An Associate Arts Professor at New York University Abu Dhabi, Deepak Unnikrishnan (b. 1980, Kerala, India) is a writer who explores themes of migration, language and constructed mythologies. His practice centres on storytelling that resists fixed geographies, and he often draws from the texture of everyday life in the Gulf, building images from people, animals and invented objects and ideas. His award-winning debut novel, Temporary People (2017), weaves narratives about the Gulf steeped in Malayalee and South Asian vernacular. His recent project Pettee (2024)—a multidisciplinary dance work co-written and co-directed with writer Karthika Naïr, composer Sarathy Korwar and other collaborators—extends his interest in the mutability of language, rhythm and the moving body.