Follow writing into public life
Poets, playwrights and public work
Explore ten literary lives through performance, radio, printing, theatre, journalism, interviews, criticism and remembered encounters.
10 entries · 20 min reading, calculated from article text
Use your browser’s print command for a copy of this reading list.
Your reading goal
Distinguish a creative work, a critic’s interpretation, a colleague’s recollection and a publisher’s description.
- 01People · 2 min read
Sohan Singh Seetal
Sohan Singh Seetal combined dhadi performance with Punjabi poetry, fiction and historical research. His varied books also helped cultivate young readers.
- 02People · 2 min read
Sohan Singh Misha
Sohan Singh Misha joined Punjabi poetry with radio work in Jalandhar. Critical readings explore his questions about progress, division and human friendship.
- 03People · 2 min read
Mohan Singh (poet)
Mohan Singh’s Punjabi poetry and magazine editing brought literary craft into public life. A younger writer’s memories reveal his attention to revision.
- 04People · 2 min read
Dhani Ram Chatrik
Dhani Ram Chatrik’s poetry drew on everyday Punjabi and social concerns. His printing work and a later named typeface connect literary and material culture.
- 05People · 2 min read
Ishwar Chander Nanda
Ishwar Chander Nanda’s Punjabi plays brought household conflict to the stage. Lahore college theatre and spoken idiom shaped a socially attentive practice.
- 06People · 2 min read
Krishan Adib
Krishan Adib wrote Urdu ghazals and nazms while working as a photographer in Ludhiana. Literary friendships and later records preserve aspects of his work.
- 07People · 2 min read
Ajit Cour
Ajit Cour’s Punjabi writing connects Lahore origins with fiction, journalism and cultural work. Her public interviews also address exchange among writers.
- 08People · 2 min read
Dalip Kaur Tiwana
Dalip Kaur Tiwana’s Punjabi fiction grew from study and writing in Patiala. Her interviews and an editor’s reading connect narrative craft with women’s lives.
- 09People · 2 min read
Prem Gorkhi
Prem Gorkhi’s Punjabi short fiction attended to marginalised lives. Memories of reading, newspaper work and mentoring reveal a public literary practice.
- 10People · 2 min read
Prabhjot Kaur
Prabhjot Kaur’s Punjabi poetry moved between patriotic and personal concerns. Recollections and publication records preserve a career across literary forms.
A question to carry with you
Choose one claim from your reading. Identify its source and locator. What does that source directly establish, and what would need a second source?