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Poet and anthologist, Brian
D'Arcy has been supporting our diaspora poets
for a long time. So, it is appropriate that
Word Masala invites him to guest edit this
issue. His latest collection is just published
by the Sixties Press. Like Seamus Heaney, he
keeps his ears attuned to that special Irish
music in poetry, though here they are not on
the Irish landscape, but rather with an
imprint on the inner landscape where
ghost horses run wild and dance. We encourage
you to buy the book.
A LONG AWAITED WORD
MASALA POETRY COMPETITION
We
are working on launching a poetry competition
with a prize. The details will be announced in
the near future. Instead of any entry
fee, we will ask the participants to buy
any poetry collection from a selection of
books we will offer to help publishers and
our poets. Publishers and poets
are requested to approach us for such
inclusion in the list for which there is no
charge. But a special discount offer to the
entrants is encouraged. An alternative to a
discount for them will be to donate books from
the diaspora poets in their catalogue to help
Word Masala. The judges will be from our
Word Masala Award Winners. At this stage
we are building a list of the books to
include. Please
contact me if you want to participate
in this listing.
CHANGES
REGARDING OUR AWARDS:
Please note, with the feedback we have
received, we have reviewed our Award
categories.
- Poet-of-the-Month remains an
honour we bestow to promote the selected
poet.
- From now on, it WILL
NOT AUTOMATICALLY MEAN that the poet
will receive our Word Masala Award as well.
The idea is not to ignore others who may
have a smaller body of work or are still
working towards building up a substantial
reputation and a body of their acclaimed
work.
Here is our transparency:
- Word Masala Award is only conferred on the
published South-Asian diaspora poets with a
substantial quality of work upholding their
achievements to the highest standards. It will
be akin to 'Lifetime Achievement'. We
will be looking for a wider range of subject
matter offered as well as the poet's
recognizable contribution to literature,
including any special achievements. All our
past winners - we are very proud to say - have
made us conscious of this fact. Only these
winners will be invited to contribute to the
winner's collection to be published by Skylark
Publications UK. These winners will also
nominate and help us in our consultations for
future nominations. We do hope that our
winners will help fellow diaspora poets where
possible, and actively take interest in this
project through mentoring, reviews, helping
with a preface, providing comments for blurbs,
helping to judge competitions, etc. Winners
are also expected to include the mention of
the award in their bio-data and link their
page at www.skylarkpublications.co.uk
to their blogs, social media platforms and
webpages.
- Others may
receive WMP
Special Citation Certificate Awards.
For example a citation can be for being an
'activist poet' or an 'emerging voice'. Our
website will display such citations.
- All the above
mentioned award winners and other generally
featured poets may quote our Honour bestowed
on them as Poet-of-the-Month.
- In future,
we intend to add Word
Masala Poetry in Translation Award as
we start featuring the translation of
well-known diaspora poets writing in the
mother tongue. A separate collection will be
published to celebrate their work.
- Poets are
primarily nominated by our present winners,
the editor, the guest editors, and patrons
of Word Masala. This then leads to further
consultation in the background with feedback
received from a wider group. Reading their
work becomes an important part of this
process. The decision of the Director of
Word Masala Non-Profit Project, with the
agreement of the patrons Lord Parekh and
Lord Dholakia is final. An invitation is
then issued to the respective poet.
The first and the last bullet
points are for those who have enquired for
more details on the subject. The awards
are not automatic as we have a
responsibility to acknowledge and celebrate
the extra-ordinary achievements of our
featured poets. Hopefully, this will
also draw urgent attention to their work from magazine
editors, publishers, agents, and
libraries.
WORD MASALA ANNOUNCES
A CROWDFUNDING INITIATIVE
The first poet in this
series is
MONA DASH
a fresh emerging voice with
one collection already under her belt
We have decided to work with Mona Dash
for the publication of her second collection
of poems in autumn 2016, yet unnamed. (Her
novel is slated for publication and will
hopefully be out by the end of this year.)
Please, purchase
this book at the prepublication price of
£9.99 postage free worldwide (EXCLUSIVELY, ONLY IF YOU ARE OUR SUBSCRIBER FOR THIS EZINE) to support
future publications of other collections by
our diaspora poets. Your
support is vital.
