Akhil Katyal (born 1985 in

Bareilly Bareilly () is a city in Bareilly district in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. It is among the largest metropolises in Western Uttar Pradesh and is the centre of the Bareilly division as well as the historical region of Rohilkhand. The city ...

Uttar Pradesh Uttar Pradesh (; , 'Northern Province') is a state in northern India. With over 200 million inhabitants, it is the most populated state in India as well as the most populous country subdivision in the world. It was established in 1950 ...

) is an Indian poet, translator, scholar and a

queer ''Queer'' is an umbrella term for people who are not heterosexual or cisgender. Originally meaning or , ''queer'' came to be used pejoratively against those with same-sex desires or relationships in the late 19th century. Beginning in the lat ...

activist.

Career

Katyal has published three books of poems: ''Like Blood on the Bitten Tongue: Delhi Poems'', ''How Many Countries Does the Indus Cross'', and ''Night Charge Extra''. During fall 2016, he was an International Writing Fellow at the

University of Iowa The University of Iowa (UI, U of I, UIowa, or simply Iowa) is a public university, public research university in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. Founded in 1847, it is the oldest and largest university in the state. The University of Iowa is org ...

. He was the recipient of the Vijay Nambisan Poetry Fellowship for the year 2021. In 2018, he translated

Ravish Kumar Ravish Kumar (born 5 December 1974) is an Indian journalist, author and media personality. He was the Senior Executive Editor of NDTV India. He hosted a number of programmes including the channel's flagship weekday show ''Prime Time'', ''Hum ...

's book of

Hindi Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been de ...

poems ''Ishq Mein Shahar Hona'' as ''A City Happens in Love''. In 2020, he co-edited ''The World that Belongs to Us: An Anthology of Queer Poetry from South Asia''. His work appears in Jeet Thayil (ed.) ''The Penguin Book of Indian Poets'' (2022). In the summer of 2022, he guest edited a special issue on 'New Indian English Poetry' for Poetry at Sangam. Katyal is from

Lucknow Lucknow (, ) is the capital and the largest city of the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh and it is also the second largest urban agglomeration in Uttar Pradesh. Lucknow is the administrative headquarters of the eponymous district and division ...

and teaches creative writing at

Ambedkar University Delhi Dr. B. R. Ambedkar University Delhi, formerly Bharat Ratna Dr. B. R. Ambedkar University Delhi and Ambedkar University Delhi, and simply AUD, is a state university established by the Government of the NCT of Delhi through an Act of the Delhi ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Katyal, Akhil 1985 births Living people Activists from Delhi Writers from Lucknow Poets from Delhi Poets from Uttar Pradesh Queer writers 21st-century Indian LGBT people