Living (in) Languages: Working Notes on Writing and Translating the Local

What does it mean to live in more than one language? For multilingual societies, languages exist in constant conversation with one another, shaping how we think, speak and move through the world. These rich linguistic landscapes are often challenged by pressures towards standardisation and the privileging of a single language, voice or way of speaking.

In this lecture, acclaimed writer and translator Deepa Bhasthi reflects on multilingualism as a lived experience, examining how languages carry histories, identities and ways of seeing the world. She considers how these questions extend into literary translation, arguing for an approach that allows languages to retain their distinct rhythms, textures and ways of knowing.

About the Speaker & Moderator

Deepa Bhasthi is a writer and literary translator working in Kannada and English, and the first Indian translator to win the International Booker Prize in 2025. Her book-length translations from Kannada include works by Kota Shivarama Karanth, Kodagina Gouramma and Banu Mushtaq. She was a National Book Critics Circle Awards finalist and recipient of an English PEN Award.

Melissa Gay (moderator) is a Masters by Research candidate in English Literature at NUS on the Margaret Wang Memorial Scholarship, working on a thesis on Anglophone and Sinophone literary criticism in mid-twentieth century Malaya and Singapore. Her research interests include world literature, comparative literature, literary translation, and post-critique.