Panel Discussion:

South Asian Literature in Translation: Interventions and Futures

Online

Tuesday 21 July, 2pm — 3pm (BST)

What does the current state – and future – of South Asian writing in translation look like?

Delivered as part of this year’s Summer School porgramme this online discussion uses SALT Chicago as a case study for bringing literature from South Asia into the English-language market. Can we use SALT as a model for similar initiatives, nurturing and promoting translations from minoritised, regional languages? How far have we come, and where do we go from here?

The speakers for this event are translators Deepa Bhasthi and Arunava Sinha, Jason Grunebaum (SALT Chicago), and Tara Tobler (And Other Stories). Their discussion will be chaired by Sana Goyal, Editor and Publishing Director of Wasafiri magazine.

Deepa Bhasthi is a writer and International Booker Prize winning literary translator working in Kannada and English. Her cultural criticism, essays, columns and journalism have been published extensively in Indian and international publications, anthologies and art book projects. She is the author of a children’s book ‘Champi and the Fig Tree’ in Kannada and English.

Her published translations from Kannada include works by Kota Shivarama Karanth, Kodagina Gouramma and Banu Mushtaq. She was a finalist for the 2026 Gregg Barrios Book in Translation Prize category of the National Critics Circle Awards and is also the recipient of an EnglishPEN Award for the translation of Mushtaq’s collection of short stories titled ‘Heart Lamp: Selected Stories’. Deepa lives and works in Kodagu in southern India.

Arunava Sinha translates classic, modern, and contemporary fiction, non-fiction and poetry from Bengali and Hindi into English. He also translates fiction, poetry, and graphic novels from English and Hindi into Bengali. Over 100 of his translations have been published so far in India, the UK, the USA, and Australia. He teaches at Ashoka University, where he is also the co-director of the Ashoka Centre for Translation, and mentors young translators.

Jason Grunebaum's translations from Hindi include Uday Prakash’s The Girl with the Golden Parasol, The Walls of Delhi, and, with Ulrike Stark, Manzoor Ahtesham’s The Tale of the Missing Man. He has been awarded the Global Humanities Translation Prize, a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, and a PEN/Heim Translation Grant. He teaches Hindi language and literary translation at the University of Chicago, and is co-director of the SALT Project to support and promote South Asian literature in translation.

Tara Tobler is a writer and senior editor at And Other Stories. Her acquisitions include International Booker Prize-winning fiction by Yáng Shuāng-zǐ and Lin King (2026), and Banu Mushtaq and Deepa Bhasthi (2025), as well as prize-winning works by Manya Wilkinson, Alexis Wright, Ibtisam Azem, Mona Arshi, Tanya Tagaq, Morgan Talty, Preti Taneja, Cody Caetano and many more.

Sana Goyal is the Editor and Publishing Director of Wasafiri magazine. She has a PhD in literary prizes from SOAS, University of London, and has experience chairing book events and working with small arts organisations. Her reviews have appeared in The Guardian, Financial Times, Times Literary Supplement, and elsewhere. She was a judge for the 2025 International Booker Prize.

Part of the BCLT International Literary Translation and Creative Writing Summer School, in collaboration with National Centre for Writing and SALT Chicago.