A. Ayyappan

Born: 27 October 1949

Died: 21 October 2010

He was a Malayalam poet in the modernist period.
He is considered as the icon of anarchism in Malayalam poetry.
He became involved in the Communist Party and joined the staff of Janayugom, the party newspaper.
He was well known for his heart touching poems and his bohemian lifestyle.
He, who got intoxicated by the creativity of turning the pain of the homeless into poetry, slept on shop verandas and wrote poems — which were an untainted depiction of life.
In his own words, destitution and insecurity transformed him into a poet.
He can be considered the icon of anarchism in Kerala.
He was a close friend of the late filmmaker John Abraham.
He was also famous as a great lover of sunlight (‘veyil’ in the Malayalam language) and a passionate adherent of Communism.
For an English translation of his poems see ‘Selected Poems of A.
He from God’s Own Country’ published by Authors Press – translation by P.K.N.Panicker ISBN 978-81-7273-840-2.
He won the Asan Smaraka Kavitha Puraskaram (Asan Poetry Prize), one of the highest literary awards in Malayalam literature, for the year 2010.
He was also a recipient of the Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award for Poetry in 1999.
His life has been documented on a short film, Ithrayum Yathabhagam, made by Odessa Sathyan, one of the founders of Odessa Collective, a people’s film movement in Kerala.