Rajorshi Chakraborti: Shakti

Rajorshi Chakraborti is an Indian-born novelist, essayist and short-story writer. He was born in 1977 in Calcutta, and grew up there and in Mumbai. Rajorshi is the author of six novels and a collection of short fiction. Or the Day Seizes You was shortlisted for the Crossword Book Award in 2006, one of the best-known prizes for English-language writing in India, and has appeared in a Spanish translation entitled La Vida Que Nos Lleva. Mumbai Rollercoaster received an honourable mention in the Children's Writing category of the Crossword Book Awards, 2011. The Man Who Would Not See was longlisted in the fiction section of the 2019 Ockham NZ Book Awards. Shakti, Rajorshi's latest novel, a supernatural mystery thriller, is due out in February 2020.

Lynn Freeman has worked for Radio New Zealand for much longer than she cares to admit. But she is very proud of having been the station's Arts specialist for nudging 20 years, as the host of Standing Room Only and its predecessors. Spending your days interviewing creative people from around the country and every conceivable creative art form is a great joy and privilege.