Please buy it
yourself, and please recommend it to your
followers in any relevant social media and
blog to help this initiative.
Congratulations to Reginald
Massey
Reginald
Massey awarded first prize for his
poem “Existentiale”
Forward Poetry, Britain's largest
publisher of poetry, recently held a competition
on the theme, 'Love is in the Air'. Massey's
poem Existentiale was awarded the first prize by
the judges.
Dear Reggie,
I have always been an
admirer of your poetry, and “Existentiale” is
no exception. I loved your occasional but
always well judged and well placed and
effective use of rhyme, your art metaphors
(“surreal,” “Constable clouds,” the night sky
being an artist’s cry), the sensuousness of
the imagery and the fact that the earlier
image of the mist nestling in the valley’s
thighs prepares us subtly for the climactic
warm and urgent caress, the skillful
neologisms (“hilldoms of pines”), and the way
in which your alliterations, though barely
noticed, add to the totality of the effect.
However, did I not read the concluding lines
in another of your poems nearly sixty years
ago? The notion of wisely weaning that
solitary but meaningful moment as a way of
redeeming the world is one that you have
returned to from time to time. Borrowed, I
guess, from Pater, it forms a leitmotif in
your work, wouldn’t you say? And that moment
is often associated with an act of physical
closeness.
As ever,
Brij
Brijraj Singh won
a Rhodes scholarship to Oxford.
Then a Fulbright to Yale from where he took a PhD
in English
He then taught at the City University of NY.
Massey's
excellent
interview by Debjani Chatterjee
Just prior to the announcement of this
award, the September issue of online journal Episteme,
Vol. 4(2),
carried Massey's excellent interview by
Debjani Chatterjee. You can view it at: http://www.episteme.net.in/
Guest
Editorial by Brian G D'Arcy
I felt privileged when
Yogesh invited me to comment on Sweta
Srivastava Vikram's latest collection Wet
Silence. It is good to be
welcomed back to Word Masala
e-newsletter as one of the contributors
to the very first Word Masala paper
anthology, published in 2011 and already
a collector’s item.
Immediately
on
first reading I found myself on an
emotional rollercoaster ride. Sweta
explores the glory and the pain of lost
but enduring love, and the pain and
darkness of love betrayed. And she does so
with both a searching gaze and an
unforgiving candour. As with any
rollercoaster ride, it pays to keep your
eyes open or, in this case, your eyes,
heart and mind. The forty-five poems in
three sections are individually short and
powerful, and collectively commanding.
I felt
inspired to use Sweta’s own words to convey
the richness of this collection, and I do so
in my two 'found' poems, which are offered
below. These will, I hope, speak for
themselves and do justice to her fine
collection.
Two Poems in Honour of our
Poet-of-the-Month
BELOVED
My longing for you
hasn’t ceased.
Solitude is my
partner in bed.
I run my hands over
your contours in my mind,
prowl
through memories of our sweet days,
the warm
memories of our togetherness
when I wasn’t forced
to wear a black mask
and drape my trembling torso
in a white cotton sari.
I
didn’t ask for this silence.
I
am still trying to understand.
BETRAYAL
I
am broken.
I
don’t harbor illusions that my name
was on your last breath.
You
left me feeling like a
freshly
dug grave
as wet silence
became my friend.
I
didn’t plant roses in your memory;
Some
promises dissolve in the rain,
emerge
as poems.
I’ll
indignantly rise, and sing songs of freedom.
And
I’ll come back smelling of jasmine.
Note: Both
'found' poems rely entirely on lines taken
from Sweta's Wet
Silence collection.
This is
a collection to read, and then read
again and again – and again.
Brian G D'Arcy
About the Guest Editor
Brian G D’Arcy
is a prize-winning poet whose work ranges from light-hearted
limericks to passionate odes and haunting
villanelles and ghazals. His poetry collections
are Tha
Shein Ukrosh: Indeed the Hunger (Bellasis
Press),
Footsteps in
the Dust (Sixties Press) and -
hot-off-the-press this month - Ghost Horses
Dancing (Sixties Press). Jointly with his
wife Debjani Chatterjee, he edited two acclaimed
anthologies for Frances Lincoln Children’s Books:
Let’s
Celebrate! Festival Poems from Around the World,
which was selected Book of the Month by Paper Tigers
magazine, and Let’s Play! Poems about
Sports and Games from around the World. He is Treasurer of the Mini Mushaira
writers and chairs the Healing Word workshops.
