Conversation with Poomani

Toto Funds the Arts

and

British Council Library, Bangalore 

are delighted to invite you to meet  

Poomani 

The award-winning Tamil author will be in conversation with journalist Anjana Shekar and his translator N Kalyan Raman. 

The evening will focus on the origins of Poomani’s Vekkai (Heat) and Piragu, the author’s literary journey, his concerns as a writer, and his engagement with the times. Kalyan Raman will speak about his process of translation, particularly in relation to Heat. 

Date: Saturday, 31 August 2019.  Time: 6.30 p.m.

Venue: The British Council Library, Prestige Takt, 23, Kasturba Road Cross (Opposite Visvesvaraya Industrial and Technological Museum), Bangalore 560 001

Bangalore-based actors Anitha Santhanam and Vivek Vijayakumaran will read extracts from Poomani’s novel Heat (Vekkai), the first of his novels to be translated into English.

Poomani, the name by which generations of Tamil readers have known the writer P Manickavasagam, is considered to be among the greatest living writers in Tamil. Poomani has published seven novels and more than 50 short stories. Vekkai was first published in 1982 and its English translation was published as Heat in May 2019 by Juggernaut Books. Both Vekkai, his second novel, and Piragu, his first, are set in a subaltern rural Tamil landscape. The two books established Poomani, then in his mid-thirties, as a new star in the Tamil literary firmament. A 30^th anniversary edition of Vekkai was brought out in 2012, marking its status as a modernist Tamil classic. In 2014, Poomani won the Sahitya Akademi Award for his magnum opus Angyadi, a historical novel with its central event located in the late 19th century (for which he researched the Nadar community in Madurai and Tirunelveli with a two-year grant from the India Foundation for the Arts). Poomani lives in Kovilpatti in southern Tamilnadu.

N Kalyan Raman is a translator of contemporary Tamil fiction and poetry. He has translated works of fiction by authors ranging from Ashokamitran and Devibharathi to Perumal Murugan, Poomani, Vaasanthi and Salma. His translations of Tamil poetry have been published in important journals and anthologies in India and abroad. Heat is his twelfth volume of translated fiction. Kalyan Raman also contributes essays, articles and reviews on literature, cinema and public policy to leading magazines and journals. He lives in Chennai.

Anjana Shekar started her career in journalism in 2016 as a feature writer (Special Features Team) with The Hindu, Chennai.  She joined The News Minute in 2018 where, in addition to reporting from Tamil Nadu, she covers stories of human interest, culture, history and entertainment. Anjana is currently based in Madurai. 

About Heat (Vekkai)

“A classic tale of oppression, [Heat] provides a visceral understanding of caste violence.”

— Rajni George, Open Magazine

“The moral responsibility of parenthood, and its often contradictory demands for unconditional love, form the most disturbing and moving strain of the book.” — Poorna Swami, liveMint

“Profound and emotional - Poomani has drawn a complete universe evoking both the experience of a fugitive’s life and a world of nature, far away from humanity.” — Perumal Murugan