A.K. Ramanujan was an award-winning translator and poet whose translations, poetry and essays have been widely published and anthologized. These include Hymns for the Drowning and Speaking of Siva, both of which are published by Penguin. He was the William E. Colvin Professor of South Asian Languages, Civilizations and Linguistics, and a member of the Committee on Social Thought at the University of Chicago. A.K. Ramanujan died in Chicago in 1993.