Ghost Horses Dancing by Brian G D'Arcy
£7.95
ISBN 978-1-905554-28-7
To order this book at DISCOUNT please contact
Yogesh at Word Masala.
eSkylark
A Voice of the
NRI - Diasporic Poets
Editor: Yogesh Patel
Consulting
Editor: Dr Debjani Chatterjee, MBE
Guest
Editor: Brian G D'Arcy
Please note, where possible,
we recommend poets featured for various
awards
Sweta Vikram
Craving
you
In my eyes, a rainstorm gathers,
I write you a poem.
Your body burning on the pyre
lights a fire in my pen.
Your kiss reached
my lungs, I lost my heart.
Your touch burned
my words in the Indian summer.
How can I fill
the vacuum in my life
with anything else?
I press my fingers
against your memory—
the curse of being a poet,
feeling everything so deeply.
I miss you
for years after you are gone.
© Sweta Srivastava Vikram
‘Craving You,’ a poem
essay, originally appeared in Sweta
Vikram's poetry book: Wet Silence
(Modern History Press: July 1, 2015.
ISBN-13: 978-1615992560).
Sweta
Srivastava Vikram
Sweta Srivastava
Vikram (www.swetavikram.com), featured
by Asian Fusion as ‘One of the most
influential Asians of our time,’ is an
award-winning writer, three times
Pushcart Prize nominee, Amazon
bestselling author of 10 books,
novelist, poet, essayist, and columnist.
Her latest book, Wet Silence, is a
full-length collection of poems about
Hindu widows. Sweta is also a certified
yoga teacher who shares the love and
power of yoga with trauma survivors. A
graduate of Columbia University, when
Sweta is not doing yoga, cooking,
travelling, writing books, or posts for
magazines, teaching creative writing, or
giving talks on gender equality, she
works as a digital and content marketing
consultant. Sweta lives in New York City
with her husband and can be found on
Twitter [@swetavikram] and Facebook
(https://www.facebook.com/Words.By.Sweta)
|
Books
by the Poet-of-the-Month
To order please click on
the name below:
Wet
Silence
"Sweta
Vikram captures bold raw passion, poignant
reality and crafts a powerful voice for
the voiceless."
--Kate Campbell Stevenson, Actor &
Producer
Wet Silence bears moving accounts of
Hindu widows in India. The book raises
concern about the treatment of widowed
women by society; lends their stories a
voice; shares their unheard tales about
marriage; reveals the heavy hand of
patriarchy; and, addresses the lack of
companionship and sensuality in their
lives. This collection of poems covers a
myriad of social evils such as misogyny,
infidelity, gender inequality, and
celibacy amongst other things. The poems
in the collection are bold, unapologetic,
and visceral. The collection will haunt
you.
*
To order, please click on the name below:
Bacause All is Not Lost
We
have all lost a dear one at some point in
our lives. Grief, depending on the
relationship with the one deceased,
affects us differently. I feel my Dada and
Mausi's absence every single day for
disparate reasons. But these two losses
have taught me that their time had come.
And that life is about celebrating those
alive and not just mourning those who have
moved on. Optimism and faith are the keys
to overcoming the roadblocks life puts in
our way. This book tries to state that
there is always hope for anyone coping
with grief. No one can tell us exactly
how; the voyage has to be undertaken by
each of us individually.
Learn more about the author
at www.swetavikram.com
The WM poetry audio archive at our website
If
you are a published poet from the
diaspora, and writing in English,
please send us the audio file of
your best poem, read by
you. We are building up an
archive that will eventually be
transferred to one of the UK's
prestigious institutions.
Visit us at
http://www.skylarkpublications.co.uk/audio.html
Please benefit from
our review group
To be fair to all small presses struggling
everywhere, bluntly,
if you can't spare time for other
poets, why should they over you?
