Vivek Narayanan, a Colgate alumnus, was born in India to Tamil parents, though he grew up primarily in Zambia. He has a master’s in cultural anthropology and a master’s in creative writing, from Stanford University and Boston University, respectively.
He has taught at the University of KwaZulu-Natal worked at Sarai-CSDS, a center for experimental practice and theory in New Delhi, in addition to being a Co-editor of Almost Island, an India-based international literary journal from 2007-2019. Narayanan's books of poems include Universal Beach, Life and Times of Mr S and, most recently, After (NYRB Poets, 2022) and The Kuruntokai and its Mirror (Hanuman Editions, 2024).
His poems, short stories, translations, and essays have appeared in a wide variety of journals as well as anthologies. He has been a Radcliffe Fellow (2013-2014) and a Cullman Fellow at the New York Public Library (2015-2016). At George Mason University, Narayanan teaches the MFA program and sits on the board of the Cheuse International Writers Center. He is also a Co-Editorial Director of the website Poetry Daily, housed at George Mason.
In Narayanan’s words, “The point of bringing across has always been to make a source and its possibilities come fully alive in each new language and, importantly, each new era, to be answerable to the questions of the present.” The Ramayana, in its many tellings, has always been a prolific text in discussions of politics, war, violence, gender, integrity, among many other subjects. Where some versions attempt to dial down the complexities and challenging moments of the original, After abounds in them and assures unfamiliar and distant audiences that this story is meant for them, too, and for now.