Poetry

RECENTLY RELEASED: LOVE WITHOUT A STORY

**Bloodaxe Books,** **Hexham, 2020** & **Context, Westland,** New Delhi, **2019**

Here are poems that celebrate an expanding kinship: of passion and friendship, mythic quest and modern-day longing, in a world animated by dialogue and dissent, delirium and silence. Circling themes of intimacy and time, they return to the urgency of conversation: that fragile bridge across the frozen attitudes that divide our world. But at the heart of the collection is a deeper preoccupation, with those blurry places where humans might walk with gods, where the body might touch the beyond, where the enchanted might intersect effortlessly with the everyday. Where one stumbles upon what the poet simply calls ‘love without a story’.

reviews

A tall and elegant collection from a rigorous craftswoman—Manohar Shetty, The Hindu
Amidst Catabolised Goddesses —E V Ramakrishnan, Outlook
When the Love Stories End— Shikha Kumar, India Today
more reviews…

WHEN GOD IS A TRAVELLER

Winner Of The 2020 Sahitya Akademi Award & shortlisted for The 2014 T.S. Eliot Prize

HarperCollins India, New Delhi, 2014
Bloodaxe Books, Hexham, 2014

These are poems of wonder and precarious elation, about learning to embrace the seemingly disparate landscapes of hermitage and court, the seemingly diverse addresses of mystery and clarity, disruption and stillness – all the roadblocks and rewards on the long dangerous route to recovering what it is to be alive and human. Wandering, digging, falling, coming to terms with unsettlement and uncertainty, finiteness and fallibility, exploring intersections between the sacred and the sensual, searching for ways to step in and out of stories, cycles and frames – these are some of the recurrent themes. These poems explore various ambivalences – around human intimacy with its bottlenecks and surprises, life in a Third World megapolis, myth, the politics of culture and gender, and the persistent trope of the existential journey.

Reviews of When God is a Traveller, HarperCollins India, New Delhi, 2014

A ‘cinnamon tongue’ moves beyond classical sounds—Lora Tomas, The Sunday Guardian
When Poetry Defies Easy Full Stops—Tishani Doshi, The New Indian Express
The heart as an address—Lora Tomas, LiveMint

EATING GOD, A book of Bhakti poetry

Penguin Ananda, 2014, ISBN: 9780670087594

This fabulous volume, containing compositions of mystic poets across India, from Kabir, Annamacharya and Chandidas to Tukaram, Meera, Akkamahadevi and many more, reminds us of the rich palette of Bhakti. Featuring classic translations as well as new, unpublished ones by acclaimed poets, it will delight seekers and poetry lovers alike.

The Hindu
The Sunday Guardian

WHERE I LIVE: NEW AND SELECTED POEMS

Where I Live: New and Selected Poems, (Bloodaxe Publishers, Hexham, 2009) combines Arundhathi Subramaniam’s first two Indian collections of poetry, On Cleaning Bookshelves and Where I Live, with a selection of new work. ‘This is writing that creeps up on the reader quietly, sometimes with just the whisper of a sari, or the taste of a lullaby, and yet spins suddenly on the edge of stark recognition. Arundhathi Subramaniam’s is a strong new voice’ – Imtiaz Dharker. ‘A marvellous collection, wonderfully varied and rich’ – John Burnside.