Kiran Bhat (born 21 April 1990) is an Indian–American novelist, poet, short-story writer, literary critic and translator, who has written the poetry collections Autobiografia, Speaking in Tongues (2022), and the novel We of the Forsaken World (2020).
Early life
Bhat was born to doctors Anu and Subra Bhat and raised in Jonesboro, Georgia, United States. He began writing at the age of 17. Bhat graduated from New York University. He spent time studying abroad in Spain from 2010 to 2011.
Career
In 2013 Bhat published his first book, titled Early Stories, which is a collection of stories written during his college years and subsequent time period he spent traveling.
In 2017 Bhat published Accepting My Place, a collection of nonfiction journals written between 2011 and 2014.
In 2019 he published a Kannada-language travelogue titled Tirugaatha. Other books he released during this year include the poetry collection Autobiografia and the Mandarin-language poetry collection Kiran Speaks.
In 2020 Bhat published a Portuguese story collection titled Afora, Adentro and his novel We of the forsaken world... The latter was reviewed by Kirkus Reviews. It is a short story cycle involving sixteen narratives based in four imagined places replicating the industrialising parts of our world.
In 2021 Bhat announced that he was working on a new novel, titled Girar. Girar is released as a digital novel in monthly installments, with each story set in another country of the world.
Bhat published the poetry collection Speaking in Tongues: Poems in Spanish, Mandarin, and Turkish through the publisher Red River in 2022. Bhat also contributed the poem "A Reporter Asked" to the poetry anthology Amity: Peace Poems, which was edited by Sahana Ahmed and published in December 2022.
Bhat has also been a contributor to publications such as The Brooklyn Rail, The Kenyon Review, Colorado Review, Eclectica Magazine, and The Chakkar. He has also worked as a Spanish to English literary translator for poets Carlos Lopez, Antonio Guzman Gomez, and the Snichimal Vayuchil.
Personal life
Bhat is of Kannadiga origin. He has traveled to over 147 countries and held residence in 18 cities. He resides in Mumbai, India. He speaks several languages including English, Kannada, Spanish, Portuguese, Mandarin, and Turkish.
Selected bibliography
Early Stories (2013) Accepting My Place (2017) Tirugaatha (2019) Autobiografia (2019) We of the forsaken world (2020) Girar (2021) Speaking in Tongues (2022)
Book contributions
Yearbook of Indian Poetry in English: 2020–2021 by Many Poets
The Best Asian Short Stories 2021 by Zafar Anjum
Amity: Peace Poems (2022)