Ramahari Jena
Ramahari Jena is a leading light of the Odia art scene and was the first Oriya Artist to receive National Academy Award by Lalit Kala Akademi. He completed his Bachelor of Fine Art in Ist Class from Berhampur University, Orissa, 1985 and was a Visiting Fellow, Printmaking Department, Glasgow School of Art, Glasgow. 1998.
His work has been displayed at numerous national and international exhibitions including Bharat Bhavan Triennale of Graphic Art (1992-95), Ist Egyptian International Print Triennale, Cairo 1993 and 'A.R.K.S.' Gallery London 1998. He has numerous publications to his credit and is passionately interested in literary journalism and book designing among his many interests.
Bhoomi (Ramakanta Samantaray & Sailen Routray)
Ramakanta Samantaray has studied painting and Odia Literature and Language from B.K.Collage of Art and Crafts, Bhubaneswar, and Odia Literature and Language from Utkal University, respectively. His doctoral work was a meditation on contemporary theatre in Odia. With this combination of literature, language and the visual arts he has been constantly working to create hybrid narratives.
Apart from being a painter, he has also published fifteen books. He is a recipient of many awards for his short stories and novels. He has also received the Senior Fellowship, Ministry of Culture, Government of India, Junior Research Fellowship from UGC,New Delhi, Travel Grant from Sahitya Akademi, New Delhi. Have also a solo show titled “INSIDEOUTSIDE” (organised at Lalit Kala Academy’s Regional Centre at Bhubaneswar) and many group shows in major gallery of New Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata.
Sailen Routray is a researcher, writer and translator. His interests in research, writing and teaching lie in the areas of vernacular urbanism with a special focus on Greater Bhubaneswar, school-level social science education in the government school system, and the anthropology of development and governance.
He currently works at Centre for Human Sciences Bhubaneswar, India. His previous appointments include working as a ‘Senior Lecturer’ at Azim Premji University (APU), Bangalore and as a ‘Research Associate’ at Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Bombay. He pursued his doctoral education in social sciences at National Institute of Advanced Studies (NIAS), Bangalore, and has a PhD degree in Development Studies from University of Mysore. His first monograph in English, building on his doctoral dissertation, and titled, Everyday State and Politics in India: Government in the backyard in Kalahandi, has recently been published by Routledge. He is also the managing editor of ‘Anwesha’, an Odia quarterly of politics, culture and ideas. He writes regularly in English and Odia for both academic and general audiences.