Ashwani Kumar is a poet, author and professor at Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai. Widely published, anthologized and translated into several Indian and foreign languages, his major poetry volumes include ‚ 'My Grandfather's Imaginary Typewriter' and ‚ 'Banaras and the Other'. He recently edited 'Rivers Going Home' and 'Scent of Rain: Remembering Jayanta Mahapatra', both major anthologies in Indian poetry. He is one of the curators of the Chandrabhaga Poetry Festival at Konark and also co-founder of the Indian Novels Collective which aims to popularize the translation of classic Indian language novels. He writes columns for several leading Indian publications.