Winner of the Kalinga Literary Festival Book Award in 2022 for his English translation of the classic Maithili novel, Kanyadan, Lalit Kumar has explored the development of printing in Mithila, a cultural region spanning parts of Bihar, Jharkhand and Nepal. He teaches English at Deen Dayal Upadhyaya College, University of Delhi. In this interview, he talks about the history of Maithili and the challenges it has faced to develop a print culture