Namita Gokhale

Writer, publisher and festival director NamitaGokhale is the author of eleven published books including several works of fiction and non-fiction. Her first novel Paro: Dreams of Passion came out in 1984 followed by Gods, Graves and Grandmothers (1994), A Himalayan Love Story (1996), Mountain Echoes (1998), The Book of Shadows (1999), The Book of Shiva (2000), Shakuntala: The Play of Memory (2005) and The Puffin Mahabharata (2009). She has also edited the anthology In Search of Sita: Revisiting Mythology with DrMalashriLal in 2009. Priya, a sequel to her first novel Paro was published in 2011 followed by a collection of short stories, The Habit of Love in 2012.

One of the founders and co-director of the Jaipur Literature Festival (with William Dalrymple), Gokhale is also co-director of the Bhutan Literary Festival, Mountain Echoes held annually in Thimphu and a director of Yatra Books. Among other literary initiatives, she is deeply committed to the cause of translations and to showcasing writings from the various Indian languages, making them visible globally.