Editors:
Vijayalakshmi Harish is the author of Strangely Familiar Tales (2020). Her poetry, flash fiction, and short stories have been published in various literary journals and anthologies. She also writes regularly for Women’s Web about feminism, and beyond. She was recently nominated for the ‘Inclusive Librarian’ Award by the Belongg Library Network and has been a Finalist at the Orange Flower Awards multiple times. She has a Master's degree in Applied Psychology and has previously worked as a marketing executive and a soft skills trainer. She is a voracious reader, enthusiastic gardener, and a fan of all things mythological and magical.
Anushree K S works in a multinational bank by day, but loves to participate in study circles to overwhelm herself. In addition to reading, writing, and cooking with her partner, Anushree runs a number of online fora focused on gender equality. She believes that building inclusive, safe, and intersectional spaces, online and offline, in the hope of building nurturing communities might just be the solution to create a world less messed up than ours. With that in mind, along with some friends, she facilitates leftist feminist spaces online where members share and expand progressive perspectives. In one such forum, members post their problems anonymously to get in touch with resources and people who can help in a safe and sustainable manner. Her other online fora encourage critical discussions of food, pop culture, writing, and literature to encourage progressive values. For her work as a gender equality activist, Anushree was included in the Gender Security Project’s FemiList 2021, a curated list of 100 women from the Global South, working in the fields of foreign policy, peacebuilding, law, activism and development.
Rohini Malur is a queer cis woman from Bangalore. She is a founding member of the All Sorts of Queer Group (for queer and trans persons who do not identify as cis men). She works at Hasiru Dala, an NGO which works for the empowerment of waste pickers in the city. Rohini is a poet, writer, tarot card reader, and an irrational atheist to boot. She has lived with clinical depression for more than half her life and has a lot to say about it, as well as other things. In a utopian parallel universe where caste, patriarchy, capitalism, and the military industrial complex do not exist, she is a Starship captain. In this universe, she is still waiting for her cat to find her and sort out her life. Rohini could have written a more serious bio, but this was the one that is true.
Vijayashanthi Murthy is currently an Assistant Professor at St. Joseph's College, Bengaluru. She has previously held teaching positions in Jain University and Baduku Community College, both in Bengaluru. A regular contributing author for Women's Web, Vijayashanthi writes about films and Dalit experiences based on her research interests in Dalit Studies, Gender Studies, Film and Cultural Studies. As the eldest daughter, Vijayashanthi saw at close quarters, her father’s struggles as a Dalit man, which nevertheless did not dampen his work ethic, compassion, and capacity to love. In her life, research, teaching, and writings, she explores issues of being a Dalit in contemporary India and the future that she may dream of. Perumal Murugan, B.R. Ambedkar, Periyar, Bama Faustina Soosairaj, Elif Shafak and Elena Ferrante are part of her every day through their words. Locating the family history through her grandmother's stories brings her immense joy. When she has a chance, she likes to loiter in Bengaluru looking for streets filled with stories to frame them for her photo series 'Streets and Stories'. Vijayashanthi is also an advisor at the Haadibadi Community Library, Bengaluru.
Meenal Shrivastava earned her doctorate in International Studies from Jawaharlal Nehru University, following which she taught in South Africa for nearly a decade. Currently, she is Professor of Political Economy and Global Studies at Athabasca University, Canada. Her academic research has so far led to more than one hundred and fifty articles, book chapters, papers, and opinion pieces; and two open-source books: Amma’s Daughters: A Memoir (AUP, 2018) and Alberta Oil and the Decline of Democracy in Canada (co-edited with Lorna Stefanick) (AUP, 2015). In addition to her research and teaching on political economy, recently, she has been learning to use relational stories and creative writing (meenalshrivastava.wordpress.com) to illustrate how individual lives intersect with broad social-political trends, and why it matters.
A very thought provoking and insightful read
An anthology of the Personal and the Political
This book is not just an anthology of the personal and the political, as the title says. It is the synthesis of thoughts and creativity dedicated to those who struggle to find their voice. It is the coming together of 36 voices and the work of an extremely diverse set of authors, poets, and artists. A collection of poetry, essays, fiction, and art might seem to be eclectic, but with a unifying theme of the intersections of the personal and the political it fits just right. The thrust for inclusivity begins with the list of contributors, many of whom have had to deal with the limitations that strict hierarchies and binary systems have dealt them. It is not a surprise that they have detailed their own experiences. Other contributors have used vivid and bold artwork, subtle and poignant poetry, or harnessed the power of fictional storytelling.
It is a very thought-provoking compilation indeed