Kamalakar Bhat
Kamalakar Bhat is a bilingual poet, translator, critic, and scholar, currently heading the Postgraduate Department of English at Ahmednagar College, Maharashtra. Writing in both Kannada and English, he has been building bridges between languages and cultures through his poetry, translations, and literary essays.
His Kannada poetry collections — Churuparu Reshime (Silk Shreds), Mugiyada Madhyahna (Endless Noon), and Jagadajate Matukate (A Chat with the World) — have been widely appreciated for their lyrical beauty and depth. His translations and edited works, including Courtesy of Criticism: Selected Essays of Kirtinath Kurtkoti (Penguin), have brought important Kannada literary voices into English.
Kamalakar’s writings have appeared in Indian Literature, Muse India, Outlook, AGNI, Scroll.in, The Bengaluru Review, and more. He has been honoured with awards like the PUTINA Award (2006) and the B.H. Shridhar Award (2023).
At BBLF 2025, Kamalakar Bhat brings his experience as a poet, translator, and literary thinker, offering insights into the joys and challenges of writing and translating across languages.
