Chelva Kanaganayakam

Professor Chelvanayakam Kanaganayakam (; May 7, 1952 – November 22, 2014) was a Tamil Canadian translator, author and academic.

Early life and family Kanaganayakam was born on May 7, 1952, in Colombo, Ceylon. He was the son of V. Chelvanayakam, head of the Department of Tamil at the University of Ceylon, Peradeniya, and Kamalambikai. He was educated at Trinity College, Kandy. After school Kanaganayakam joined the University of Sri Lanka Peradeniya campus but following Osmund Jayaratne's "re-organisation" of universities, he and other language and literature students were moved to the university's campus in Kelaniya. He graduated in 1976 with a B.A. degree in English language and literature.

Kanaganayakam was married to Thirumagal. Dark Antonyms and Paradise: The Poetry of Rienzi Crusz (1997, TSAR Publications) New Demarcations: Essays in Tamil Studies (2009, Brown Bear Press, co-editors R. Cheran & Darshan Ambalavanar) Nedunalvaadai (2010) You Cannot Turn Away (2010, translator) Ritual (2011, translator) World Without Walls: Being Human, Being Tamil (2011, co-editor) In Our Translated World: Contemporary Global Tamil Poetry (2013, TSAR Publications, editor) A History of South Asian Writing in English (2014, Cambridge University Press) Uprooting the Pumpkin: Selections from Sri Lankan Tamil Literature, 1950-2012 (2016, Oxford University Press, editor)