Shinie Antony has written short story collections ​The Orphanage for Words, Barefoot and Pregnant and novels ​When Mira Went Forth and Multiplied ​and A Kingdom for His Love. She has compiled the anthology​ Why We Don’t Talk and the humour anthology Jest Like That.

Co-founder of the Bangalore Literature Festival, she won the Commonwealth Short Story Asia region prize in 2003 for her story ​A Dog’s Death. Her latest novel is​ The Girl Who Couldn’t Love.

Maitreyee Bhattacharjee Chowdhury is a poet and writer with several books to her credit including - Hungryalists (non fiction), Where Even the Present is Ancient: Benaras (poetry) and Uttam Kumar and Suchitra Sen: Bengali Cinema’s First Couple (nonfiction), the latter shortlisted for the Crossword Award, nonfiction category in 2013.

She is also the fiction and poetry editor of The Bengaluru Review, a literary magazine from Bengaluru.

Armed with a Master's degree in Sociology from the Bombay University, Amruta Dongray worked in the tourism industry for eight years. She continues to work full-time as a mother to two human and three canine children.

She considers herself as an "accidental poet". She started writing poetry in 2010. Her first book PASTPRESENT saw its release in 2013. Her second collection of poetry Three Halves was released in 2018.

Her poems are her take on the dynamics in society and are generally very short. She now also enjoys writing longer poems which read like stories. She co-hosts an evening of poetry every month at Atta Galatta.

Prashant Sankaran stepped off the hectic corporate treadmill after 25 years on it to mentor small entrepreneurs and serve on the advisory boards of a few not-for-profit and for-profit organisations. He also dabbles in photography, performing arts and filmmaking.

His book Home, a fusion between poetry and a graphic novel was released earlier this year and his children’s book Tutu Plays Hide and Seek will be released this year. He blogs at: Shoonyata.

Sourav is a Hindi poet, translator and educator. Born and brought up in Jharkhand, he pursued a Bachelor's degree in Engineering from MS Ramaiah Institute of Technology, Bangalore; and worked as a programmer at an MNC. This was followed by a three-year year stint as a journalist and editor at a reputed media company. Since then, he has worked as a visiting faculty at Azim Premji University and NIFT Bengaluru. He is also the founding editor of Bengaluru Review magazine, and currently works as a educator at Head Start Educational Academy.

His published books include Yayavar (Collection of poems), Karnakavita (Editor: Anthology of Hindi-Urdu poetry from Bengaluru), Soho Mein Marx (Translator: Three Plays by Howard Zinn), and Os Ki Prithvi (Translation of Japanese Haiku).

Performance storyteller and theatre practitioner Vikram Sridhar believes in storytelling as a strong medium for conservation, which is highly relevant in the modern context. He combines his work and interest in theatre and conservation in his storytelling. He is the co-founder of Tahatto, a Bangalore-based theatre entity.

Around The Story Tree is his initiative to connect the modern-day listener to the environment around through the power of stories through arts.

Shikha Malaviya (www.shikhamalaviya.com) is an Indo-American poet & writer. Her book, Geography of Tongues, was published in December 2013 and featured in several literary festivals.

Shikha is a co-founder of The (Great) Indian Poetry Collective, a literary press dedicated to new poetic voices from India. Her poetry has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and featured in Prairie Schooner, Chicago Quarterly Review, TAB-The Journal of Poetry & Poetics, Drunken Boat & other fine journals.

Shikha was a featured TEDx speaker in GolfLinks, Bangalore, in 2013, where she gave a talk on poetry. She has been a two-time mentor for AWP's Writer to Writer Mentorship Program & was selected as Poet Laureate of San Ramon, CA, 2016. She currently lives in the San Francisco Bay area, but calls Bengaluru home.

Subodh and Lakshmi are co-founders of Atta Galatta, a Bengaluru-based bookstore with a focus on Indian, vernacular writing and is a venue for literary, art and cultural events.Since its inception 10 years ago, the bookstore has hosted over 2000 events, including book launches, poetry readings, theatre performances, art shows, screenings, storytelling sessions and workshops.

Every year, Atta Galatta has the immense pleasure of being able to felicitate the best and brightest of the Indian writers’ community. In association with the Bangalore Literature Festival, a platform for voices from all over India and the globe, we have been striving to commemorate literary achievements with the Atta Galatta-Bangalore Literature Festival Book Prize.

Instituted in 2015, the annual award are presented under 7 categories of Fiction (English), Non-Fiction (English), Popular Choice, Best Cover Design and 2 new categories instituted in 2021, Best Young Adult Book and Best Children’s Book: Picture Book. An annual award is presented for Literary Achievement in Kannada to an author, celebrating their body of work and contribution to the language.

Atta Galatta has ventured into publishing, has published four books of poetry, and an anthology of humour stories and a children's book.

Aishwarya Anand is a Social Media Consultant who specialises in creating and building the presence of brands on social media. She is a Digital Nomad and can often be found working out of a hilltop or from a temple town. When she's not travelling, she can be found figuring out where to go next. Check out @aishwaryaa13 for an envy-worthy grid!

Aparajitha is currently a student of English at the University of Calgary. She enjoys anything related to literature and art and has been a part of the organising committee for the Bengaluru Poetry festival and Kovai Bookalatta. She enjoys combining her love for reading and writing through film, drama and special effects makeup.

Rohini Malur is a tarot reader, a poet, writer and general layabout. She lives in Bangalore, and is waiting to be claimed by her cat. In her spare time she is bisexual; in a parallel universe she is a dashing starship captain. She is powered by coffee and sugar.