Meena Kandasamy is an emerging poet, fiction writer, and translator and activist with the Dalit Panther

Dalit Panther

Dalit Panther is a social organization, founded by Namdev Dhasal in April 1972 in Mumbai. Later on many dalit activists joined this organization...

s of India. She is based in Chennai.

Works

Her First poetry collection, "Touch" was published in August 2006, with a foreword by Kamala Das

Kamala Das

Kamala Suraiyya was a major Indian English poet and literateur and at the same time a leading Malayalam author from Kerala state, South India...

. Her poems, "Mascara" and "My lover speaks of Rape" won her the first prize in all India Poetry competition. Her works have been published in various journals that include The Little Magazine, Kavya Bharati, Indian Literature, Poetry International Web, Muse India

Muse India

Muse India is a literary e-journal based in Hyderabad, India. Since 2005, it has appeared bi-monthly only in a web edition; it has no print version.-Focus and scope:...

, and the Quarterly Literary Review - Singapore

Singapore

Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...

. She was also invited to participate in the International Writing Program

International Writing Program

The International Writing Program is a writing residency for international artists in Iowa City, Iowa. Since its inception in 1967, the IWP has hosted over 1,100 emerging and established poets, novelists, dramatists, essayists, and journalists from more than 120 countries...

at the University of Iowa in 2009.

Selected Translations

• Talisman: Extreme Emotions of Dalit Liberation. Political essays of Viduthalai Chiruthaigal leader Thol. Thirumavalavan, Samya (Kolkata), 2003. pp. 185 + xxx.
• Uproot Hindutva: The Fiery Voice of the Liberation Panthers,Speeches of Thol. Thirumaavalavan, Samya, Kolkata, 2004. pp. 248 + xxvi.
• Point-Blank, Poems of Tamil Eelam poet Kasi Anandan, Kudil, Chennai, 2005, pp. 112.
• Fables, Short-stories of Kasi Anandan, Kudil, Chennai, 2005, pp. 112.
• 30 poems of 18 Tamil Dalit poets for Muse India, Sept-Oct 2006 for a special feature on Tamil Dalit Literature.
• Why were women enslaved? Essays of Periyar EV Ramasamy on women’s rights, Periyar Self Respect Propaganda Institution, Chennai, August 2007, pp. 99 + xvi.

Book-Chapters

• And One Shall Live in Two, Afterword in Tamil Dalit writer P. Sivakami’s novel “The Grip of Change,” Orient Longman, Chennai, March 2006.
• Between Her Legs: Hindutva and Dalit Women in ‘Hindutva and Dalits’, editor: Anand Teltumbde, Samya, Kolkata, February 2005. pp. 108–135. betweenherlegs.pdf

Selected Essays

• Slumdog debate: Let’s not be in denial of the reality, The New Indian Express, i.witness, January 25, 2009.
• Dalits and the Press in India: With Specific Reference to Pandit C. Iyothee Thass and the Tamilian Weekly, Voice of Dalit, 1(2), July–December 2009, pp. 125–145
• Book. Booker. Booked: Indian Fiction in English, The New Indian Express, i.witness, September 13, 2008
• Words Across Borders: Translation As Liberation, The Hindu Literary Review, January 6, 2008.
• Heal Thyself, Opinion Column at Culture Vulture, Tehelka, 29 September 2007.
• Dangerous Cacophony: Hindutva Consolidation and Conscription in Tamil Nadu through Celebrations, Communalism Combat, Mumbai, Nov–Dec 2004, Vol. 11, pp. 22–34. dangerous-cacophony.pdf
• Udderly Fanatic. Boloji, 17 November 2002. (On the atrocity where five Dalits where lynched for skinning a dead cow in Jhajjar, Haryana).
• Casteist. Communalist. Racist. And Now, A Nobel Laureate. Po-Co Web, 2002.

Biography

• (with M. Nisar) AYYANKALI: A Dalit leader of Organic Protest. Foreword by Kancha Ilaiah, Other Books, Calicut, January 2008, pp. 103.

Poetry

• TOUCH. Pages: 144, Price: 145, Published by Peacock Books, the poetry imprint of Frog Books, Mumbai in August 2006, ISBN 81-88811-87-4. Do visit the page for my book which contains details of reviews, interviews and so on. The section here deals only with individual poems.(Print magazines)
• (Chapbook) 16 elegant, untitled poems have been hosted as an e-chapbook The Eighth Day of Creation on the poetry website Slow Trains.

External links

• http://www.meenakandasamy.com/
• http://india.poetryinternationalweb.org/piw_cms/cms/cms_module/index.php?obj_id=9972
• http://www.redroom.com/author/meena-kandasamy