Bama is a Dalit writer. Fighting impossible odds she went through school and college and trained as a teacher who imparts values aimed at building self-esteem, and social consciousness. Besides Karukku (1992), her first novel, she has written Sangati (1994), Kisumbukkaran (1996), Vanmam (2002), Oru Thathavum Erumayum (2004), Kondattam (2009), and Manushi (2011) in Tamil. Both novels and through her several short stories and articles she hopes to focus on themes related to caste domination and social discrimination. Her works have been translated into English, French, Telugu, Kannada, and Malayalam. Malini Seshadri is a freelance writer, editor, and translator based in Chennai. She has more than three decades of experience writing newspaper columns and magazine articles on a wide variety of themes. Recently she has co-authored a series of value education books for schools titled Living in Harmony, published by OUP. She has translated Bama's Tamil novel Vanmam: Vendetta (OUP 2008). She has written a work of fiction for children and co-edited a textbook for an undergraduate programme.