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Guest Editor: Dr DebjaniChattejee
Glass Tanka
(For Bobby Nayyar)
We people in glass
houses live in dread of stones.
You have picked your way,
wincing, through the shards of life.
You found your way - you survived.
© Debjani Chatterjee
Rarely does a debut poetry collection show such remarkable promise. That is whyGlass Scissors is an exciting find. Having selected his short stories a decade ago for the award-winning anthology, Mango Shake, I already knew that Bobby Nayyar had talent. Since then he has had more short fiction and two novels published. And now a poetry collection that reveals some of the skills of his fiction: precision of language, narrative thread, and twists and turns.
In an 'Author's Note', Nayyar writes: 'The beauty is in the truth', a paraphrase of Keats' observation that truth is beauty and beauty truth. This may be considered by some to be a trite remark, but truth is for me the outstanding feature of Nayyar's poetry. His book is an exploration of his past and he finds that in the process deep memories have surfaced, often painful ones:
... the past is no place.
It is a broken mirror
Scattered everywhere,
Splinters of glass in my feet,
Hurting more when I walk,
So I run and bleed.
('Grammar')
But they surface also for the reader, and surely that is the test of poetry - that it has the power to move people by making universal something that is individual. Nayyar calls his book 'a journey that starts with the heart but ends with the mind'. It is about a writer's vocation; it is about love, loss and growth; it is about a battle with clinical depression and a journey to healing that involves self-discovery.
One way in which Glass Scissors resembles a novel is its author's recommendation that the book is read in sequence. This is not normally how a poetry collection works: most poetry readers like to dip into a book, often at random. And, in fact, Nayyar's advice is only relevant if one wishes to trace the route and steps of his life's journey; one can still dip into his book and savour a poem at random because each poem can stand alone, as every poem must.
While Nayyar accepts the label of 'writer', he won't call himself a 'poet. It is a loaded word'. Yet there is music in his words, they paint a picture and set a scene; they are 'loaded' words - and yes - they are undoubtedly poems.
Debjani Chatterjee
Dr Debjani Chatterjee MBE
Poet-of-the-Month
Bobby Nayyar
Setting the Page
I've sat before this page for 36 years,
Watching it pixelate from paper and ink,
My eyes now reinforced by glass,
My mind broken two times,
My heart three,
And counting.
I stare into its screen
Until all I see are
Blades of ice slicing my past.
My hopes and fears,
Like layers of clothing
Worn on a day turned warm.
I'll sweat knowing that
The half-life of memory
Will decay into the afterlife of words.
Ad through the pain of my wounds self-inflicted,
The loves lost and found repeatedly,
The dirt of work
And strength of family,
The words rise.
And now I realise
That this page was never blank.
My scissors,
Forever cutting.
© Bobby Nayyar
(From Bobby Nayyar's debut collection, Glass Scissors, published by Limehouse Books, 2016.}
Bobby Nayyar
Bobby Nayyar was born in 1979. He read French and Italian at Trinity College, Cambridge. He has been published in the Mango Shake and Too Asian, Not Asian Enough anthologies, and journals including Wasafiri and Aesthetica.
He founded Limehouse Books in 2009, publishing his debut novel, West of No East in 2011, and The No Salaryman two years later. Glass Scissors is his debut poetry collection.
He lives in London
Poet's corner
Writing is as much an exploration of form as an exploration of my self. In my mid-thirties, I wanted to explore memories that had resurfaced and unravel the last seven tumultuous years of my life. Glass Scissors encompasses twenty years of living, ten years of thinking and eighteen months of writing. I find it hard to define my work because I feel like I am always changing from day to week to year. Another writer gave me some perspective, when she wrote that my poems summon ‘the missing and the lost… the invisiblelost (invisible culture, invisible illness, wanting).’ I am comfortable with this description.
Bobby Nayyar
Please encourage fellow writers
For example, why not contact a featured poet above for an interview,
poetry reading, or a review?
Contact Bobby Nayyar through one of these links:
Bobby Nayyar's website:
Bobby's Limehouse Books:
Bobby's Twitter contact:
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. |
Books by the Poet-of-the-Month
LIMEHOUSE BOOKS
JANUARY 2016
ISBN 9781907536793
‘Bobby Nayyar’s debut collection, Glass Scissors, is a haunting, deeply personal collection. It explores universal themes of love and loss, in which the turbulent and fragile sit side by side. More than just a compilation of poems, it’s a revelation of one man’s hopes and dreams, and of the precarious nature of the world we live in.’
Glass Scissors reviewed by Raj K Lal:
See below the list for more reviews of this book
Please benefit from our review group
To be fair to all small presses struggling everywhere, I bluntly ask, if you can't spare time for other poets, why should they for you?
Word Masala has set up a review group. Please join it
These poets are commendable and unselfish in helping this review group :Saleem Peeradina, Reginald Massey, Yogesh Patel,Debjani Chatterjee, Usha Akella, Usha Kishore, Pramila Venkateswaran, Mona Dash.and Kavita Jindal. Please join them.
Glass Scissors reviewed by Reginald Massey
http://www.confluence.mobi/book-review/reginald-masseys-book-page-glass-scissors-and-zamorins/
Glass Scissors reviewed by Kavita A. Jindal
Authors are requested to contact the editor to join this group. They and their publishers may also offer discounts on their books.
We welcome everyone to help us with reviews, NOT JUST diaspora poets and critics.
