The Wise Owl
Select Interviews
Roger Frappier
Canadian Producer-Director
The Wise Owl Interviews Roger Frappier who was in the news for producing the Oscar winner 'The Power of the Dog.' He produced Un Zoo la nuit in 1987, the winner of 13 Genie Awards, still a record. His many other films include Pouvoir intime, Anne Trister, Jésus de Montréal, Ding et Dong, le film and Cosmos. His 2003 production, the affable Seducing Doctor Lewis, became one of the highest-grossing films at the domestic box office in Canadian film history.
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Raghu Rai
Iconic Photographer
The Wise Owl interviews Mr Raghu Rai who has been honoured with the prestigious Padma Shree in 1972, Photographer of the Year (USA) in 1992 for ‘Human Management of Wildlife in India’ published in National Geographic, Academie des Beaux Arts Photography Award in 2019, Creative and Lifetime Achievement Award by the Information and Broadcasting (I&B) Ministry (India) in 2017. Mr Raghu Rai has served twice on the jury of UNESCO's International Photo Contest. He has produced more than 50 books, including Raghu Rai's Delhi, The Sikhs, Calcutta, Khajuraho etc
Arundhathi Subramaniam
Poet-Author
The Wise Owl interviews Arundhathi Subramaniam, a celebrated and world-renowned poet, prose writer, arts critic and anthologist. She has been honoured with innumerable awards like the Sahitya Akademi Award, the inaugural Khushwant Singh Prize, the Raza Award for Poetry, the Zee Women’s Award for Literature, the International Piero Bigongiari Prize and many others.
Tabish Khair
Renowned Author
The Wise Owl interviews Tabish Khair, an eminent poet, writer and critic, who is currently working as an Associate Professor in the Department of English at the University of Aarhus, Denmark. Tabish Khair's writings include poetry collections, My World (1991) Where Parallel Lines Meet (2000), Man of Glass (2010) and the studies, and his novels include The Bus Stopped (2004), which was short listed for the Encore award (UK), The Thing About Thugs (2010) which was short listed for a number of prizes including the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature and the Man Asian Literary Prize. His novel, The Body By the Shore, has releases in June 2022.
Alan Summers
Poet of Japanese genres like haiku & Tanka
The Wise Owl talks to Alan Summers, a multi-award-winning poet of haiku and related genres and is the editor-in-chief of The Haiku Reader. He has authored several poetry collections viz. Does Fish-God Know, The In-Between Season, among others. He is the founder and lead tutor of Call of the Page, where he runs international online courses & workshops on Japanese forms of verse. Alan is the founding editor of three journals viz. Blo͞o Outlier Journal, MahMight haiku journal, and The Babylon Sidedoor. A double Japan Times award winning writer, Summers was filmed by NHK Television (Japan) for ‘Europe meets Japan-Alan’s Haiku Journey’. He is recipient of a Touchstone Individual Poem Award (2016).
Abhay K
Poet-Diplomat
The Wise Owl interviews Abhay K, a renowned poet-diplomat, who has authored several poetry collections namely The Seduction of Delhi, The Eight-Eyed Lord of Kathmandu, The Prophecy of Brasilia among others. His translation of Kalidasa's Meghduta and Ritusamhara received Kalinga Literary Festival 2020-2021 Poetry Book of the Year Award. He has received the SAARC Literary award and Asia-Pacific Excellence Award in 2014. His latest book-length poem, Monsoon: A Poem of Love and Longing', has been published by Sahitya Akademi, India’s National Academy of Letters.
Ranjita Biswas
Writer & Translator
The Wise Owl talks to Ranjita Biswas, a journalist, author and translator based in Kolkata. Ms Biswas has won several awards for her translations from Assamese to English. Among her translated works, 'Written in Tears' won the Best Translation Prize in English from Sahitya Akademi, India's National Academy of Letters, in 2017 and 'The Loneliness of Hira Barua' bagged the PFC Valley of Words Award in 2021 for best English translation. Among the non-fiction works, the author’s coffee table book, 'Brahmaputra and the Assam Valley' traces the socio-cultural life of Assam along the Brahmaputra River.
