Shaleen Rakesh is an author and activist based in New Delhi, India and has been at the forefront of the gender and sexuality movement in the country for the last twenty years. Shaleen was the primary petitioner to successfully challenge Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, the anti-sodomy law in the country.

Shaleen is also Editor with the independent publishing house OpenWord in New Delhi. His poems have been published in (PANK), Bricolage, Pink Collective and the Paper darts magazine. The Lion and Antler is his first collection of poems.