Ankur Konar
Angshuman Kar is a well-known name in the map of Bengali poetry. The anthologies like Khelna Pistol (1998), Apel Saharer Samrat (2001), Nasho Square Feeter Jadukar (2006), Jehadi Tomake (2008) and Amar Sonar Harin (2012) have established Kar as a key figure in the world of contemporary Bengali...
Shikhandin
Sarvannan sat hunched on the front passenger seat. His forehead felt hot in spite of the cool air pouring out without a break from the A/C. His eyes darted about. Every time a bus or car came close, his left foot pressed down, as if to hit the brakes,...
Kushal Poddar
Hiss
Illias sat for hours on a bench that looked dusty but the cleaning stuff did his job as per his daily schedule. When he finally met the authority, the officer took his application, written like a summer river, and said nothing.
Illias went to the forest department. Went to...
Gaurav Monga
In the back of his apartment was a room that used to be his brother's before he died that he now called the bindery. On the tables there were sheets of loose paper—unfinished poems that he had been revising for many years, poems that would eventually age with...
Title: Sweet Shop
Writer: Amit Chaudhuri
Format: Hardcover
Book Length: 128
Publisher: Penguin
Publishing Date: February 2019
Language: English
Reviewed by: Pramila Tripathy
Sweets and Calcutta: A Tryst with the Metaphysical
Amit Chaudhuri’s book Sweet Shop came out in 2019. The poems of the book take their themes from various kinds of sweets and present a meditation on...
Title: The Low Passions: Poems
Writer: Anders Carlson-Wee
Publisher: W.W. Norton and Company
ISBN: 978-0393652383
Language: English
Reviewed by: Dustin Pickering
Anders Carlson-Wee is a National Endowment of the Arts fellow. Dorianne Laux calls The Low Passions “an ode to America, the distances between place and people, the desire to quiet the self in order...
Title: The Wild Essential
Writer: Claudine Nash
Format: Paperback
Publisher: Kelsay Books
Publishing Date: 2017
Language: English
Price: USD 14.00
Reviewed by: Melissa A. Chappell
The Wild Essential is Claudine Nash’s second full-length poetry collection. It is preceded by her poetry collection, Parts per Trillion (Aldrich Press, 2016), and a poetry chapbook, The Problem with Loving Ghosts...
Title: Indelible Fingerprints
Writer: David Estringel
Publisher: Alien Buddha Press
Publishing Date: April 2019
Language: English
Reviewed by: Sarbajit Sarkar
Human tenderness could be defined with the virtual space it occupies while confronting melancholy and utter loneliness. Life, as it is perceived in today’s world, possesses a constant threat to our existence and perennially makes...
Title: When Lovers Leave and Poetry Stays
Writer: Jhilam Chattaraj
Publisher: Authorspress
Publishing Date: 2018
Language: English
Reviewed by: Juveria Tabassum
The time has come for women to leave the woods andreclaim forbidden spaces. In our vast nation while there are millions of girls who disappear due to traditional cultural evils like dowry and female...
Title: Burrito Deluxe
Writer: Joe Ridgwell
Format: Paperback
Book Length: 234
Publisher: Leamington Books
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0993227201
ISBN-13: 978-0993227202
Price: £ 9.99
Reviewed by: Koushik Sen
The Metaphysical Rebels: Burrito Deluxe as the final Road Novel
“What the fuck are these monsters?” I said.
Ronnie attempted to put one end of the leviathan into his mouth.
--Burrito Deluxe. (Ridgwell, 88)
Joe Ridgwell’s...
"Publishing is a small pond but it is full of Pirhanas"
Jhilam Chattaraj: Congratulations on receiving the Pushcart Prize nomination. How important are such honours in a poet’s life?
Dustin Pickering: Thank you, Jhilam! Awards can bring underrated writers to the spotlight and offer them opportunities. An award can also encourage...
MANNEQUIN
It wants to be alive, to know sense and have lucid dreams. However, the possibility of a lone storefront mannequin awakening is a dream. Frozen in the bright neon of the city lights, unable to motion her wants or needs, the mannequin remains silent.
Yet even the impossible things can...