Palya Lankesh (8 March 1935 – 25 January 2000) was an Indian poet, fiction writer, playwright, translator, screenplay writer and journalist who wrote in the Kannada language. He was also an award-winning film director.

Lankesh was born in the small village of Konagavalli in Shimoga, Karnataka. After graduating with an honours degree in English from Central College at Bengaluru, Lankesh completed his Master of Arts degree in English from Maharaja's College, Mysore.

His 1976 film Pallavi—a cinematic narration, told from the female protagonist's point of view and based on his novel Biruku—won the National Award for Best Direction (Swarna Kamal).] Lankesh quit his job as an assistant professor in English at Bangalore University in 1980 and started Lankesh Patrike, the first Kannada tabloid, which influenced Kannada culture and politics.

Lankesh's first work was the collection of short stories Kereya Neeranu Kerege Chelli (1963). His other works include the novels Biruku ("The Fissure"), Mussanjeya Kathaprasanga (A Story at Dusk), Akka (Sister); the plays T. Prasannana Grihastashrama ("The Householder-hood of T.Prasanna"), Sankranti ("Revolution"), Nanna Tangigondu Gandu Kodi ("A Groom for my Sister") and Gunamukha ("Convalescence"); the short story collections, Umapatiya Scholarship Yatre ("Umapati's Scholarship Trip"), Kallu Karaguva Samaya (When the Stone Melts; winner of the 1993 Sahitya Akademi Award), Paapada Hoogalu, the translation of Charles Baudelaire's Les Fleurs du Mal and Dore Oedipus mattu Antigone, translation of Sophocles' Antigone and Oedipus Rex.