated as the cradle of Sanskrit and classical literature, boasts a rich linguistic heritage with 22 major languages, 13 scripts, and over 720 dialects. With a thriving publishing industry that produces more than 100,000 new titles annually; many of them are exceptional works in regional languages. A few literary enthusiasts were inspired to create a platform to bring regional literature into the mainstream.

To create a space where both established and emerging writers from every Indian language unite, share insights, foster unity, and amplify the richness of our literary heritage to the world.

To create an ecosystem where every regional literary stream flourishes and reaches its fullest potential, enabling every Indian author, regardless of language receive the recognition they deserve at the highest levels.

To create an ecosystem where every regional literary stream flourishes and reaches its fullest potential, enabling every Indian author, regardless of language receive the recognition they deserve at the highest levels.

To create a space where both established and emerging writers from every Indian language unite, share insights, foster unity, and amplify the richness of our literary heritage to the world.

Harish Bhat

Narayana Bhattathiri

Manu S Pillai

Meena Kandasamy

Bhalchandra Nemade

Shashi Tharoor

Prahlad Kakar

Arundhathi Subramaniam

Payal Kapadia

Kiran Rao

Achyut Palav

July 4-5, 2025

The Royal Opera House, a timeless symbol of Mumbai’s cultural legacy has been home to history and grandeur since its royal inauguration over a century ago.

A series of community-driven micro events under the GLF umbrella hosted at local libraries, book clubs, colleges, literary clubs and other institutes. The goal is to foster meaningful connections among book lovers across cities and towns through lively discussions centered around diverse topics.

Gateway LitFest’s visual identity adopts the elegance of Indian calligraphy, blending diverse scripts to symbolize inclusivity. The identity mark is subtly shaped as GLF, fusing a pen nib with an open book – a nod to storytelling and the festival’s legacy.

Adoor Gopalakrishnan

Chairman

Adoor, as this master of imaginations is fondly called, needs no introduction. His contribution to the world of cinema, both Indian and international, during the past half-a-century is unparalleled. Adoor launched himself into the universe of cinema with Swayamvaram (One’s Own Choice) way back in 1972, kicking off a new wave in filmmaking. Since then, the ace story-teller has been enthralling the world with many classics.
His repertoire of avant-garde films include Kodiyettam (Ascent), Elippathayam (Rat Trap), Mukhamukham (Face to Face), Anantaram (Monologue), Mathilukal (The Walls), Vidheyan, (The Servile), Nizhalkkuthu (Shadow Kill) and Kathapurushan (Man of the Story). His latest movie Pinneyum (Once Again) was launched mid-2016.
Adoor received the national award for best film twice and for best director five times. Elippathayam has won the prestigious British Film Institute Award in 1982. He has won the International Film Critics Prize six times in a row.
Wisconsin University in the US has opened an archive of his films and set up a research fund. It stores all of his films in 35-mm format, in Blue-Ray discs and DVDs. Adoor’s movies are already included in the curriculum on Asian cinema at Colorado and a couple of other American universities.
Adoor has also secured a name for himself as an author with four books on cinema. His first book received the national award for best book on cinema and his collection of essays titled Cinema Samskaram got him the Kerala Sahitya Akademi award. For his contributions to world of cinema, the nation honoured this master story-teller and filmmaker with a Padma Shri in 1984 and Padma Vibhushan in 2006. He is also a recipient of nation’s highest honour for cinema, the Dada Phalke Award, in 2004.
Adoor heads the Gateway LitFest advisory panel as the chairman.

Pratibha Ray

One of the most revered women writers in our literary history, Pratibha is a household name in her home state of Odisha with a number of best sellers. The nation honoured her with the Jnanpith in 2011. She began writing at the tender age of nine and her first novel Barsha Basanta Baishakha in 1974 instantly became a best-seller for its treatment of social issues and readability among semi-literate and literate readers. Her writings overflow with boldness, revolt and humanism and each of them searches for a social order based on equality, love, peace and integration. She has penned 21 novels, 25 short-story collections, 14 travelogues, two poetry books and three essay collections. Her novel Jajnaseni has notched up 90 editions in Odia. She is the only woman writer till date to win the Moortidevi award. An eminent educationist, Pratibha is a PhD in educational psychology and holds a post-doctoral degree in tribalism and criminology. Madam, we’re privileged to have you here again for the second time amidst us.

