K. Satchidanandan (born 28 May 1946) is an Indian poet, critic, translator and editor who writes in Malayalam and English. He is regarded as one of the founders of modern poetry in Malayalam and is among the most widely translated Indian poets of his time. He was secretary of the Sahitya Akademi, India’s national academy of letters, from 1996 to 2006, and has edited its journal Indian Literature. He is known as a strong voice for secularism, free expression and social justice.
Quick Facts
| Full name | Koyamparambath Satchidanandan |
| Born | 28 May 1946, Pulloot, Thrissur district, Kerala, India |
| Age | 80 |
| Occupation | Poet, critic, translator, editor |
| Languages | Malayalam, English |
| Education | Maharaja’s College, Ernakulam (M.A. English); University of Calicut (Ph.D.) |
| Offices | Secretary, Sahitya Akademi (1996–2006); President, Kerala Sahitya Akademi (2022–) |
| Honours | Sahitya Akademi Award (2012), Kerala Sahitya Akademi awards |
Early Life
Satchidanandan was born in Pulloot, a village near Kodungallur in central Kerala. He studied biology at Christ College, Irinjalakuda, and took a master’s degree in English at Maharaja’s College, Ernakulam. He later earned a doctorate in post-structuralist poetics from the University of Calicut. He taught English at Christ College for more than two decades.
Career
He published his first collection, Anchu Sooryan (“Five Suns”), in 1971. In the 1970s he was part of the group of young writers who broke with the romantic tradition in Malayalam and brought in new forms and political themes; he also translated poets such as Pablo Neruda and Bertolt Brecht. His poems draw on Kerala’s landscape and folklore as well as world events, and they have been translated into most Indian languages and many European and Asian ones. He has published more than twenty collections.
In 1992 he moved to Delhi as editor of Indian Literature, the Sahitya Akademi’s English journal, and in 1996 he became the academy’s secretary, its chief executive, a post he held for ten years. He later directed a school of translation studies at the Indira Gandhi National Open University and has been closely involved with the Kerala Literature Festival as its director.
Satchidanandan resigned from the Sahitya Akademi’s committees in 2015 in protest at its silence after the murder of the scholar M. M. Kalburgi. He writes regularly on culture and politics.
Selected Works
Awards and Honours
Frequently Asked Questions
When and where was K. Satchidanandan born?
K. Satchidanandan was born on 28 May 1946 in Pulloot, Thrissur district, Kerala, India and is 80 years old.
What is K. Satchidanandan’s occupation?
Occupation: Poet, critic, translator, editor.
What honours has K. Satchidanandan received?
Sahitya Akademi Award (2012), Kerala Sahitya Akademi awards.
Featured image: K. Satchidanandan speaks at an event in Kollam, Kerala, April 2022. Photo by Kannan Shanmugam, Shanmugam Studio, Kollam, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
