Dear audience,
we are delighted to announce the Curator in Residence for the upcoming festival year: Jeet Thayil will be the Curator in Residence for the 26th international literature festival berlin (ilb).
The award-winning poet, novelist, librettist, musician, and literary editor from India moves effortlessly between poetry, prose, and performance in his artistic work. His writing combines personal reflection with classical motifs and social observation – always marked by a finely tuned sense of rhythm and language.
Thayil first gained international attention with his debut novel »Narcopolis« (2012), which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize, won the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature – and brought him to the ilb as a guest in 2013. The novel is a homage of Mumbai and to the people in its opium dens during the seventies, eighties, and nineties.
He has since published seven poetry collections, most recently »The City Under the City« (2025), co-authored with John Kinsella, and his acclaimed novel »The Elsewhereans: A Documentary Novel« was released this summer.
Alongside his literary work, Jeet Thayil is a musician, librettist, and editor. Together with Suman Sridhar he forms the duo Sridhar/Thayil, performs with several experimental bands, and has written libretti such as »Babur in London« (2012). As an editor, he compiled »The Penguin Book of Indian Poets« (2022), founded the Shakti Bhatt Prize, and in 2025 launched Thayil Editions, an imprint dedicated to experimental English-language writing.
Introduced in 2024 by the festival’s supporting organization, the Peter-Weiss-Stiftung für Kunst und Politik e.V., the Curator in Residence program has since enriched the ilb with fresh perspectives. Jeet Thayil will work closely with the curatorial team, develop his own thematic focuses, and invite authors whose voices contribute to the polyphony of the global literary landscape. The program is funded by the Hauptstadtkulturfonds.
We look forward to experiencing Jeet Thayil’s distinctive literary voice and many-toned perspective together with you at next year’s festival.
Warm regards,
Your team at the ilb