2020 Archive
Poets
Ajay Raj
Amit Majmudar
Annie Finch
Aravind Kuplikar
Arundhathi Subramaniam
Asiya Zahoor
Avner Pariat
Gregory Kan
Hussain Haidry
Jayanth Kaikani
Jeeva Raghunath
K. Satchidanandan
kanishka Gupta
Karthika Nair
Kavitha Lankesh
Kirun Kapur
Lalitha Siddabasavayya
Maaz Bin Bilal
Mani Rao
Manisha Sharma
Marilyn Hacker
Meera Dasgupta
Prathibha Nandakumar
Pratibha Kelapure
Radhika Narayan
Raena Shirali
Rajiv Mohabir
Jurczok 1001
Rudrakshi Bhattacharjee
Sanchari Vijay
N Sandhya Rani
Sandhya Reddy
Shikha
Soniah Kamal
Subhashini Kaligotla
Sudhanva Deshpande
Tabish Khair
Tina Shashikanth
Venus Jones
Schedule
നടക്കൂ , നടക്കൂ | Walk
K Satchidanandan: A reading in Malayalam.
Why I Write
Venus Jones
poken word poet and actress Venus Jones performs powerful poems that bridge history and the present, honouring heroes and sheroes while celebrating her African-American identity.
Renga through a Lockdown
Karthika Nair and Marilyn Hacker
Shortly after France declared a full lockdown in March 2020, Marilyn Hacker invited Karthika Naïr to join her in creating a renga, literally “linked poem”, the ancient Japanese form of collaborative poetry.
लहू की सुनवाई | Blood's hearing
Hussain Haidry
कवि, गीतकार और पटकथा लेखक हुसैन हैदरी अपनी कविताओं के ज़रिये नागरिकता संशोधन कानून और दिल्ली के दंगों के खिलाफ अपना प्रतिरोध दर्ज़ करते हुए। यहाँ वे अपनी दो कविताएँ पढ़ रहे हैं, 'दोगले' और 'लोहे के स्वाद'।
Choice Words: Writers on Abortion
Annie Finch, Manisha Sharma, Pratibha Kelapure, Soniah Kamal and Shikha Malaviya
The twenty-year journey of putting together Choice Words, Writers on Abortion, a landmark anthology of poems, stories and essays (including Indian and Pakistani perspectives), along with the inspiration/process behind their pieces.
The News
Arundhathi Subramaniam
Nil.
Playtime: Writing as Rearrangement - A Craft Talk
Gregory Kan
A craft talk from the New Zealand-based poet Gregory Kan.
Writing as Righting- Poems by Varavara Rao
Curated by Prathibha Nandakumar
A reading of poet Varavara Rao’s work in English, Kannada, Telugu and Hindi by Ajay Raj, Aravind Kuplikar, Kavitha Lankesh, Radhika Narayan, Sanchari Vijay, Sandhya Rani, Sandhya Reddy, Sudhanva Deshpande and Tina Shashikanth.
What Poetry Means to Me
Meera Dasgupta
National Youth Poet Laureate of the United States, Meera Dasgupta, shares her poems and journey into poetry, her artivism (art +activism), illustrating how poetry is such a powerful platform for addressing social and environmental issues.
What Poetry Means to Me
Rajiv Mohabir with Shikha Malaviya
Guyanese American poet and translator Rajiv Mohabir reveals how a painful history of indentured servitude and multiple migrations informs his work, encompassing several countries, languages, religions, castes and sexuality.
Three Poems
Kanishka Gupta
Nil
>ಲಲಿತ ಸಿದ್ಧಬಸವಯ್ಯ ಕವನಗಳು
Lalitha Siddabasavayya
A reading in Kannada
Gib Mer Din
Jurczok 1001
In his performance, 'Spoken Beats', the artist explores the intersection between literature and music.
If I Could Write This in Fire
Asiya Zahoor and Maaz Bin Bilal with Sourav Roy
Two young firebrands talk about their work, inspiration and their poetry.
Quarantined Sonnets: Sex, Money and Shakespearek
Tabish Khair
A reading.
What He Found in Solitary
Amit Majmudar with Shikha Malaviya
Indo-American poet and novelist Amit Majmudar discusses his journey into poetry and his latest collection.
Looking for God
Avner Pariat
A reading in Khasi.
Poetry as Refuge, Ritual & Representation
Kirun Kapur, Raena Shirali and Subhashini Kaligotla with Shikha Malaviya
What does it mean to be a poet of the South Asian diaspora, to represent and be part of more than one culture?
ಜಯಂತ ಕಾಯ್ಕಿಣಿ ಕವನಗಳು
Jayant Kaikini
A reading in Kannada.
