Malatibai Bedekar, ('Vibhavari Shirurkar') was born Balutai Anant Khare in 1905. She graduated from Karve University at the age of seventeen and went on to do her Ph.D. in Sanskrit. She is a distinguished writer and her main focus is on women's issues and social oppression. Among her books in Marathi are Kalyanche Nishwas (1933), Hindolyavar (1934), translated into English as Her, Story, Our Story and On the Swing (Stree, 2008), Kharemaster (1993) translated by Stree in 1998 and Bali (1950). She died in 2000. Yashodhara Maitra Deshpande taught natural sciences at the National Technical Institute for the Deaf. She is an experienced translator from Marathi into English. She has worked closely with the Bedekars and has translated several works by these two illustrious writers. She lives in Webster, NY, USA.