Karthika Naïr

Karthika Naïr (born 1972) is a French-Indian poet and dance producer and curator. Her notable works include Until the Lions: Echoes from the Mahabharata, published by HarperCollins India and Arc Publications in 2015. She is India's only poet to have won a literary award for fiction for a work of poetry.

Early life and education Karthika Naïr was born in 1972 in Kottayam, Kerala. Her father was an officer in the Indian Army,

She was born with the rare and chronic genetic condition epidermolysis bullosa and was often sick and hospitalised for surgeries growing up. She stayed at home much because of her illness and engaged in reading books that her parents often bought.

Works Naïr has published both poetry and prose and written scripts for dance productions. Her poetry has been widely anthologised across the world including in Granta, Prairie Schooner, Poetry Review (UK), The Literary Review (USA), Poetry International, Indian Literature, The Bloodaxe Book of Contemporary Indian Poets and the Forward Book of Poetry 2017.

Books La Zon-Mai: parcours nomades, Actes-Sud (France, 2007) (co-author) The Honey Hunter/Le Tigre de Miel (Young Zubaan, India/Editions Hélium, France, 2013) Electric Birds of Pothakudi (Joëlle Jolivet, illus.) (Tate, 2025)

Poetry Bearings (HarperCollins India, 2009) Until the Lions: Echoes from the Mahabharata (HarperCollins India/Arc Publications UK, 2015)

Scripts DESH (2011) Chotto Desh (2015)

Translations On the Other Side of the Shadow by Roselyne Sibille The Shadow Rises before Me by Roselyne Sibille The Shadow Steps Forward by Roselyne Sibille The Shadow Moans by Roselyne Sibille The Shadow is a Ridgeline by Roselyne Sibille He Gazes Uncomprehendingly by Roselyne Sibille Hope, une exposition d'art contemporain sur l'espoir. (Flammarion, 2010) (co-translator)

Process Naïr took five years to complete Until the Lions. In an interview with The Hindu, she said, "The first two were devoted entirely to reading/watching/hearing material on the Mahabharata, whether regional versions, retellings, stage and film adaptations or academic papers." Where she could not find source material in France, like P.K. Balakrishnan’s Ini Njan Urangatte (I Can Sleep Now), her parents read it to her over Skype. Poetry International says about her work: "The proximity to performing arts, and to dance in particular, is evident in much of Naïr's poetry, which presents a striking blend of density and mercurial fluidity."

Many poems in her first collection, Bearings, were ekphrastic and drew from existing performances.

Naïr has been influenced by choreographers Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker, Rachid Ouramdane and Gregory Maqoma, and the French opera director Patrice Chéreau.

Awards Tata Literature Live! Award (2015) – Until the Lions: Echoes from the Mahabharata

Until the Lions: Echoes from the Mahabharata was also shortlisted for the Atta Galatta Prize (2016)

Naïr was also the principal scriptwriter for DESH (2011), a multiple-award-winning production.