Aa. Madhavan Follow

Writing about people and subjects he encountered in close quarters, AA. MADHAVAN set all his stories in and around the Chaalai Bazaar, where he lived all his life and ran his father's utensils shop. Taking literary naturalism a step ahead, he wrote with such detachment that his works were devoid of authorial intervention or philosophizing. His works largely dealt with subjects like morbidity, sexuality and human vulnerability without any shade of moralizing. Also a translator of several Malayalam books into Tamil, Aa. Madhavan won the Kendra Sahitya Akademi Award in 2015 for his collected prose writings titled Ilakkiya Chuvadugal.

RAMAKRISHNAN V. is a literature graduate with experience in translation and creative writing. His translation of five short stories, including those written by Imayam, Ravikumar and Abimani, appeared in a Dalit short story anthology titled In Defiance: Our Stories which was unveiled in the Chennai Book Fair, 2022. He has also translated a collection of short stories by Arignar Anna, the former Tamil Nadu chief minister, under the title Help Me with This Tricky Case (2023). He has completed his PhD in English literature, on popular culture, at the University of Madras. A part of his research focuses on the dynamics of translation in popular culture.