Yuvan Aves

Naturalist • Writer • Educator • Environmental Defender

Yuvan Aves is a writer, naturalist, educator and activist based in Chennai. He loves working with children and educators, and consults for a number of alternative educational institutions across India. He is the founder - managing trustee of Palluyir Trust for Nature Education and Research. His recent book is ‘Intertidal - A coast and marsh diary’, published by Bloomsbury. He is also the author of two books on ecology and three children's books. Yuvan is a recipient of the M. Krishnan Memorial Nature Writing Award and Sanctuary Asia Green Teacher Award, among others.

Aienla Ozukum

Aienla Ozukum is publishing director at Aleph Book Company. She has worked in publishing for more than ten years and with acclaimed authors such as Shashi Tharoor, Romila Thapar, Rudrangshu Mukherjee, N Ram, G N Devy, B N Goswamy, Upinder Singh, and Meena Arora Nayak. She holds an MA in English Literature from Delhi University and a Graduate Diploma in Publishing from the National Book Trust, India.

AJ Thomas

A J Thomas is an Indian English poet, editor, and translator with more than 20 books to his credit. He has translated works of illustrious Malayalam writers like O N V Kurup, Paul Zacharia and M Mukundan and edited books by U R Anantha Murthy. He served as the editor of the Sahitya Akademi’s journal ‘Indian Literature’ and co-edited the ‘Best of Indian Literature’. He is a recipient of Katha Award, AKMG Prize and Vodafone Crossword Award (2007). He holds a Senior Fellowship from the Department of Culture, Government of India and was an Honorary Fellow, Department of Culture, Government of South Korea. He was a Guest Speaker in several writers’ conferences and readings in South Korea, Australia, Thailand, Hong Kong and Nepal. He has recently edited ‘The Greatest Malayalam Stories Ever Told’, an anthology of 50 short stories, sourced from modern classics of Kerala.

Dev Kamatad

Dev B Kamatad is a theatre practitioner (ರಂಗಾಭ್ಯಾಸಿ) with 7 years of experience in a variety of roles and also has a keen interest in filmmaking and photography. He has deep interest in terrace gardening and is currently a freelancer with Krishnakumar of Quantum Leap Guru. At Sumana Sangama, Dharwad, Dev began his journey in natural farming and Charakha spinning to make yarn to weave Khadi fabric. His passionate approach towards spinning is a core part of the Charakha workshops at tvami.

Heta Pandit

Heta Pandit is an independent researcher, activist and author of eleven books on Goan heritage and its art and culture. She is a Homi Bhabha fellow and co-founder of the Goa Heritage Action Group. Some of her books are Houses of Goa, Hidden Hands: Master Builders of Goa, Grinding Stories: Songs from Goa, and her recent work is ‘Stories from Goan Houses’.

K J Satchidananda

K J Satchidananda, fondly known as Sacchu, successfully ran an advertising agency before working as art facilitator at TVS School, Mysore and developing sustainable life skills of children. Introduced to yarn spinning by a close friend, he understood its vast scope, and designed and developed a refined charaka to suit the current generation and fast-paced life. Further, he began his journey towards slow fashion through his idea of providing livelihood for handloom weavers and making spinners self-reliant for their requirement of clothing. He also conducts yarn spinning workshops and aims to create urban spinning clubs.

Kiran Manral

Author Kiran Manral is also a speaker and mentor. She has written in different formats including columns for Times of India, Scroll, The Telegraph and Cosmopolitan, short stories for anthologies such as Chicken Soup for the Soul, The Best Asian Speculative Fiction and City of Screams. Her novels traverse various genres from horror - The Face at the Window and More Things in Heaven and Earth, psychological thriller - Missing, Presumed Dead, non-fiction - Karmic Kids and 13 Steps to Bloody Good Parenting and detective fiction - Reluctant Detective and The Kitty Party Murder. She is also a multiple awardee having won the Women Achievers Award by Young Environmentalists Association and the International Women’s Day Award 2018 from the Indian Council for UN Relations (supported by the Ministry of Women and Child Welfare, Government of India), among others.

Meeti Shroff-Shah

After her award-winning career in advertising, Meeti Shroff-Shah ventured into writing full time with articles in India Today, The Mint and Conde Nast Traveller. Her first book was the well-received memoir, ‘Do You Know Any Good Boys?’. Her successive books were critically acclaimed - ‘A Mumbai Murder Mystery’ made it to longlist of CWA New Blood Dagger Award 2022, and ‘The Death of Kirti Kadakia’ was a part of the 2023 Times of India AutHer Awards shortlist.

Michelle Bambawale

Michelle Bambawale spent her childhood in a Goan Catholic family in Pune, India. Since then, she has lived in three places in India and in three countries around the world raising her own nomadic family. Over the years, she has contributed to numerous publications in India and UAE. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Michelle moved to her ancestral home in Siolim in North Goa, which inspired her debut book, ‘Becoming Goan’. It is a contemporary coming home story, published by Penguin Random House in December 2023, and describes the road to her roots in her provocative, tongue- in-cheek style.

Minakshi Prabhu

Minakshi Prabhu was a part of the corporate world and was also a part of the establishing Atyati Technologies that works in financial inclusion. She quit that world and started experimenting in sustainable living after the birth of her children. She currently runs a handicraft store ‘tvami’, which works with artisans and helps them get a justifiable price for their work. Introduced to spinning by K J Satchidananda, she practises the skill and conducts Charakha workshops at her store.

Preeti Zachariah

Preeti works as an assistant editor with The Hindu’s digital team and writes across topics, including sustainability, culture, art, society, books, science, health, wildlife, and heritage.

Saharu Nusaiba Kannanari

Saharu Nusaiba Kannanari lives in a small town called Areekode, near Calicut, Kerala. He completed his BA from Aligarh Muslim University and MA from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. Chronicle of an Hour and a Half is his first novel.

Shrabonti Bagchi

• Journalist • Writer •

Shrabonti Bagchi is National Features Editors at Mint, writing primarily for its weekend publication Mint Lounge, a magazine of art, culture and lifestyle.