The Antonym Council of Global Art and Literature (ACGAL) is a non-profit organization dedicated to fostering global literary exchange through translation, education, and community engagement.
ACGAL started its journey in 2020 launching The Antonym literary translation platform. Over the last five years, ACGAL conducted Workshops, Translation Residencies, Multilingual Literary Events apart from conducting transformational projects and providing translation grants.
Antonym Collections is a publishing house with a special focus on literary translation. We believe in crafting books gleaning treasures from different cultures and literary traditions. Our fast-growing shelf has a wide range of genres and formats for every kind of reader- literary fiction, poetry, nonfiction, Sci-fi, fantasy, thriller to many inspiring children’s books. Find your favourite.
Dr. Chaiti Mitra
Festival Director
Chaiti Mitra is an Associate Professor in the Department of English, Ramakrishna Sarada Mission Vivekananda Vidyabhavan College, Kolkata, and Guest Faculty at the Post Graduate Department of English, West Bengal State University. While her academic research interests include women’s writings and narratives of trauma and resistance, she has also been steadily nurturing her passion for translation. She is among the few translators to work on the complex narratives of Shyamol Gangopadhyay and Tilottama Majumdar. Her recent translated work, Chandaneswar Junction: And Other Stories, has been published by The Antonym Collection. She also writes on travel and gender issues in Bengali newspapers and journals, and has recently published her first book, Boudoir to Bibighar: The Memsahib and the 1857 Mutiny Narratives. In her spare time, she is an amateur actor, avid traveller and theatre enthusiast. Her Bengali translation of Hamlet is currently being staged by the well-known theatre group ‘Swapnasandhani’.
Biswadip Chakraborty
Founder Director
Biswadip Chakraborty is an engineer, writer, restaurateur and travel enthusiast. He has four books of fiction in Bengali to his credit. He is also the founder and director of Antonym Collection and Antonym Council of Global Art and Literature.
Kathakali Jana
Director
Kathakali Jana is the head of administration and events at the ITC Sangeet Research Academy in Kolkata. She also writes about the Arts in various mainstream and niche publications and engages with performing arts practitioners across genres. She wears yet another hat as a literary translator.
Biswajit Panda
Director
Biswajit Panda is presently an Associate Professor at Acharya Sukumar Sen Mahavidyalaya, Bardhaman. Mr Panda did his Ph. D. from Jadavpur University in 2008 and he was also a Senior Research Fellow in Research and Teaching at the same University.