Rhythm and Rhyme: Learning through Play Time
Jeeva Raghunath
A journey of rhymes, stories and singing exclusively for our youngest poetry lovers!
The Game
Rudrakshi Bhattacharjee
Nil
Classic
Mani Rao
Nil
Poet Talk
Poet @ Work
Alvin Pang's Desk
As a writer and editor, I've been working from home for the past 15 years or so. This is my current study, which was fashioned 5 years ago when I moved into my new apartment. We combined two bedrooms in order to create a library and workspace with more light, air, and room for the thousands of books accumulated over the years. I spend most of my day here.
Ameen Haque's Desk
Barnali Ray Shukla's Desk
While I do most of my writing when am not ‘seen’ writing, this old wooden rosewood desk and my chair have been my accomplices for more than a decade. Of all the corners that writers water with their words ( read tears), this has been green in every sense of the word. Being a morning person it is but natural that I take to sunlight like chlorophyll. On most days am up and about by the crack of dawn and here in no time, every day, when am home. Perhaps only to rewrite, edit and delete what I wrote the day prior, but this is that grotto. For days which lend themselves better to writing in long hand, I pluck a pencil from a bunch which I am not very possessive about, I make notes, think aloud, fidget, read, rewrite and those are the days I notice shape better, unplugged. So this chair and this corner are for days such as those. Notice I haven’t mentioned nights, ‘coz that is how it is.
Bhuchung Sonam's Desk
‘’One of my favourite trekking routes. Because I remain tied to my chair most of the time, each weekend, I walk the mountains to refresh my mind and body. Forest rejuvenates my shallow fount of creativity.’’
What would I do without my desk at the corner of a room? This little space of my own is where I spend my time thinking, plotting, writing and dozing off at times. With Dylan, Marquez and Morrison staring down at me, I try hard to chain words into sentences to make sense of my inner turmoils and the world around me that, at times, seems to implode.
Jayant Kaikini's Desk
Jeet Thayil's Desk
Malachi Edwin Vethamani's Desk
Since the lockdown my office has invaded my private work space. An unhappy initial co-habitation that’s becoming a new normal.
Mamta Sagar's Desk
Mani Rao's Desk
Nabina Das's Desk
I have never quite been a 'workplace' person even while I was a journalist for 10 years or more, and then a Creative Writing faculty who 'guest' lectured around universities and workshops. My first book was written shuffling in between the kitchen table and a plain sofa chair in the US. The next two books came about when I barely could sit at the table to write, typing with one hand and waving away mosquitoes with the other in a house by a wilderness in Hyderabad. Later on, the aesthetic of a work place changed majorly when the youngest member of the family claimed my spaces of writing by introducing her vivid and colourful imagination (the pic in B&W). As a result, I went back and forth between my bed and any corner facilitating a sit-down in order to be able to write. But Kahlil Gibran has said "Work is love made visible", so perhaps it hardly matters in what space this love blooms.
Priya Sarukkai Chabbria's Desk
This is sadly, a non-operational desk: missing the laptop. It crashed five times during the lockdown. Instead of rushing to have it repaired, I prioritize buying provisions. The ukiyoe woodblock print is by Eishi, notice the geisha’s handmirror - it’s reflective, like literature
Rochelle d'Silva's Desk
I write at a desk that
is falling apart
It's frame jagged
and worn
And still it carries
the weight of my expectations
I return each new day
more hopeful than the last
Sakshi Singh's Desk
Savita Singh's Desk
This is where I come to be what I am. This where I dare to be who I am. I become free when I write. Here at this study table, a fraction of space in this vast universe. I run the business of living from here only. A spec of dust that I am, I become me, here.
Shreekumar Varma's Desk
I keep a tidy space to write, but somehow it lasts for just a couple of days, then everything falls back in place.”
Siddharth Dasgupta's Desk
The city of Poona is home, and within it, home is many things. It is a family home where sunlight dances in come early morning, affording a writer beauty and space in which to pen a few pages and stanzas. Home is a balcony of lushness that nourishes poetry and snatches of fiction, even as it waves to passing storms and welcomes winter’s misty kiss. Within this hometown, I remain nomadic, jumping across addresses and perspectives. The writer’s life then assumes a desk where a stone Buddha and loved diaries of textured leaves gaze out at the world. This city remains a constant motif in my writing process, itself becoming a moving, moveable writing desk of sorts—the warm assurance of its leafy bylanes for character sketches and dreamt out endings to hovering poems; the wry stillness of its Irani cafés, and a favoured table in each of them, for words bred on a constant parade of Irani chai; and the open arms of select other treasured cafés, where they bring me my coffee, on repeat, allowing me to get on with this act of conjuring something out of nothing.