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"Indian poets writing in English have earned their space on the global stage, forging new paths and moulding the language to suit the Indian landscape, concerns, and themes. When Nissim Ezekiel crossed new frontiers with his 'A Time to Change' in 1952, it was recognised as one of the first significant books of postcolonial poetry in English; decades later, however, sceptics continued to ask why Indians insisted on writing in English and not in their mother tongues. An exasperated Saleem Peeradina said to me in an interview soon after his debut poetry collection First Offence appeared in 1980, ""This question should be outlawed!"" Mercifully, though such discussions may still linger in some academic circles, the issue no longer merits attention, at least among poets."

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9781645605584

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"Menka Shivdasani, a Mumbai-based poet, editor and translator, is the author of five poetry collections. Her first book of poems in 1990, Nirvana at Ten Rupees, was published by Adil Jussawalla and described by Bruce King as ""one of the best first books of poetry to appear during the 1990s."" (Modern Indian Poetry in English, Revised Edition, OUP, 2001). She subsequently published Stet (2001), Safe House (2015) and Frazil (1990-2017). Her most recent work, The Seven Queens, a retelling of Sindhi folktales in English verse, was published in 2024.Menka has co-translated Freedom and Fissures, an anthology of Sindhi Partition poetry (Sahitya Akademi, 1998), and edited If the Roof Leaks, Let it Leak, an anthology of women's writing for Sound and Picture Archives of Research on Women (2014).A widely published poet, Menka's work has been included in the Second Year Bachelor of Arts textbook of the University of Mumbai. She has also worked extensively to promote Sindhi literature and has collaborated with the senior Sindhi poet Mohan Gehani on three of his poetry collections in English translation. A poem by her, based on a Sindhi folktale, has been made into a short film by noted filmmaker Susheel Gajwani. Menka's awards include the Ethos Literary Award (2019) and the inaugural WE Eunice de Souza Award (2020). She was a finalist for the Rabindranath Tagore Literary Prize in 2019. As a literary curator, Menka co-founded Poetry Circle in Bombay in 1986, co-founded and curated the Culture Beat activities of the Mumbai Press Club for more than a decade, and has organized poetry festivals for 100 Thousand Poets for Change since 2011. Menka is Co-Chair, Asia Pacific Writers and Translators (APWT). Her work as a journalist includes 18 books, co-authored/ edited with Raju Kane, three of which were released by the then Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. Michael Rothenberg (1951-2022) was a poet, artist, songwriter, editor and environmentalist. In 1989, he began Big Bridge Press, which published works by Jim Harrison, Allen Ginsberg and Philip Whalen, among others. Big Bridge Magazine, the webzine started in 1997, was among the earliest online literary journals. Michael also helped create Poets in Need, a group providing emergency funds to poets in crisis. In 2011, he co-founded 100 Thousand Poets for Change with Terri Carrion, a global movement focused on issues of peace, justice and sustainability. They also went on to establish the 'Read A Poem To A Child' initiative. Rothenberg published over 20 books of poetry, most recently In Memory of A Banyan Tree, Poems of the Outside World, 1985-2020 (Lost Horse Press) I Murdered Elvis, (Alien Buddha Press) The Pillars (Quaranzine Press) and Drawing the Shade (Dos Madres Press). His editorial work includes several volumes in the Penguin Poets series: Overtime by Philip Whalen and As Ever by Joanne Kyger. He was also editor of The Collected Poems of Philip Whalen published by Wesleyan University Press. Rothenberg recorded two spoken word CDs in collaboration with prominent musicians. He was Florida State University Libraries Poet in Residence; the FSU Special Collections and Archives now house his personal papers. Rothenberg died of lung cancer on November 21, 2022."

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