Mentors 2026
Menka Shivdasani - Poetry Mentor
Menka Shivdasani is the author of five poetry collections, most recently, The Seven Queens: Sindhi Folktales Retold in English Verse. She is co-translator, Freedom and Fissures, an anthology of Sindhi Partition poetry (Sahitya Akademi, 1998), and editor of If the Roof Leaks, Let it Leak, an anthology of women’s writing for Sound and Picture Archives for Research on Women (2014). She is also editor of The BigBridge Book of Contemporary Indian Poetry (2024), originally published as online anthologies for an American ezine.
Menka has collaborated with the senior Sindhi poet Mohan Gehani on three of his poetry collections in English translation. In December 2024, Sahitya Akademi published their book, Love is the Only Finality: Sindhi Dohiras by Sachal Sarmast (1739-1827).
Menka’s awards include the Ethos Literary Award (2019) and the inaugural WE Eunice de Souza Award (2020). She was a finalist for the Rabindranath Tagore Literary Prize. Menka co-founded Poetry Circle in Bombay in 1986 and has organised 13 poetry festivals for 100 Thousand Poets for Change. She is Co-Chair, Asia Pacific Writers and Translators (APWT).
Her work as a journalist includes 20 books, co-authored/edited with Raju Kane, three of
which were released by the then Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
Rochelle Dsilva - Spoken Word Poetry Mentor
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.
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​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.
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​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.
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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.
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Ram Ganesh Kamatham - Performance Mentor
Ram Ganesh Kamatham is a multi-award-winning playwright and researcher.
His smash hit comedies for the stage include Dancing on Glass (2004), and Project
S.T.R.I.P. (2009). He has written about young urban India in Crab (2006) and for young
audiences with Beyond the Bubble (2015). He has received the Sultan Padamsee
Playwriting Award three times, winning with Ultimate Kurukshetra (2011) and Undaunted
(2020), and as a runner-up for Terrarium (2024). His artistic work is underpinned by practice-led research and reflects the unique cosmopolitanism found within Indian cities.
Ram Ganesh is from Bangalore, India and has lived in the Caribbean and in Singapore. He is an anthropologist by training, with an MA from SOAS, University of London and an MSc inInternational Relations from RSIS, NTU Singapore. He holds an Executive Certificate in Strategic Foresight for Sustainability from the EDHEC Business School. He is a SCUBA and Freediver – PADI certified, a mountaineer trained by the Indian Army at the Nehru Institute of Mountaineering (NIM) Uttarakashi, and a martial artist with a 4 th Dan Black Belt in the Japanese system of Bujinkan Budo Taijutsu and ten years of experience in the Indian system of Kalarippayattu. He is currently working towards professional certification as a beach bum.
OUR PREVIOUS MENTORS:
*Sampurna Chattarji - Poet, Novelist & Translator (Mumbai, India)
*Rochelle Dsilva - Spoken Word Poet (Goa, India)
*Shaun Williams - Performance Coach (Mumbai, India)
*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)
*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)