Katha Books is the publishing arm of Katha, a New Delhi–based non-profit organisation working in the fields of literature, translation, and education. Founded in 1988 by Geeta Dharmarajan, Katha is best known for translating contemporary Indian fiction from regional languages into English and for producing illustrated children's books in multiple Indian languages. Through its publishing programme, Katha Books has played a notable role in bringing writers from Bengali, Tamil, Malayalam, Marathi, Hindi, Urdu, Kannada, Telugu, Gujarati, Odia and other Indian languages to a wider readership.
| Name | Katha Books |
|---|---|
| Parent organisation | Katha |
| Type | Non-profit publisher |
| Founder | Geeta Dharmarajan |
| Founded | 1988 |
| Headquarters | New Delhi, India |
| Focus areas | Translation, children's literature, story-based education |
Katha was set up in 1988 by writer and editor Geeta Dharmarajan as a registered non-profit society. The organisation was conceived around the idea that storytelling could serve both as a literary practice and as a tool for grassroots education, particularly for children from underserved communities. The publishing wing, Katha Books, grew alongside Katha's education initiatives, with revenues from book sales contributing to the organisation's schools and learning programmes.
Katha Books publishes across several broad categories:
One of Katha's distinctive contributions has been its sustained focus on literary translation at a time when such work received limited commercial attention. The Katha Awards for translation and creative fiction were instituted to recognise both the original authors writing in Indian languages and their translators, and these stories have been collected in the Katha Prize Stories volumes.
Katha Books is closely linked to Katha's wider educational work, including the Katha Lab School and community learning centres in Delhi. Books produced by the imprint are used in story-based pedagogy, and royalties and proceeds from the publishing programme support these activities. The organisation has also run training initiatives for teachers and translators.
Within Indian publishing, Katha Books occupies a niche shaped by its non-profit identity, its commitment to multilingual translation, and its emphasis on children's literature with Indian content and illustration. It has helped introduce English-language readers to writers such as U. R. Ananthamurthy, Mahasweta Devi, Vaikom Muhammad Basheer, Nirmal Verma, Bhisham Sahni and many others through anthologies and standalone translations, while also fostering a generation of Indian translators.