Will Burns
Poet, Writer & Musician
The Wise Owl talks to Will Burns, poet, musician and novelist who lives in Buckinghamshire and is currently Poet-In-Residence at Caught By The River. He was named as one of the 4 Faber & Faber New Poets for 2014 with his debut pamphlet praised in The Guardian for its ‘quiet intelligence and subtle ways of seeing’, in the series published in October 2014. In 2019 he released ‘Chalk Hill Blue’, a collaborative album made with the composer Hannah Peel, which set his poems to her music. The pair toured extensively, finishing the run with a sold-out night at the Barbican, which also featured a contribution from the esteemed sound artist Chris Watson. Will’s first full collection, ‘Country Music’, was published in 2020, and his debut novel, ‘The Paper Lantern’, was published in July 2021 for which he was named as one of The Observer’s Top 10 Debut Novelists of 2021.
Trish Stevenson
Artist who captures the spirit of the West
The Wise Owl talks to Trish Stevenson, a renowned, award-winning artist who was inspired to paint the people, animals and action of the West, with the focus being on capturing their spirit and attitude in her oil and pastel paintings. Growing up in a rural area west of Denver, Trish Stevenson was either riding horses or drawing them and even then, considered herself an artist. Trish’s artwork has been featured in Art of the West, Western Horseman Magazine and Art Horse Magazine’s International Equine Art Competition. Trish has been honoured with the Stampede Purchase Award at the 2017 Stampede Western Invitational Art Show in Greeley, Colorado, Spirit of the West Award, Purchase Award & Honourable Mention at the 2010 Wild Horse and Western Art Show, First Place at the Small Works Show 2018, James Memorial Art Centre, Williston, ND, Diane Townsend Award, ‘Works on Paper 2014’ at the Waterworks Art Museum, Miles City, MT among others. She has participated in many national and regional exhibits and her work has toured several museums as part of the Ken Ratner Western Art Collection.
Sharmila Ray
Poet-Writer
The Wise Owl interviews Ms Sharmila Ray, a celebrated poet, short-story writer and non-fiction essayist, who is currently an Associate Professor and Head of the Department of History at City College, Kolkata. A major in History with a Ph.D. on Durga and governance, Ms Ray has authored eight books of poetry viz. Earth Me And You (1996), A Day With Rini(1998), Down Salt Water (1999), Violet Heart Strings (1999), Living Other Lives (2004), It’s Fantasy,It’s Reality (2010), With Salt And Brine (2013) and Scrawls and Scribbles (2016). Her chapbook, ‘Windows’ has been published by Melbourne based Black Prune Press.
Tejbir Singh
Painter-Architect
The Wise Owl interviews Tejbir Singh, a contemporary painter (mixed media), who currently lives and works in Bahrain. Tejbir Singh is an architect by profession. The body of works that echo his inspiration are 'Urban Landscapes'. These landscapes are inspired a lot by his travels. He occasionally dabbles in Abstracts, Landscapes and Portraits too. He uses mixed media with prominent use of markers and sketch pens which help him in detailing the elements along with soft pastels, water colours & oils.
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Sanjay Bahadur
Novelist-Bureaucrat
The Wise Owl interviews Sanjay Bahadur, an author of repute and a senior bureaucrat. His writings span a variety of genres. His debut novel, The Sound of Water, a literary fiction, was longlisted for the inaugural Man Asian Literary Prize 2007 and won critical acclaim. His second novel, Hul-Cry Rebel, a historical fiction, was published in 2013 and received rave reviews. His third novel Bite of the Black Dogs, a military action thriller, was published in 2017. The book has been optioned for a feature film by a prominent production house.
Esther van Hulsen
Naturalist & Wildlife & Paleo Artist
The Wise Owl interviews modern day naturalist and professional wild-life and paleo artist, Esther van Hulsen. Based in a cabin close to the fjords and forests of Norway, Ms van Hulsen creates photo-realistic portraits of wildlife using watercolours, copic Markers and/ or coloured pencil. In 2010, Esther also included paleo art – the reconstructing of extinct animals – in her work. In 2016, Esther had the opportunity to draw an extinct 95-million-year-old octopus with the ink from the fossil itself. This detailed painting is displayed in The Natural History Museum in Oslo.
Kiran Soni Gupta
Artist-Bureaucrat
The Wise Owl talks to Kiran Soni Gupta, a prolific artist, writer, curator sculptor and avid photographer. Kiran, an artist-bureaucrat, has won many awards for her artwork. Her paintings on ‘Famine’ won her the National Award. Her artworks, ‘Pooja Times’ and ‘Shelters,’ were exhibited at the Louvre, Paris in 2012, 2013 and 2017. She has been honoured with ‘Indian Iconic Women’s Award 2019, Literary Excellence Award at the 4th Asiad LitFest, National Gaurav Award 2017 and Fakhre-e-Hind Award 2018.
