K. Satchidanandan

He worked from 1996 to 2006, as the secretary of Sahitya Akademi. He returned to teaching after retiring from Sahitya Akademi, and worked as Director and Professor of the School of Translation Studies and Training at the Indira Gandhi National Open University in New Delhi until 2011.

Satchidanandan's literary career began with the publication of 'Kurukshetram', a collection of essays on poetry (1970) and 'Anchusooryan', a collection of poems(1971). Since then he has published several books of poetry, criticism, plays, travelogues and translations of poetry and plays and edited several magazines like 'Jwala', 'Uttaram' and 'Pachakkutira' besides many anthologies of poetry and essays in Malayalam, English, Hindi and Slovenian. He has represented India at several national and international literary events like Valmiki World Poetry Festival (Delhi,1985), Sarajevo Poetry Days (1985), Festival of India in the USSR (1988), Printemps des Poetes, France(2003), Berlin Literary Festival (2005), Frankfurt Book fair (2005, 2006), Paris Book fair (2007), Jaipur International Literary Festival (2008, 9, 10, 11,12), London Book fair (2009), Indo-Arab Literary Festival, Abu Dhabi (2008), Blue Metropolis Literary Festival, Montreal (20110, Hay Festival, Trivandrum, 2011) Rotterdam Poetry Festival (2012), Medellin Poetry Festival (2013), Festival of India in Latin America (2013), Sharjah Book fair (2013) and Vilenica Literary Festival, Slovenia (2014, 2015). This is besides readings in Lahore, Manchester, Dubai, Damascus, Aleppo, Bonn, Rome, Madrid, Avila, Segovia and all major cities in India. One of the most widely anthologised and translated of modern poets in India, he has 32 books of poems in 18 languages. He was given the Indo-Polish Friendship Medal by the Government of Poland in 2005 and the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic in 2006. He was in the Ladbroke list of Nobel probables in 2011. A film on him, 'Summer Rain' was released in 2007.

After his early education in a village school, he was graduated in biology from the Christ College, Irinjalakuda, and had his Masters in English from Maharaja's College, Ernakulam. He obtained his PhD in post-structuralist poetics from the University of Calicut. He joined as a lecturer in English at K.K.T.M. Govt. College, Pulloot in 1968, and moved to Christ College, Irinjalakuda, in 1970 where he became a Professor of English. He voluntarily retired from this post in 1992 to take up the editorship of Indian Literature, the English journal of the Indian National Academy in Delhi. In 1996 he was nominated Secretary, the chief executive, of the Academy, a post from which he retired in 2006. Later he served as a Consultant to the Indian Government's Department of Higher Education and to the National Translation Mission. He also worked as Director, School of Translation Studies and Training at the Indira Gandhi National Open University, Delhi. He edited 'The Katha Library of Indian Literature', 'The Library of South Asian Literature' and Beyond Borders, a journal of South Asian literature and ideas.

K. Satchidanandan (1946) is an Indian poet and critic, writing in Malayalam and English. A pioneer of modern poetry in Malayalam, a bilingual literary critic, playwright, editor, columnist and translator, he is the former editor of Indian Literature journal and the former secretary of Sahitya Akademi. He is also social advocate for secular anti-caste views, supporting causes like environment, human rights and free software and is a well known speaker on issues concerning contemporary Indian literature. He is the festival director of Kerala Literature Festival.

Koyamparambath Satchidanandan was born in 1946 in Pulloot, a village in Kodungallur in the Thrissur District of Kerala.