A. J. Thomas

A. J. Thomas (born 10 June 1952) is an Indian poet writing in English. He is an acclaimed translator of poetry, fiction, drama and non-fiction prose from his mother tongue Malayalam. He was the editor of Indian Literature, the bimonthly English journal of Sahitya Akademi (India's National Academy of Letters) until 10 August 2010.[1][2]

Biography

A. J. Thomas was born in Mount Illickan valley of Kerala, in the foothills of Western Ghats. The first ten years of his life were spent in Mechal hamlet of Kottayam. In 1976 he moved from Wayanad to work with Kerala Tourism Development Corporation. He came in contact with internationally renowned writers like Dominique Lapierre, Sir Angus Wilson, Salman Rushdie, and Indian writers like Pritish Nandy, M. T. Vasudevan Nair who inspired him.

Literary works

Thomas' first book of note was Bhaskara Pattelar and Other Stories, which was translation of Paul Zacharia's stories. This was a recreation of the original with Gita Krishnankutty and Zacharia as co-contributors.

Thomas' works in English have appeared in prestigious poetry anthologies like The Dance of the Peacock: An Anthology of English Poetry from India,[3] featuring 151 Indian English poets, edited by Vivekanand Jha and published by Hidden Brook Press,[4] Canada.

Awards and recognition

Thomas has received more recognition for his expertise in literary translation. The translation of Paul Zacharia's story "Salam America" brought him the Katha Award. The verse-fiction Ujjaini, based on the life of Kalidasa by O. N. V. Kurup, the doyen of Malayalam poetry, in Thomas's translation, won critical acclaim. For translating the novel Keshavan’s Lamentions, by veteran Malayalam novelist M. Mukundan, he won the Vodafone Crossword Book Award 2007. According to Dr Tapan Kumar Pradhan, the Indian Literature Golden Jubilee Awards of Sahitya Akademi were the original brain child of A. J. Thomas.[5]


References
  1. http://www.littlemag.com/about/about.html
  2. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 3 June 2011. Retrieved 6 January 2014.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  3. Grove, Richard. "The Dance of the Peacock:An Anthology of English Poetry from India" (current). Hidden Brook Press, Canada. Retrieved 5 January 2015.
  4. Press, Hidden Brook. "Hidden Brook Press". Hidden Brook Press. Retrieved 5 January 2015.
  5. Pradhan, Tapan Kumar (12 July 2020). Kalahandi - The Untold Story. Kohinoor Books. ISBN 9788194579717. Retrieved 7 January 2021.
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