Facilitators 2024
Sampurna Chattarji - Poetry Facilitator
Sampurna Chattarji is a poet, novelist, translator and children’s author who writes in English. Her fourteen books include five poetry books — Space Gulliver: Chronicles of an Alien (HarperCollins, 2015), The Scorpion (e-book, Harper21, 2013), Absent Muses (Poetrywala, 2010), The Fried Frog and other Funny Freaky Foodie Feisty Poems (Scholastic, 2009) and Sight May Strike You Blind (Sahitya Akademi, 2007, reprint 2008). Her two novels, Rupture (2009) and Land of the Well (2012), are both from HarperCollins.
She has made numerous anthology appearances including 60 Indian Poets (Penguin); The Bloodaxe Book of Contemporary Indian Poets; The HarperCollins Book of English Poetry; Both Sides of the Sky (National Book Trust), We Speak in Changing Languages (Sahitya Akademi); Interior Decoration: poems by 54 women from 10 languages (Women Unlimited); and The Literary Review Indian Poetry Issue (New Jersey: Fairleigh Dickinson University).
Her poetry has been translated into German, Swiss-German, Welsh, Scots, French, Gaelic, Estonian, Arabic, Portuguese, Frisian, Maltese, Slovenian, Galician, Tamil, Manipuri, Kannada, Marathi, Gujarati, Bangla and Bambaiyya; and her children’s fiction into Welsh and Icelandic.
Sampurna was the 2012 Charles Wallace Writer-in-Residence from India at the University of Kent, Canterbury. Dirty Love (Penguin, 2013), is her collection of short stories about Bombay/Mumbai; and Selected Poems (Harper Perennial, 2014) is her translation of the Bengali poet Joy Goswami, which was shortlisted for the inaugural Khushwant Singh Memorial Prize for Poetry. She is Poetry Editor for the print magazine The Indian Quarterly.
Rochelle Dsilva - Spoken Word Facilitator
Rochelle is a performance poet based in Goa. She writes about her travels, cultural influences and personal experiences. Her poems give voice to feelings of displacement, love and loss. She started performing in 2011, and since then has performed on numerous stages across India, Australia, Malaysia, Singapore and Nepal.She has been a part of a multitude of literary festivals; Times Lit Fest 2018, Goa Art and Lit Fest 2018, Melbourne Spoken Word and Poetry Festival 2018, Kala Ghoda Art and Literature Festival 2018 to name a few. In 2016, she represented the Indian writing community during a poetry tour in Nepal called Words Express – Spoken Word Jatra, featuring international poets from Pakistan, Malaysia, Singapore, Philippines and the universally proclaimed Sarah Kay.
In addition to her many accolades and achievements, Rochelle has worked hard to give back to the poetry community. She has created the very first residency solely designed for poets - 'The Poetry Retreat' is a 6-day residency in Goa. In 2015, she founded Words Tell Stories, a platform for poets and poetry lovers. She has conducted open mics, slams, workshops and collaborations with international and local artists. She has mentored many of the spoken word poets that have come out of Bombay and helped them hone their skills and/or learn about performance poetry.
She gave her first TEDx talk in November 2019. She has three spoken word albums (Road Trips to New Places, A Thin Veneer of Coping and Best Apology Face) and her solo collection of poems, When Home Is An Idea, has been widely appreciated as a conduit to talk about identity and belonging.
Rochelle is also a trained mental health counsellor and wants to explore the many possibilities of merging poetry and counselling as tools for expression and healing.
Performance Facilitator - To be announced.
OUR PREVIOUS MENTORS:
*Andy Jackson - Poet & Editor (Melbourne, Australia)
*Zeenia Kolah - Performance Artist (Boston, United States)
*Bhisaji Gadekar - Performance Artist (Goa, India)
*Sumana Roy - Poet & Teacher (Udaipur, India)
*Vinita Agrawal - Poet & Editor (Mumbai, India)
*Shaun Williams - Performance Coach (Mumbai, India)
*Ram Ganesh Kamatham - Playwright & Performance Artist (Bangalore, India)
*Menka Shivdasani - Poet & Editor (Mumbai, India)
*Mustansir Dalvi - Poet/Translator/Editor (Mumbai, India)
*Manohar Shetty - Writer/Poet/Editor (Goa, India)
*Rea Burman - Performing Artist (Goa, India)