Papers accepted for Fulcrum.

I was stunned, shocked and amazed :-) one late night at 2.30am to discover that I have had two academic papers accepted for the prestigious international journal 'Fulcrum: a journal of poetry and aesthetics' , edited by the poet, Philip Nikolayev.
The two papers are from my MPhil and PhD work, and I have presented these earlier at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) and at in the IAWS (Indian Association for Women's Studies) Conference in Guwahati, Assam.

So yes. :-)

1. 'Frontiers: Connecting and Dividing Places in the poetry of Arundhathi Subramaniam, Anjum Hasan, CP Surendran, and Tabish Khair'.

2. Representation of Marginalised Figures in Contemporary Indian Women's Poetry in English


It should supposedly be out by the end of the year.

I may have some more news in waiting... but I'll keep it "in waiting", for the moment, I guess. So long, till then! 

'Irom Sharmila' in Six Seasons Review

My poem 'Irom Sharmila', is a ghazal, written a long time back in 2011, and has been published earlier in Kritya by Rati Saxena. Here it is again, in the 3rd issue of the Six Seasons Review, an international anthology (poetry, fiction etc), mostly based in Bangladesh, but the Indian poet, Sudeep Sen, is also an editor. This came out in June. Forgot to post, sorry! Here it is now, along with the front cover and back cover. I hope the text is readable enough.

1 Over The 8th

The journal started by K.Satchidanandan, 1Over The 8th is out.

1 Over The 8th is the precise point when you get drunk, while drinking alcohol. It has three of my poems 'Grief', 'Only The Bones Know' and 'You Don't Have To Tell Me Anything.', and some other great poets and poems besides.

You can find them here. My poems are on page 8 and 9 of the Magazine Section 1.

'What Ifs' published in The Viewspaper

A friend who works for The Viewspaper, Sangeeta Purkayastha, decided to publish one of my poems in it. You can read 'What Ifs' here. :-)

Lady Luck is shining on me! :-)

Lady Luck is shining on me indeed. So I got three pieces of news, all in the same week. These are all acceptances for forthcoming publications.

1. One of my short stories, 'Holi Colour' is accepted for publication for an international anthology on non-normative love called Marked by Scorn. The editor, Dominica Malcolm, also liked 'A Corridor Moment' but she had to follow the rule of accepting only one. The first time I ever got a story published. :-)

2. Three of my poems were accepted by K. Satchidanandan for the next issue of the e-journal Open Sesame at www.ogazine.com which he has recently started.

3. This one came as a jolt from the blue because it has been many eternities since I had sent these poems. Sudeep Sen accepted three of my poems for Six Seasons Review, which operates from Bangladesh, and where he is one of the editors on board. These poems have been published elsewhere in the meantime, but will be reappearing in the Six Seasons Review.


Just a little bit of luck! :-) I will gradually provide links and put them up as and when they are published.

Queer Love in India

A couple of months ago, around Valentine's Day, a friend, Souradeep Roy, asked me to write a love-themed article. As I am currently working on the 'Love Poetry' chapter of my PhD in any case, I agreed. Somehow, Souradeep and I both seemed to think that writing about queer love would be good, as Valentine's Day has mostly been celebrated in heterosexual contexts till now. So I hastily came up with this article for Tokioga journal called 'Queer Love in India'. You can read it here.

'Photograph'

Here is the poem 'Photograph' which was published in Coldnoon Diaries last month. Along with the photograph it was written for. The photo has been clicked by my friend, Ritu Singh, in IP College, Delhi University. And, Happy New Year and all that!

Photograph

A photograph is a means of travel.

It is a way of defeating binary linear logics

Of space-time by jumping them. Flying

Through them. A Muggle way of apparating

 A Muggle Time-Turner. An apparition,

I apparate there, where the topmost branch

Meets the roof. I am a bird who lives in the tree.

(I wonder if you would like me if I was a bird in a tree?

If you would shoot me with your lens instead of your eyes)

Photography at least gives scope for the imagination.

I am a bird right now, in this twilight dusk, crooning

And chirping. Do you see me? Can you hear me?

I am right here, in this photograph. I am flying now.

Tree friends, bird friends, rooftop friends, muggle friends,

Present friends, past friends, and you, will you be my friend?

I have been here for an hour now, this evening, this tree,

This photograph, this place. This mist of memory and dreams

Which films my eyes, this foggy lens of imagination. This place

Looks so beautiful in a photograph. Is it so beautiful, really?

I am trying to remember. I always thought that photography

Is a bourgeois art. I used to think it is a voyeuristic art.

But it is also a way through which I am both bird and human

Both there and here, both then and now, both in and out

This photograph has set me free from factuality.