'Incantations Over Water': a conversation with Sharanya Manivannan

Sharanya Manivannan writes and illustrates fiction, poetry, children’s literature, and nonfiction. An Ilankai Tamil raised in Malaysia, she has lived in India since 2007. Her books, Mermaids in the Moonlight and Incantations Over Water, honour her Batticaloa roots, mermaid and singing-fish iconography to tell stories of love and war. She has received three Laadli Awards for fiction and journalism and a Devi Award for the impact of her work. Her books have been nominated for the JCB Prize, The Hindu Prize, the Neev Book Award, the Atta Galatta–Bangalore Literature Festival Book Prize, and the Tata Literature Live! First Book Award.

Sorubiha (they/she) is a diasporic Ilankai-Tamil queer feminist community organiser, creative, educator, facilitator, and researcher. They recently completed an MA in Gender Studies at SOAS, focusing on Tamil futurisms, queering borders, and feminist and queer Tamil epistemes and praxis. Their thesis examined the liberatory potential of relationality within diasporic Tamil collectives in the UK. They are interested in alternative archives, oral histories, and storytelling, and hold an undergraduate Law degree from King’s College London. Sorubiha is an organiser with the ROT Collective and has volunteered with ANBU UK, supporting survivors of child sexual abuse.