Word
Masala has set up a review group. We want to
build up this group. A practical position in
the publishing world is that if you are not
prepared to review books by other poets and
authors, it will be wrong to expect others
to review your books. It takes time and
effort.
If everyone thinks it is a waste of time,
then we will have a continued problem. If
you are not pro-active in creating helpful
conditions, then more and more publishers
will ignore our diaspora writers. Quite
frankly why shouldn't they?
After
all, they need to make profit, if for
nothing else, to support their next
publication.
So
let us actively feed their marketing with
what we can do. Please write to
me to participate in this group.
I
am spending as much time as I can to contact
and find the magazines that will give us
space for articles on our poets and writers,
as well as reviews of their work. So please
talk to your sources and contact me to take
it further. Congratulations to two members
here:
And once again, may I
request readers to go out of their way
to encourage our diaspora poets by
acquiring their books from the links
provided? Even suggesting to
libraries the books
recently published by the poets featured
in earlier issues is a help.
To
libraries: Do you want a
discount? LET us know.
We understand
the cuts. WM is ready to work with
you.
Please
contact the editor to join the group and offer
discounts on your books.
If you are
able to encourage fellow writers in
any way, then
please do so.
For example, why not contact a featured poet above
for an interview,
poetry reading, or a
review?
If
you do something to encourage our
poets featured, at your library, radio
or TV station, or an organization, or
a magazine, please DO NOT FORGET to
let us know, so that we can tell
others how you helped our poets here.
Add a brief note on yourself and your
project or activity too.
Required reading this period
1
A white author is under fire after using
an Asian pen name in order to avoid
rejection letters.
2
Junot
Díaz condemns creative writing
courses for 'unbearable
too-whiteness
Pulitzer-prize winning
author's comments that 'the
default position of reading
and writing ... was white,
straight and male' are backed
by writers including Aminatta
Forna and Daljit Nagra
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/may/19/junot-diaz-attack-creative-writing-unbearable-too-whiteness
3
Our previous award
winning poet Usha Kishore's
latest interview:
4
Which of these works would you
call “immigrant fiction”?
a) Lolita
b) Heart of Darkness
c) Middlesex
d) None of the above
e) All of the above
5
Events
Poetry Please BBC Radio 4
Have you tried
to request a poem by a published
diaspora poet?
Ask the poet to send a copy to the
unit to help your choice
We
can help
BBC Radio
4 welcomes your suggestions
for poems for possible
inclusion in the programme.
"Don't forget to tell us why
you'd like to hear the
poem... is there a special
reason or memory associated
with your request? Email us
using the form and
also tell us whereabouts
you're from. Alternatively
you can write to us at
Poetry Please, BBC Bristol,
BS8 2LR or call 03700 100
400."
https://ssl.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006qp7q/contact
SHARING
YOUR POETRY WITH A LIVE
AUDIENCE
Wednesday 14
October, 6.30 - 8.45pm
This practical
workshop highlights basics such as voice
production, delivery techniques, body
language, and controlling nerves. Its
aim is to help poets read in public with
confidence and present their poems more
effectively.
The
workshop
is led by Catherine
Dell, a speaking
skills coach who specialises in working
with writers.
Venue:
Travelling
Through Bookshop, 131 Lower Marsh,
London SE1 7AE
Cost:
£10
per person (includes a drink)
Email:
contact@travellingthrough.co.uk
(reference: Catherine Dell's workshop)
Phone:
0207
633 9279
Contests
without fee
An
award of approximately $54,000 is given annually
to a U.S. poet for a year of travel and study
abroad. Submit two copies of either up to 40
pages of poetry or a published book and up to 20
pages of. Please click on the header to lead you
to their website.
Three
six-month fellowships of $1,000 each,
publication in A Public
Space, mentorship from an
established author who has contributed to A Public
Space, and optional workspace in
the...
Each
week, Cultured Vultures will
be holding a poetry competition which is open to
all comers. The winning poem will be published
every Monday and will be listed here for the
annals.
There’s
no entrance fee, which means that there will be
no prize for the winner – at least for the time
being. If successful, your poem will be seen by
an attentive audience of thousands. Second
and third place finishers will also be
published. There aren’t many better places to
have your poetic voice heard.