Sitanshu Yashaschandra

Sitanshu is among the most eminent representatives of contemporary Gujarati literature. A much celebrated poet and playwright, he is also a critical theorist, translator and academic. His creative, critical and academic works have received wide acclaim in the country and elsewhere. He has received the Kendra Sahitya Akademi award in 1987.
Sitanshu has been invited to recite his poems at many international literary fora in Paris, Berlin, Frankfurt, Stuttgard, Moscow, New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Seoul etc and also in Delhi, Jaipur, Shimla, Chandigarh, Kolkata, Guwahati, Patna, Bangalore, Thiruvananthapuram, Hyderabad etc.
A Fulbright Scholar and a Ford West European Fellowship recipient, Sitanshu has a Doctorate in comparative literature from US and another Doctorate in Indian poetics from Mumbai. He has been a professor and chair of Gujarati at the MS University, Baroda, from 1972, and has been a visiting professor at the Sorbonne University in Paris & University of Pennsylvania.

Subodh Sarkar

The prolific Bengali and English writer and poet with over thirty titles, Subodh is an Associate Professor of English at the City College, Calcutta University, a Fulbright Fellow for 2016/17, a visiting professor of English at the University of Iowa, US, and a participating poet at the International Writing Program of the University of Iowa, apart from chairing state-run Kobita (poetry) Academy. From 2010 to 2016 Subodh was the guest editor of the Indian Literature, the flagship journal of the Kendra Sahitya Akademi.
He has participated in many international seminars held in France, Greece, the US, Canada and Taiwan. His works, mostly in Bengali, have been well recognised, and has bagged many prestigious honours like the Sahitya Akademi award and Bangabhushan award from the Bengal government.

Bose Krishnamachari

An internationally acclaimed painter and artist-curator, Bose is the founder-member and president of the Kochi Biennale Foundation, the organisers of Kochi-Muziris Biennale that has redefined the public approach to contemporary arts. An alumnus of the Sir JJ School of Arts, Mumbai, and the Goldsmiths College of the University of London, Bose’s works comprise vivid abstract paintings, figurative drawings, sculptures, photography, multimedia installations and architecture.
A recipient of many an award, including the Kerala Lalitha Kala Akademi award (1985), British Council Travel award (1993), Mid-America Arts Alliance award (1996), Chales Wallace India Trust award (1999-2000), and the Life Time Fellowship award by the Kerala Lalita Kala Akademi, Bose was also the first runner-up for the Bose Pacia Prize for Modern Art in New York in 2001. He was the guest of honor at the Arco, Madrid in 2009.

Laxman Gaikwad

The Marathi novelist Laxman is best-known for his work The Branded, the English translation of his autobiographical novel Uchalaya that brought him international recognition. His other notable novels include Dubang, Chini Mathachi Divas, Samaj Sahitya Ani Swathantra, Wadar Vedna, Vakila Pardhi, Utav and A Swathantra Konasat. Laxman has won several awards, including the Sahitya Akademi, Sahitya Ratna, Anna Bahu Sathe Puraskar, Saarc Literary award, Saarc Writers’ award, Maharashtra Foundation award, Limca Book award, Gunther Sontheimer Memorial award, and Maharastra Gourav Puraskar.

Vijay Sarupria

Vijay Sarupria is a self-employed, IT, Agrotech expert. He holds Fellowship (F.S.L. Sc.) by the Society of Life-Science, London (UK). Started with a corporate job in the early 90s, he setup an IT consulting firm in early 2000 after the DOT com burst, partnering with Tata’s, and was instrumental in launching many products in the IT and Internet space. Sarupria founded Better Planet to work on several aspects to make our planet a better place to live – a concept to give back to society. He is also Vice President of a charitable organization Sarupria is a passionate reader and has written three books: The Unroaming World, The Torn Jeans & Toki…Boki. He serves as the Chairman of Gateway LitFest Alphabets, the programme wing of the Gateway LitFest.

