K Satchidanandan (b.1946) is a pioneer of modern poetry in Malayalam, a bilingual critic, playwright, editor, fiction writer, translator and travel writer. He has been a Professor of English and of Translation Studies, editor of Indian Literature bimonthly, the executive head of the National Academy of Letters and invited National fellow at the Indian Institute of Advanced Studies, Shimla. He is presently the President of the Kerala Sahitya Akademi. He has thirty-two collections of poetry
in Malayalam, ten in English, nine in Hindi, and thirty collections in other languages including Arabic, Irish, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Chinese and Japanese besides all major Indian languages, in translation. He has won sixty-one literary awards – including the National Academy award, Dante Medal from Italy, Poet Laureate Award from Tata Literature Festival, Bombay, five awards in five genres from Kerala Sahitya Akademi besides the topmost awards for poetry and total
literary contribution from Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Orissa, Rajasthan, and Maharashtra. He has read his poetry and lectured at several festivals and bookfairs in over thirty countries in six continents and translated poetry from across the world.
