Velcheru Narayana Rao

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]

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]

• 1998 (with David Shulman), A Poem at the Right Moment: Remembered Verses from Premodern South India, University of California Press.
• 2002 (with David Shulman and Sanjay Subrahmanyam), Textures of Time: Writing History in South India, Paris, Seuil, Permanent Black, Delhi.
• 2002 (with David Shulman), Classical Telugu Poetry: An Anthology, University of California Press, Oxford University Press, New Delhi.
• 2002 (with David Shulman), The Sound of the Kiss, or the Story that Must be Told. Pingali Suranna's Kaḷāpūrṇōdayamu, Columbia University Press.
• 2002 (with David Shulman), A Lover's Guide to Warangal. The Kridabhiramamu of Vallabharaya, Permanent Black, New Delhi.
• 2006 (Translation, with David Shulman) The Demon's Daughter: A Love Story from South India, (by Piṅgaḷi Sūrana) SUNY Press, Albany.
• 2005 (with David Shulman), God on the Hill: Temple poems from Tirupati, Oxford University Press, New York.
• 2012 (With David Shulman) Srinatha: The Poet who Made Gods and Kings, Oxford University Press.
• 2015 (Translation of Allasani Peddana, with David Shulman) The Story of Manu. Murti Classical Library of India.

• Narayana Rao at the University of Wisconsin–Madison