Meena Kandasamy

About the Author

Meena Kandasamy is an acclaimed Indian author, poet, translator, and activist whose incisive writing confronts the intersections of caste, gender, and political oppression in contemporary India. Born in 1984 in Tamil Nadu, she draws from her experiences as a Dalit woman to craft narratives that blend raw emotion with sharp social critique, challenging patriarchal and caste-based structures through her unflinching prose. Her debut novel, When I Hit You: Or, A Portrait of the Writer as a Young Wife, garnered international praise for its exploration of domestic violence and intellectual resistance, earning nominations for prestigious awards like the Women's Prize for Fiction. Kandasamy's work extends to poetry collections such as Touch and poetry translations, amplifying marginalized voices while her activism underscores her commitment to feminist and anti-caste causes.