A. J. Thomas (born 10 June 1952) is an Indian poet, translator and editor writing in English. He is best known as editor of ''

Indian Literature Indian literature refers to the literature produced on the Indian subcontinent until 1947 and in the Republic of India thereafter. The Republic of India has 22 officially recognised languages. The earliest works of Indian literature were o ...

'', the bimonthly English journal of Sahitya Akademi (India's National Academy of Letters) which he edited till 2010.

Biography

Thomas was born in Mount Illickan valley of Western Ghats. His childhood was spent in Mechal, Kottayam. In 1976 he took up employment with Kerala Tourism Development Corporation. Subsequently, he came in contact with internationally renowned writers like Dominique Lapierre,

Sir Angus Wilson Sir Angus Frank Johnstone-Wilson, CBE (11 August 191331 May 1991) was an English novelist and short story writer. He was one of England's first openly gay authors. He was awarded the 1958 James Tait Black Memorial Prize for ''The Middle Age of ...

, Salman Rushdie, and Indian writers like Pritish Nandy, M. T. Vasudevan Nair who inspired him.

Literary works

Thomas has translated poetry, fiction, drama and non-fiction from Malayalam to English. His first book of note was ''Bhaskara Pattelar and Other Stories,'' a translation of Paul Zacharia's stories. This was a recreation of the original with Gita Krishnankutty and Zacharia as contributors. Thomas's literary works have appeared in poetry anthologies like '' The Dance of the Peacock: An Anthology of English Poetry from India'', featuring 151 Indian English poets, edited by Vivekanand Jha and published by Hidden Brook Press, Canada. and '' Converse: Contemporary English Poetry by Indians' : '' (2022) edited by Sudeep Sen and published by Pippa Rann Books, ondon

Awards and recognition

Thomas has received more recognition for literary translation. He won Katha award for his translation of Paul Zacharia's story "Salam America". 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. Thomas was the chief editor of

till 25 August 2010.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Thomas, A. J. 1952 births Living people 20th-century Indian translators Indian male poets Poets from Kerala English-language poets from India