H S Shiva Prakash (b.1954) is a celebrated Kannada poet, playwright, translator, critic and columnist whose innovations led Kannada literature into an era beyond modernism. His work is known for its spiritual, social and political engagement. His poems are discussed widely and his plays have been staged all over Karnataka, and the rest of India.
With 9 books of poems, 13 plays and 4 works in Kannada to his credit, he has also published several works in English, which include a book of haiku. His English translation of Kannada vachanas, ‘I Keep Vigil of Rudra’, was published in the Penguin Classics collection. The translation of his ‘Batteesa Raga’ is now being published by Harper Collins India.
His work has been translated into multiple Indian languages, in addition to English, French, Spanish and Italian. He has been an invited to International Poetry Festivals in India, Turkey, El Salvador, Morocco and Romania, Costa-RicaShiva Prakash was awarded the Sahitya Akademi Award (2012), Sangit Natak Akademi award (1997), Karnataka Natak Akademi award, and several best book prizes from the Karnataka Sahitya Akademi for poetry, drama and translation. He has also received an HRD Ministry Fellowship in the field of literature and participated in the International Writing Workshop at Iowa University, USA in 2000.
The former Editor of Indian Literature, the Sahitya Akademi bi-monthly, Shiva Prakash is Professor, Theatre Studies in the School of Arts and Aesthetics, JNU, New Delhi. He is on deputation as the Director, The Tagore Centre, Indian Embassy, Berlin since 2011. Widely travelled both in India and abroad, he has lectured and read his work in Europe, America and in several countries of Asia.