International Writers Festival—Jeyamohan in Conversation with Leeya Mehta
Tuesday, September 29, 2026 4:30 PM EDT
Art & Design Building, Gillespie Gallery, First Floor, Art and Design Bldg Fairfax
Presenting B. Jeyamohan’s ‘White Elephant’ and writing about America from afar. One of the greatest living writers today, B Jeyamohan, will be in conversation with Cheuse Director Leeya Mehta. They will discuss Jeyamohan’s philosophy, idealism and the writer in the world. Jeyamohan’s newest book in translation White Elephant (FSG) touches on the geopolitics of famine, colonialism and the ice trade from America to India in the 1800s.This discussion will focus on Jeyamohan’s fiction and his philosophy and idealism –how a literary movement can deepen community and ways of seeing.
Jeyamohan is a Tamil writer and literary critic whose remarkably prolific career began with the publication of an award winning novel in 1987. Since then he has authored over twenty five novels (including a 26,000-page epic novel, reimagination of the Mahabharata) and more than three hundred short stories; writer biographies; travelogues;books on literature, criticism, philosophy, heritage, and self-discovery and more. As an orator of repute, he has delivered several talks on topics pertaining to literature, philosophy, religion, culture, and tradition. He also writes in Malayalam.
Jeyamohan is also the founder of major cultural movements in Tamil, including Vishnupuram Literary Circle, a global literary organization; Tamil Wiki, an online encyclopedia of Tamil arts and literature;and Nityavanam, an institute of learning focused on philosophy and culture. He lives in Nagercoil, India.
Stories of the True (FSG, 2025) , a short story collection, was a finalist for the ALTA National Translation Award in 2023. White Elephant (FSG, 2026), recounts the Great Indian Famine of 1876-1878 devastating cost to both life and human dignity.
Leeya Mehta is author of Extinction, a novel (Simon and Schuster, Oct 6, 2026). Her prize-winning poetry, fiction and essays are widely published in the US, India, UK, and Austria, including in the Times of India, Poetry London, and the Penguin Book of Modern Indian Poets. Her poetry collection is A story of the world before the fence. She is the director of the Alan Cheuse International Writers Center, where she is an award-winning professor and curator at George Mason University. Find more here: https://leeyamehta.com/
