One of our most prolific children's book writers, Anushka Ravishankar has slowly but surely been securing her status as one of the best children's writers of her generation. Her expansive talent shines most brilliantly in her works of nonsense verse - jubilant and artful adaptations of this difficult genre to the cadences of Indian English. Said to be the pioneer of this form, she has earned national and international acclaim for her nine verse books released over the last decade. Rights to her books have been snapped up around the world and she has over 12 awards to her name. Her books owe their success not only to her fabulous verse, but to her willingness to collaborate and experiment with many different artists and designers - whether working with Swiss textile artists or veteran Indian illustrators, the best aspect of Anushka's work is the cohesion she creates between the text, typography and artwork of each scene. Durga Bai is a young tribal artist from the Gond tradition of central India. Gond is a ritual and functional art style with distinctive decorative elements, mostly painted on walls of houses, using natural colours. Durga constantly re-works and pushes the borders of the form to create art that sparkles with a distinctive energy. Sirish Rao is one of the most exciting new voices in contemporary Indian writing. He has authored 16 books, ranging from novels and children's books to re-tellings of myths, and collections of pop art; several have won international awards. His writing reflects his interests.
