Konangi

Konangi (born 1 November 1956) is the pen name of the Tamil writer Ilangovan. He is the maternal grandson of the Tamil playwright, lyricist, writer and Freedom fighter Madurakavi Baskaradoss. His father is the Tamil writer Shanmugam and his mother is Saraswathi. His elder brother is the Tamil short-story writer S. Tamilselvan and his younger brother is Murugaboopathy a contemporary Tamil playwright. He grew up in Naagalapuram, Bodinayakanur, and Nenmeni Mettupatti, and he currently lives in Kovilpatti, Tamil Nadu.

Career Described as the most important Tamil voice since Pudumaipithan, Konangi has published six short story collections and three novels. His works belongs to the less popular serious literature genre in Tamil which is mostly published in literary magazines and only occasionally in magazines and newspapers with wider circulation.

Konangi's first short story veechu (வீச்சு) was published in Thaamarai, a Tamil magazine in 1980, and from then on he went to create some of the most original short stories in the Tamil language. His stories are characterised by very dense images, a tight narrative style with a vocabulary like no other bringing a ritualistic shade to the use of the Tamil language. His works often pushes and breaks the limits of fiction in Tamil literature by abandonment of the conventions of plot and character construction.

Konangi quit his job in March 1988 and started his own little magazine, Kal Kudhirai, in October 1988 in the Kalrayan Hills. The magazine continues to publish serious contemporary Tamil fiction, poetry, reviews and translations. Konangi's earlier short stories dealt with the issues of alienation, effects of urbanisation in villages leading to farmer suicides, childhood memories, rural tales and other metaphysical themes. He later experimented in fiction writing a wide range of genres including Surrealistic and Magical stories of dreamscapes. His previous novels, such as Paazhi and Pidhiraa, dealt with Jainism and with a wide range of subjects using the reference of the five ancient Sangam landscapes respectively. His latest novel, Tha, was published in January 2013.

Personal life Despite receiving enormous acknowledgements for his literary outputs, Konangi stays away from the media.