“Meshing of the Gears” an online question-and-answer event conducted on April 14, 2021 by South Asia Research Center (SARC) bringing together South Asian publishers, literary agents, translators and fiction writers for the benefit of those who wish to enter this area. Introducing the idea of literary agents was something new as they are little known in both India and Japan. The attempt of the online event was to create an awareness of how creative work is written and placed before publishers through literary agents. A publisher, two literary agents, an author and a translator interacted with each other and expressed their opinions through a Q&A session.

The speakers were Prof. Prabhu Guptara (Publisher), Dr. Somdatta Mandal (Author), Mr. Suhail Mathur (Publishing Agent), Mr. Kanishka Gupta (Publishing Agent) and Ms. Moupia Basu( Author). The panel discussion was facilitated by faculty of Soka University, Assoc. Prof. Anar Koli and Dr. Ui Teramoto.

 

The video breakup is as follows:

Kanishka Gupta (00:22:38~)

Kanishka Gupta is a literary agent, writer and publishing commentator and is best known for his globally acclaimed series for Scroll.in called Publishing and the Pandemic. He the founder of Writer's Side, the largest literary agency and consultancy in South Asia.
http://www.writersside.com/ 

 

Moupia Basu (00:41:20)

Moupia Basu is an author and former journalist. She has written Khoka, a collection of short stories for young adults set in the India of the 1940’s, The Queen’s Last Salute, the story of Jhansi’s queen Rani Lakshmibai, and Anarkali and Salim – A retelling of Mughal-e-Azam.

 

Somdatta Mandal (00:59:53)

Somdatta Mandal is Retired Professor of English and Former Chairperson at the Department of English, Visva-Bharati, Santiniketan. She has edited and co-edited 22 books, published three books, five volumes of translation, including having translated “The Journey of a Bengali Woman to Japan and Other Essays”

 

Prabhu Guptara (01:21:26)

Prabhu Guptara is a publisher and editor who started Pippa Rann books and Media in memory of his wife. Pippa Rann books and media focuses on publishing material that nurtures the values of democracy, liberty, equality and fraternity among Indians and those who love India. He was also a plenary speaker in the Economics Session at the SARC International Conference held on October 30-31, 2020.  
https://pipparannbooks.com/ 

 

Suhail Mathur (01:38:26)

Suhail Mathur is one of India’s premier literary agents via his agency, The Book Bakers and an award winning and bestselling author of historical-mythological fiction. He has worked on over 700 books through his agency.
http://thebookbakers.blogspot.com/