The writer Namita Gokhale was born in Lucknow, India in 1956 and spent her childhood between New Delhi and Nainital, in the foothills of the Himalayas. A Kumaoni by birth she married to Rajiv Gokhale when she was eighteen. Gokhale dropped out of college after a conflict over the bias against Indian literatures in the curriculum. She then published the enormously successful film magazine “Super” from Bombay in the late seventies.

Gokhale has written five novels and two works of nonfiction, all in English. Her first novel, Paro: Dreams of Passion, 1984, a satire upon the Mumbai and Delhi elite caused an uproar due to its candid sexual humour. Gods Graves and Grandmother- an ironic fable about street life in Delhi was adapted into a musical play. Gokhale was diagnosed with cancer when she was just thirty-five and her husband died a few years later. The experience of illness and loss has informed her later books, A Himalayan Love Story, The Book of Shadows and Shakuntala, the play of memory. Gokhale has written two books of non-fiction. Mountain Echoes which deals with the Kumaoni way life through the eyes of four highly talented and individualistic women . The Book of Shiva is an introduction to Shaivite philosophy and mythology. She had retold the Indian epic, The Mahabharata, in an illustrated version for young and first time readers. Her most recent publication In Search of Sita — Revisiting Mythology, co-edited with Dr Malashri Lal, presents fresh interpretations of this enigmatic goddess and her indelible impact on the lives of Indian women.

Publishing is Gokhale’s other love. The Namita Gokhale editions, a signature imprint published in association with Roli Books, introduced some notable titles including Rashna Imhasly Gandhy’s The Psychology of Love and Neelima Dalmia Adhar’s biography of her father, R K Dalmia. She has conducted two memorable writers’ retreats in Landour, with Roli Books, for the Namita Gokhale editions. Gokhale is passionately committed to showcasing and translating the best of Indian writing and engaging the vibrant Bhasha languages of the Indian sub-continent in a creative dialogue with each other and the rest of the world. She is one of the founder directors of Yatra Books which co-publishes with Penguin Books in Hindi, Marathi, Urdu and other Indian languages including in English in a ground breaking series.

Namita Gokhale conceptualised the famous International Festival of Indian Literature, Neemrana 2002, and also The Africa Asia Literary Conference, 2006. She has worked on groundbreaking seminars on Translating Bharat, and Textile Narratives with the literary consultancy Siyahi. She is a founder-director of the Jaipur Literature Festival along with the author, William Dalrymple.

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