Vikram Seth

Vikram Seth is an Indian novelist and poet. He has received several awards, and his collections of poetry are notable contributions to the Indian English language poetry canon.

He has published five poetry collections and won poetry prizes. When asked about his “coming out”, Seth makes it clear that he has been open about his sexuality for a long time. Some of his early poems are clearly written to men and women, and others are written in the second person, thus obscuring the gender of the subject.^[1]

His second novel, A Suitable Boy (1993), propelled Seth into the public limelight. He has announced that he is currently working on a sequel to A Suitable Boy called A Suitable Girl. BBC One premiered a six-part miniseries based on A Suitable Boy in 2020. The production has drawn attention for the fact that it is the first time that a BBC historical drama has a cast completely featuring people of color.^[2]

Seth was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2001.

When a journalist asked whether it wouldn’t just be simpler to identify as straight, Seth made it very clear that he had no interest in hiding his bisexuality.

Of course not. You have your feelings. You can’t just suppress or contort your feelings, either your emotional or sexual feelings. And why on earth should you, just to appease someone else’s unthought-through prejudices.^[3]