Write To Me: Essays on Indian Poetry in English

Write to Me is a slim collection of thirty-five essays on various poetry collections published by Indians between 2020 and 2023 from within the country and its rich diaspora. Alert, attentive, astute, and arduous, the book offers an interesting synchronic statement on Indian Poetry in English in the present. These four years, marked unalterably by the crisis of the Pandemic, witnessed new roles and responsibilities for poetry. The essays in this book, by inviting readers to the numerous pleasures of poetry as a genre, hopes to draw them towards both the criticism of poetry and the poetry of criticism.

About the Author :
Basudhara Roy (b. 1986) teaches English at Karim City College affiliated to Kolhan University, Chaibasa. Creatively and academically drawn to themes of gender and ecology, her four published books include a monograph and three collections of poems -- Moon in my Teacup (2019), Stitching a Home (2021), and Inhabiting (2022). Co-editor of two poetry anthologies and a firm believer in the therapeutic power of verse, she writes, reviews, and sporadically curates and translates poetry from Jamshedpur, Jharkhand, India. (More about her at https: //www.basudhararoy.com/)

Review :
In Write to Me, Basudhara Roy considers a broad sweep of contemporary Indian Poetry in English, coupling the critically incisive eye of an academic with the emotive directness of a poet. The volume's thirty-five essays provide wonderful introductions to the work of the poets reviewed, but along with this they do something more. Collectively, they demonstrate many of the strengths that lie at the heart of the current upsurge of Indian Poetry in English, and beyond this the nature of poetry, in its recent Indian incarnations, itself. The book has its origins in responses to particular volumes of verse, but taken together the reviews serve as a fine introduction to the rich diversity of today's Indian Poetry in English. The voices discussed represent a significant progression from those of the independence generation of Indian poets and it is very rewarding to see them analysed together in this way by a first-rate critic. --Prof. John Thieme, University of East Anglia, UK To poems from Indians across the country and globe Basudhara Roy brings a wide breadth of reading. It provides a base for close attention to each work that respects the 'mind time' of poems. The critic generously and astutely elucidates their character and concerns in often lyrical prose. If I were publishing a book of poetry, I would want Roy as my reviewer. --Paul Sharrad, University of Wollongong, Australia The wide range of books with a diverse flow of ideas, read and discussed by Basudhara Roy reflect her keen insights, her passion for literature and life. The poet in her brings out the essential dynamics of other voices who are equally immersed in the art of writing. The critic in her, with an eye for detail, draws our attention to the metaphors/meanings that make or mar the text. A heart that feels is the one who sees and the one who sees will always seek. Write to Me speaking with a curious passion about the power of verse, will mark a new beginning to the world of Indian poetry in English.--Prof. Ranu Uniyal, University of Lucknow, India