NAMITA GOKHALE BOOKS

Namita Gokhale is a writer, publisher, and festival director. She is the author of nineteen works of fiction and non-fiction. Her acclaimed debut novel, Paro: Dreams of Passion, was published in 1984. Her latest novel Jaipur Journals, published in January 2020, is set against the backdrop of the vibrant Jaipur Literature Festival, of which Gokhale is a founder-director. She is also the author of Himalayan Love Story, The Book of Shadows, Shakuntala: The Play of Memory and Lost in Time: Ghatotkacha and the Game of Illusions amongst others. Gokhale also edited The Himalayan Arc: Journeys East of South-east, which focuses on a crucial yet often under-reported part of the Himalayan belt. The recent Things to Leave Behind, the third in her Himalayan trilogy, has been described as her most ambitious novel yet.

Gokhale is a founder and co-director of the Jaipur Literature Festival and its international editions, as well as Festival Director of the Jaipur BookMark (JBM), a business-to-business segment held parallel to the Jaipur Literature Festival focused on Global Rights Translation. She was also advisor to Mountain Echoes, the Bhutan Literature Festival. She is director of Yatra Books, a publishing house specialised in translation. Namita Gokhale has conceived and curated over hundred episodes of Kitaabnama: Books and Beyond, a book-show broadcast on Indian’s national broadcaster Doordarshan.

Gokhale was conferred the Centenary National Award for Literature by the Assam Sahitya Sabha in Guwahati in 2017 “for her literary contributions as well as her service to the nation in supporting and showcasing literary talents and creating a literary environment in the country”. She won the Sushila Devi Literature Award for her novel Things to Leave Behind in January 2019. Things to Leave Behind also received the Best Fiction(English) Jury Award at the Valley of Words International Literature Festival 2017 and was on the long list for the 2018 International Dublin Literary Award.