Surrealistic Icarus: Gopal Lahiri’s SELECTED POEMS
“Poetry is the diary I always carry with me.” Gopal Lahiri’s collection Selected Poems (2025) cultivates a privacy that invites readers to the poet’s second self in consciousness. By Dustin Pickering
Poetry as Ritual Magic: Rajorshi Patranabis’s GOSSIPS OF OUR SURROGATE STORY
Poetry is a prayerful medium to explore complex, living concepts. Just as fruit falls from the bough to decay within earth and feed the tree, Rajorshi Patranabis’s presents the ritual of cyclical love and devotion in his new collection. By Dustin Pickering
Gopal Lahiri’s Poetry of Motion
The ecopoems in Gopal Lahiri’s Anemone Morning delve into a kind of exploratory myth that engages readers with creative potential, stressing that there could be no division between who we are and where we are. By Dustin Pickering
In the Unifying Language of Verse
Published in India’s 75th year of Independence, Converse: Contemporary English Poetry by Indians (2022) presents unique and diverse voices from the diaspora, with poems that are a sustained discussion with history, oneself, the environment, myth, science, and relationships. By Dustin Pickering
The Undying Muse: Nivedita Dey’s LARKSPUR LANE
Whimsical and wise, reflective and poignant, Nivedita Dey poems are a contrast to the gloomy poetry of our age, even while delving into the darkest recesses. She passionately declares space for poetry’s possibilities and promises. By Dustin Pickering
No one an outsider in the holy city
Spun with compassion and realism, the stories from Varanasi in Vivek Nath Mishra’s collection No One An Outsider ask contrasting questions of belonging, compassion, self-destructiveness, and death. By Dustin Pickering
Personal Essay by Devanshi: ‘Your favourite movie is probably not your favourite movie because it was the best film you have ever seen. It is your favourite because Zee Cinema played it a zillion times in the summer of 2014 while your mother folded clothes in the next room, and you unconsciously absorbed its dialogues through domestic osmosis.’