Twenty Years of Conversations with India’s Leading Writers
Since founding The Criterion: An International Journal in English in 2010, I have had the privilege of speaking with novelists, poets, playwrights, and critics who have shaped Indian literature in English. These conversations — published across 15 years of the journal — explore craft, culture, identity, and the writer’s relationship with India.
Why These Conversations Matter
Every writer I have spoken with has taught me something that no critical essay could — the private logic of a creative life. How a novelist chooses silence over speech. How a poet hears India differently in every decade. How a playwright finds the exact boundary between truth and performance.
The interview series in The Criterion began in 2010 as a modest attempt to document living Indian writers in their own words. Over fifteen years it has grown into a substantial archive — conversations with Booker Prize-shortlisted novelists, Sahitya Akademi Fellows, award-winning playwrights, and poets translated into a dozen languages. Each interview was conducted by Dr. Vishwanath Bite and published as part of The Criterion’s commitment to making literary scholarship accessible and alive. All interviews are open access and freely available at the-criterion.com.
Novelist · Poet
Chitra Banerjee-Divakaruni
Bestselling author published in The Atlantic and The New Yorker. Books translated into 29 languages. Works include The Mistress of Spices, Sister of My Heart, and The Palace of Illusions.
Read Interview →Novelist
Anita Nair
Author of Ladies Coupé, The Better Man, and Mistress. One of India’s most widely read novelists, translated into over 30 languages worldwide.
Read Interview →Novelist
Kavery Nambisan
Novelist and doctor whose works weave together medicine, nature, and Indian rural life. Author of Mango-Coloured Fish, The Hills of Angheri, and On Wings of Butterflies.
Read Interview →Playwright
Mahesh Dattani
India’s foremost English-language playwright. Sahitya Akademi Award winner. Works include Tara, Final Solutions, and Dance Like a Man. Subject of Dr. Bite’s book Mahesh Dattani: His Stagecraft in Indian Theatre.
Read Interview →Playwright
Abhishek Majumdar
Award-winning playwright and director whose works engage with conflict, politics, and identity. Plays performed internationally including at the Royal Court Theatre, London.
Read Interview →Playwright
Anupama Chandrasekhar
Chennai-based playwright whose works have been produced across India, UK, and USA. Known for Free Outgoing, which premiered at the Royal Court Theatre.
Read Interview →Poet · Critic
K. Satchidanandan
Former Secretary of the Sahitya Akademi. One of India’s foremost Malayalam poets writing in English. Translated into over 25 languages. Central figure in Indian contemporary poetry.
Read Interview →Poet
Arundhathi Subramaniam
Award-winning poet and author of Where I Live and To the Welsh Critic Who Doesn’t Find Me Identifiably Indian. Winner of the Sahitya Akademi Award 2020 for poetry.
Read Interview →Poet
Manohar Shetty
Goa-based poet and Homi Bhabha Fellow. Author of seven collections including Domestic Creatures (OUP) and Living Room (HarperCollins). Former Senior Sahitya Akademi Fellow.
Read Interview →Poet
Vinita Agrawal
Mumbai-based poet, editor, and peace activist. Author of Words Not Spoken and The Longest Pleasure. Published in journals across India, the US, and UK.
Read Interview →Poet
Nandini Sahu
Poet, critic, and Professor at IGNOU. Author of The Other Voice and Postcolonial Poetics. Widely published in India and internationally. Known as a poet of philosophical depth.
Read Interview →Poet
Vihang A. Naik
Gujarati-born English poet and editor. Author of City Times and Other Poems. One of the early voices in contemporary Indian English poetry from western India.
Read Interview →Playwright · Academic
Utpal Datta
Influential figure in Bengali and Indian theatre, known for political plays and mass theatre. His work bridged folk traditions and modern dramaturgy in the Indian context.
Read Interview →Novelist · Poet
Neelam Chandra
Limca Book of Records holder — most books published in a year. Author of 19 books including two novels, poetry collections, and children’s stories. Senior officer with Indian Railways.
Read Interview →Writer · Academic
Basavaraj Naikar
Prolific Kannada and English writer, academic, and translator. Retired Professor of English, Karnatak University. Author of over 50 books spanning fiction, drama, and criticism.
Read Interview →The Criterion: An International Journal in English
All interviews are published in The Criterion, an open-access peer-reviewed international journal founded by Dr. Vishwanath Bite in 2010 and published by RCELL (Research Centre for English Language and Literature). The journal is indexed in MLA International Directory, Google Scholar, IndexCopernicus, Library of Congress, and 20+ academic databases. All content is freely available.
Explore the Full Body of Work
38+ research papers, 12+ books, two international journals, and a patent — all driven by one conviction: knowledge should travel freely.