Vinod Kumar Shukla was born in Rajnandgaon, in central India, in 1937. After doing his M.Sc. in Agricultural Extension, he taught at Indira Gandhi Agricultural University, Raipur, from where he retired in 1996. His first publication, in 1971, was a poetry chapbook Lagbhag Jai Hind (Hail India, Almost). He has since published more than a dozen books that include poetry, fiction and books for children. His first novel Naukar ki Kameez (1979, translated as The Servant’s Shirt by Satti Khanna in 1999), was made into a film by Mani Kaul and won the 1999 NETPAC Award at the International Film Festival Rotterdam. Among Shukla’s many awards are the Sahitya Akademi Award and the 2023 PEN/Nabokov Award for Achievement in International Literature.