The idea for Sangam House as a writers’ residency located in India was born on a sweet, summer evening in up-state New York at another writers’ residency, Art Omi: Writers. Literatures in many languages flourish in the sub-continent and literary cultures are strong but it is difficult for writers to access quiet and supportive spaces in which they can do their work,particularly if they are working in languages other than English. Indian writers often lack practical support, as well as the opportunity to interact with contemporaries from other languages and perspectives. And so, since many of us cannot make it to residencies across the world, we brought a residency for writers to India.
Directors
Arshia Sattar
Arshia Sattar has a Ph.D. in classical Indian literatures from the University of Chicago. Her translations from Sanskrit, Tales from the Kathasaritsagara and The Ramayana of Valmiki have been published by Penguin Books. She has also written four books for children, Kishkindha Tails, Pampa Sutra, Adventures with Hanuman (Red Turtle, 2013), and The Ramayana for Children (Juggernaut, 2016, and forthcoming from Restless Books, 2017). Her other recent publications include Lost Loves: Exploring Rama’s Anguish (Penguin, 2011), The Best of Quest (ed., Westland Books, 2011), and Uttara: The Book of Answers (Penguin, 2016, forthcoming from Rowman and Littlefield, 2017).
DW Gibson
DW Gibson is the author of the award-winning book The Edge Becomes the Center and Not Working. He shared a National Magazine Award for his work on “This Is the Story of One Block in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn” for New York Magazine. His work has also appeared in Harper’s, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Nation and The Guardian. Gibson’s radio work includes co-hosting the podcast “There Goes the Neighborhood,” guest hosting various news programs for WNYC and essays for Live From Here as well as NPR’s All Things Considered. His most recent book is 14 MILES: Building the Border Wall.
Residency Managers
Rohan Agarwal
Rohan is a writer, teacher, and theatre actor. He is also very passionate about Squash (the sport, not the vegetable).
Giles Hazelgrove
Giles is British European and lives in France. After careers in theatre, interior design and property development, he began writing, and his first novel was shortlisted for the PFD CityNovel prize. He arrived as a resident writer at Sangam House in 2015, became a Residency Manager the next year and has edited and compiled several of the Sangam House Readers. His favourite thing is chatting.
Dhruvatara Sharma Churai
Dhruvatara is a dancer and a student of language and literature. She was introduced to Sangam House as an Odissi student at Nrityagram in 2013, sitting in, whenever she could, on the evening readings after class. These days, she spends her time between reading, taking walks in parks, and watching popular South Indian movies with her grandmother.
Pascal Sieger
Rahul Soni
Rahul Soni is a writer, editor, and translator. He has edited the anthology of Hindi poetry in English translation ‘Home From a Distance’, and translated Shrikant Verma’s book of poems ‘Magadh’, Geetanjali Shree’s novel ‘The Roof Beneath their Feet’, a selection of Ashok Vajpeyi’s poetry ‘A Name for Every Leaf’, and Pankaj Kapur’s novella ‘Dopehri’. He is currently Associate Publisher, Literary, with HarperCollins India.
Board of Trustees
Nayana Currimbhoy
Tasha Garcia Gibson
Todd Lester
Anderson Tepper
Jeremy Tiang