Madan Lal
Artist
The Wise Owl talks to Mr Madan Lal, an internationally recognized and award-winning contemporary artist, who works in acrylic and mixed media. He has been feted and awarded the National Akademi Award by Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi in 2017, Silver medal by Prafulla Dahanukar Art Foundation in 2016, Emerging Artist Award by Prafulla Dahanukar Art Foundation in 2015, Punjab Lalit Kala Akademi Samman 2019 and many others. His artwork is a part of collections of leading Galleries in India, U.K, Germany and the USA and also a part of private collections.
Kazim Ali
Poet, Writer & Essayist
The Wise Owl talks to Kazim Ali, a renowned poet, novelist, short story writer, essayist, painter and a lover of dance and music. Kazim Ali was born in the United Kingdom and has lived transnationally in the United States, Canada, India, France, and the Middle East. His books encompass multiple genres, including the volumes of poetry Inquisition, Sky Ward, winner of the Ohioana Book Award in Poetry; The Far Mosque, winner of Alice James Books’ New England/New York Award; and the cross-genre texts Bright Felon and Wind Instrument. His novels include the recently published The Secret Room: A String Quartet and among his books of essays are the hybrid memoir Silver Road: Essays, Maps & Calligraphies and Fasting for Ramadan: Notes from a Spiritual Practice. He is also an accomplished translator (of Marguerite Duras, Sohrab Sepehri, Ananda Devi, Mahmoud Chokrollahi and others) and an editor of several anthologies and books of criticism. He is currently a Professor of Literature at the University of California, San Diego.
Davd Zinn
Street Artist & Illustrator
The Wise Owl talks to David Zinn, a world-renowned street artist who specializes in chalk art and is most known for his trademark chalk creatures. An Ann Arbor native, University of Michigan alum and a professional illustrator, David Zinn has been creating original artwork in and around Ann Arbor, Michigan since 1987. Most of his creatures appear on sidewalks in Michigan, but they also surface as far away as subway platforms in Manhattan, village squares in Sweden and street corners in Taiwan. David’s street drawings are composed entirely of chalk, charcoal and found objects, and are always improvised on location through a process known as ‘pareidolic anamorphosis’ or ‘anamorphic pareidolia.’He has authored three books on street art viz. ‘Underfoot Menagerie’(2018), ‘The Chalk Art Handbook’ (2021), a published collection of techniques for making happier sidewalk art and ‘Chance Encounters’, a collection of brilliant illustrations published in April 2022.
Namita Gokhale
Writer & Co-founder Jaipur Literature Festival
The Wise Owl talks to Namita Gokhale, an Indian writer, editor, festival director, and publisher. Her debut novel, Paro: Dreams of Passion was released in 1984, and she has since written fiction and nonfiction, and edited nonfiction collections. Ms Gokhale is the co-founder and co-director of the prestigious Jaipur Literature Festival with William Dalrymple which has been picked out as a case study in Harvard Business School and also entered the Limca book of records. She directs Jaipur Bookmark, the publishing imprint of the Jaipur Literature Festival.
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Ms Gokhale was awarded the Sahitya Akademi Award by the India’s National Academy of Letters in 2021 for her novel 'Things to Leave Behind.' Other than the prestigious Sahitya Akademi Award, Namita Gokhale has also been honoured with
Julie Rhodes
Wildlife Artist
The Wise Owl talks to Julie Rhodes a realism wildlife artist, with a focus on big cats. Many of her artworks are life size and larger than life. She has been a professional artist for over 20 years. Working from her UK studio, she sells paintings, pastel work and drawings to collectors worldwide. Art is her passion rivalled only by her obsession with wildlife. Julie mentors upcoming artists through her Wildlife Art Blog. You can find more of her work on her website https://www.julierhodes.com
Trish Hopkinson
Poet & Literary Arts Advocate
The Wise Owl has a friendly chat with Trish Hopkinson, a poet and literary arts advocate. Hopkinson is co-founder and director of Rock Canyon Poets, a regional poetry group which put together two anthologies: Orogeny a collection of Rock Canyon Poets work; and ‘Inspired’, a collection from the community poetry writing workshop she teaches every year with support from Utah Humanities. She also co-founded Provo Poetry in 2015 to feature Utah poets in Poemball vending machines with locations in Provo and Salt Lake City. Her poetry has been published in several magazines and journals. She has authored several chapbooks viz. Reconstructed Happiness, Emissions, Footnote , Amost Famous. Most importantly, Hopkinson encourages growth of small presses and literary journals that offer a free platform for upcoming poets and writers.