Manu Bhattathiri

Manu Bhattathiri was born in Kottarakkara, Kerala. He did his schooling in Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Kashmir and Bangalore, and his college in Kerala. Manu has worked as a journalist in the New Indian Express, Bangalore, a copywriter in several advertising agencies including Ogilvy & Mather, TBWA and RK Swamy, and as a college lecturer briefly in Sree Vivekananda College, Kunnamkulam. He currently co-owns a small ad agency in Bangalore by the name of Cheers! Communications.

Apart from numerous articles and short stories in magazines and newspapers (The Caravan, The Hindustan Times, Scroll, The Hindu’s BLink supplement, The Indian Express and more), Manu has published four books. The first is a collection called Savithri’s Special Room and Other Stories, out from HarperCollins in 2016. It was longlisted at the Tata Literature Live! in 2016 and shortlisted at the 15th Raymond Crossword Book Award in 2017. Aleph Book Company published his first novel The Town That Laughed in August 2018. The work received widespread critical acclaim, and was listed by The Hindu as one of the top 10 books (fiction) of 2018. Manu’s third is The Oracle of Karuthupuzha, a novel set in the fictional small town of his creation, Karuthupuzha, that has repeatedly been compared to RK Narayan’s Malgudi. It was out from Aleph on 10 April 2021. The Hindu had this to say following the release: ‘So far as the power of world-building goes, Bhattathiri stands shoulder-to-shoulder with giants like R.K. Narayanan and William Faulkner.’

His most recent is another collection called The Greatest Enemy of Rain – Stories, published by Aleph in August 2022. The book is already amassing praise from readers and critics alike.

Manu lives in Bangalore with his parents, wife, daughter and no less than three dogs.

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The curious case of Creating Fiction - Manu Bhattathri In Conversation with Dipankar Mukherjee

On 20th Nov 04.00 PM To 04:40 PM

Mr. Bhattathiri - spoke about the process of being a writer. Also, he said How to take care of yourself as a writer and He also told aspiring artists to write irrespective of their moods & external disturbances. Manu Bhattathri also said a book is written 50% by the writer & the rest has to be deciphered by the radar. And He also spoke about the art of building a plot and developing an idea.