Velcheru Narayana Rao is an Indian author, critic, and literary translator. He is a professor at the University of Wisconsin–Madison in the Department of South Asian Studies. His work is primarily focused on Telugu literature for which he received the Sahitya Akademi Fellowship, the highest honour conferred by Sahitya Akademi, in February 2021.^[1]

Early life

Velcheru Narayana Rao was born in Ambakhandi village of Srikakulam district, Andhra Pradesh.^[2] He later moved to Eluru in erstwhile West Godavari district.^[2] He completed his B.A. from Sir C. R. Reddy College, Eluru.^[3] He obtained his M.A. from Andhra University in 1968 and later obtained a diploma in linguistics from Osmania University in 1970.^[1] He earned a Ph.D. from Andhra University in 1974.^[2]

Work

In 1971, Narayana Rao was appointed a lecturer in the Department of South Asian Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. In 1987 he became a Professor at the university. He has also been a Visiting Professor at the University of Chicago and Emory University.^[3]

Narayana Rao has translated several Telugu language books into English including Gurajada Apparao's Kanyasulkam as Girls for Sale: Kanyasulkam, A Play from Colonial India and Allasani Peddana's Manu Charitramu as The Story of Manu. He has co-authored books with David Shulman and Sanjay Subrahmanyam such as God on the Hills: Temple Songs from Tirupati and Textures of Time: Writing History in South India. He also wrote a books on Telugu poetry titled Hibiscus on the Lake: Twentieth Century Telugu Poetry from India.^[4]