Submissions
Requests - Without Representation by an
Agent
Contemporary
Verse 2
Kweli
‟A journal named for
'truth' in Swahili invites its readers and
contributors to seek for the same.”
Kweli
Journal is a quarterly. The
journal's reading period is September 1
through May 30. We are
now accepting online submissions through May 30. Submissions
received outside this reading period will
remain unread. Submit your work at any time
during our reading period. We strongly encourage
you to read a few issues of the journal
before submitting. Kweli staff
editors will determine for which guest
editor a work is most appropriate.
The BookBub Blog is looking
for a few great writers to become paid
contributors.
They are looking for
people who:
— Love to read.
— Are deeply passionate and knowledgeable
about one or more of the literary genres
listed below.
— Have an impressive portfolio of online
writing about books.
— Want to write and produce book lists,
quizzes, and other fun ways to help readers
discover new books.
— Are excited about writing for BookBub’s 2.3
million passionate followers on Facebook,
Twitter, and Pinterest.
— Are willing to commit to a minimum of
two posts on the BookBub Blog each month.
— Can come up with creative new ways to engage
readers.
— Are fun to work with
They are not looking
for book reviewers.
Sound like you? Then
apply for one of BookBub Blog Contributor
opportunities, by filling out the form below.
The Atlantis Wants Your Culture Stories: A
Call for Pitches
They
are looking for your smart, original pieces
about arts, entertainment, and the world
beyond.
The best Atlantic culture
pieces examine questions people have long had
but never quite identified. They aim for
strong arguments and analysis, exploring the
less obvious facets of film, television,
books, music, theatre, art, design, media,
fashion, architecture, language, food, and
sports. All these things are much more than
entertainment—they’re how people relate to
life, and how they ask and answer questions
about what it means to be human.
Thoughtful critiques and rigorous
analyses catch their attention. They are more
interested in writers who’ve done research and
reporting rather than those offering up
half-baked personal observations. And they
are particularly interested in finding
writers whose experiences and opinions are underrepresented in the
media.
Submissions
to The Atlantic
How
do I submit a piece for possible
publication in The
Atlantic?
The
Atlantic is always interested in great
nonfiction, fiction, and poetry. A general
familiarity with what we have published in the
past is the best guide to what we're looking
for. All manuscripts should be submitted as a
Word document or PDF. Succinct pitches may be
submitted in the body of an e-mail.
Marketing
your book
Learn
how to promote your book with this free
book from award-winning author Carolyn
Howard-Johnson
Want genuine royalty free photos for your
books & projects?
Be EXTREMELY
careful in using any web photos. What
may look on the surface as royalty free,
quite often has restrictions.
SO WORD MASALA will help poets in
avoiding possible legal problems.
Want a general
royalty free photo for your book
cover?
No problem.
http://www.saypaneer.com/Contact.htm will
help
if arranged through us.
Contact Yogesh at Skylark & WM
and be safe in using photos.
Can you help this
project? WHY not?
We also have a mug available
with a poem by Dr Debjani Chatterjee, MBE
and another one by Saleem Peeradina. If
as poet you can donate a poem for this (your
rights reserved), please contact us. They have
to be for an occasion.
Do you want it for other poets? No problem.
Ah, so you want your own
poem on it! What is stopping you?
Gujarati, Hindi, Punjabi, Tamil, or any other
world languages? To order contact me direct with
your PDF of a poem in the language you want.
As this project is for all us and a
non-profit venture in nature, with its
constant evolution, Word Masala welcomes
local poets and authors to join hands in
making it a meaningful stop for all our
creative talents worldwide. We are
especially keen to see the poetry film genre
taking on a new and exciting poetic
direction. Please email Yogesh if you can
spare some help. Remote help or suggestions
are welcome too.
Good luck,
Yogesh
Patel
  
Thank
you once again to those who wrote back,
appreciating this thankless non-revenue
initiative. Please add us to your contacts
and address book.
Should you think this is
not a worthy endeavour, then please unsubscribe
by sending a polite email indicating which
email address we have used. Please note Word
Masala and Skylark have no monetary interests
in any suggestions here, and do not take
liability for any action taken by you.
You must research any suggestions contained
herein, and assure yourself
accordingly. |
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