Uma da Cunha

Uma has been closely associated with the Film Society Movement playing a key role in taking Indian cinema to the global audience and bringing the world cinema to our side of the globe. After a Masters in English from Delhi University, and a degree from Richmond University in the US, Uma began her carrier in advertising where she spent over a decade. In 1974, she quit advertising and joined the Directorate of Film Festivals in New Delhi where she worked for three years. Since the mid-1990s she is the India representative at the Toronto International Film Festival.
Uma is also associated with the New York Film Festival for Indian films. As a film journalist, writer and researcher, she has edited the first complete biography on Satyajit Ray titled Montage Monograph, which she published in her maiden name Uma Krupanidhi in 1967. Since 1975, she has been writing a chapter on Indian cinema for the renowned British magazine The International Film Guide.

S Prasannarajan

Prasannarajan is an editor and essayist who writes on politics, books and ideas. Having worked with the Times of India, the Indian Express and the India Today in the past, he currently edits the Open Magazine. He lives between New Delhi and London.

Sachin Ketkar

The Baroda-based Sachin is a bilingual writer, translator, editor and critic, with a collection of poems in Marathi and English. Apart from translating and editing an anthology of Marathi poetry titled Live Update, Sachin has also translated short-stories and poems from Gujarati and Marathi into English. He holds a PhD in translation studies and is currently a professor at the English department of the MS University, Baroda.
He has worked as a contributing editor to the New Quest, a journal for participatory cultural enquiry, from Mumbai. His style of poetry is hailed as “unusually paradoxical” as his poems are both too self-centred and outwardly at the same time. His works mostly reflect the world in an exceedingly personal way while his topics are mostly very mundane and un-poetic but written in an exceptionally imaginative way.

C. Gouridasan Nair

Gouridasan is a senior Kerala-based journalist with over three decades of experience. Currently, he is the associate editor and chief of bureau of the Hindu in Thiruvananthapuram. He is equally visible and active in the Malayalam electronic media, being a regular at live television debates and news programmes as an expert on the state’s politics and society.
The eldest son of prominent Malayalam writer, the late Vaikom Chandrasekharan Nair, Gouridasan has won many awards for his journalistic excellence.

A J Thomas

Indian English poet, and translator with more than 20 books. He was Editor of Indian Literature, and later, its Guest Editor for about seven years in two stints. Has M.Phil, and PhD degrees in English(Translation Studies). Taught English in Benghazi University, Ajdabiya Branch, Libya from 2008 to 2014. Was also a Senior Consultant at IGNOU. Translator of illustrious writers like O.N.V. Kurup, Paul Zacharia and M. Mukundan and editor of books by U.R. Anantha Murthy. Co-edited Best of Indian Literature (1500 pages in two books and four volumes, Sahitya Akademi). His latest contribution (November 2023) is The Greatest Malayalam Stories Ever Told an anthology of 50 short stories which are modern classics of the last 100 years selected and translated by him, published by Aleph Book Company, New Delhi. A recipient of Katha Award, AKMG Prize (which enabled him to tour USA, UK and Europe in 1997) and Vodafone Crossword Award (2007). Holder of Senior Fellowship, Department of Culture, Govt. of India and was Honorary Fellow, Department of Culture, Government of South Korea. He has been invited as a Guest Speaker in writers’ conferences and readings in South Korea(thrice), Australia, Thailand, Hong Kong and Nepal, besides centres all over India.

Mohan Kakanadan
Gateway LitFest Secretariat
2105-06, Cyber One
Sector 30A, Vashi
Navi Mumbai 400703
Mob: 9820556869/ 8208913112
Email: gatewaylitfest@gmail.com

Writer of the year

Harish Bhat

Narayana Bhattathiri

Manu S Pillai

Meena Kandasamy

Bhalchandra Nemade

Shashi Tharoor

Prahlad Kakar

Arundhathi Subramaniam

Payal Kapadia

Kiran Rao

Achyut Palav

July 4-5, 2025

Adoor Gopalakrishnan

Chairman

Pratibha Ray

Sitanshu Yashaschandra

Subodh Sarkar

Bose Krishnamachari

Laxman Gaikwad

Vijay Sarupria

Uma da Cunha

S Prasannarajan

Sachin Ketkar

C. Gouridasan Nair

A J Thomas

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