You DO NOT HAVE TO BE from the diaspora.
Crowdfunding
Support our Crowdfunding Award Winner
THE WORD MASALA CROWDFUNDING INITIATIVE
The first poet to receive this AWARD
is an emerging voice to watch with one collection already under her belt
Mona Dash
Find out more about Mona from her interview with Jaydeep Sarangi
Please buy it yourself, and we will also appreciate your recommending it to your followers in any relevant social media and blog to help this initiative.
Please order DIRECTLY FROM editor@skylarkpublications.co.uk for a special postage free order as a subscriber to this e-zine.
Alternately, buy at our website with postage added, which allows you to enter our competition. Please order at www.skylarkpublications.co.uk/crowdfunding.html
Resources for Writers
Books
Please go to our website, find the blog and then click on the links
This feature is now open for submission.
- Please note that poetry in translation may only be submitted by Indian diaspora poets.
- We do not normally accept work from literary translators resident in India.
- We prefer work by expat poets from all languages.
- If poems are in copyright, you must have permission.
- Diaspora poets may translate their own poems and submit them.
- All translated poetry must be accompanied by brief (50 words) biographical details of the poet and the translator
Sorry, none this period
Required reading this period
1
Please support us by buying the following book
Word Masala Winners of 2015 The ISBN is 978095560840033Please order it at http://www.skylarkpublications.co.uk/shop.html
or buy at Amazon (or write views. A PDF copy is available for a review )
2
‘In Other Words,’ by Jhumpa Lahiri
3.
At Austin Airport
4.
· “In a country where free speech was being actively targeted by a minority of violent fundamentalists, the Dhaka Lit Fest was gleefully wearing a bull's-eye on its back.” Attending a literary festival in Bangladesh after the violent attacks on publishers and bloggers. | VICE
5.
It’s Just Business: Why Rejection of Your Art Feels So Personal
Events
Word Masala Foundation
A major award celebration of our winners is organized on
22nd June 2016atThe House of Lords
6.30 pm - 8.30 pm
This important event is by invitation only
A special guest speaker: Zata Banks of PoetryFilm
Book Launch: Collections by Saleem Peeradina and Bobby NayyarWord Masala Awards
and poetry reading by the winnerS
(See the list above)
Word Masala Awards for the Publishers
Networking***
21st June 2016Poetry reading at Yurt Cafe, Limehouse, LondonBobby Nayyar, Publisher of Limehouse Books, hosts a special literary salon with 4 South Asian poets in The Royal Foundation of St Katharine’s Yurt Cafe.
http://precinct.rfsk.org/
Readings by
Usha Akella,
Meena Alexander,
Debjani Chatterjee
Yogesh Patel
Contact Bobby Nayyarhttps://limehousebooks.co.uk/
This event kickstarts three days of celebrations of diaspora poetry focused around the House of Lords presentation of diaspora poets
***
23rd June 2016
A TAPESTRY OF DREAMS
This event concludes three days of celebrations of diaspora poetry focused around the House of Lords presentation of diaspora poets
The Nehru Centre, 8 South Audley Street, London W1K 1HF
Time: 6.15pm for 6.30pm start; ends at 8.30pm
Five distinguished women poets, representing the Indian Diaspora, who also write in English, will speak about influences on their writing, how the English language has shaped their creative output, their experience of making a home abroad, including responses to their work from the motherland and their adopted homeland. The poetry reading will be followed by a Q&A session with the audience.
The poets participating are Shanta Acharya (Chair), Usha Akella, Meena Alexander, Mona Dash and Kavita A. Jindal.
***
Asia House Festival
on Friday 6th May, 7 pmBobby Nayyar will read from his debut book of poems Glass Scissors, a moving collection confronting love and relationships. http://asiahouse.org/events/hijra/
***
Writers in the Bath
This poetry group meets monthly at the Bath public house, 66 Victoria St, SheffieldS3 7QL.Debjani Chatterjee plus three others from Sheffield Stanza poets will read on Tuesday 10th May at 7.30 pm.
***
The Gracie Book Club
The Gracie Book Club is a new a collaborative effort between the Gracie Mansion Conservancy and First Lady Chirlane McCray to both foster conversation on a curated selection of literary works and make the spirit of Gracie Mansion, the People’s House, more accessible to more New Yorkers.
The first selection will be Bright Lines, written by Tanwi Nandini Islam.
Bright Lines was picked by First Lady McCray and James Hannaham,
who will moderate the first Gracie Book Club discussion.
The first discussion will be held at Gracie Mansion on May 17th at 6 p.m.
Contests without fee
Holland Park Press
submissions@hollandparkpress.co.uk
Poetry & Politics Competition
The theme of this poetry competition is poetry and politics, so in order to enter your poem it must be about any aspect of politics. Your poem can be about international politics or about something political much more closer to home. We don’t have to agree with your opinions, but we do want to be touched in some way by your poem, inspired by its imagery and, of course, we look for a beautiful use of language.
Prize: £200 and publication in the Holland Park Press online magazine
Closing date: 31st August 2016
Length: 50 lines or less
Entry fee: none
Eligibility: poems written in English by writers over 18 from any country
To submit: email your poem as a Word or PDF attachment to
The literature fellowship application is free, and the selection process is blind. Expert readers and panelists see only a 25-page manuscript for the prose competition, or 10 poems for that genre. To keep the number of applicants within a reasonable range, the NEA requires that the writer have published a book or five short stories or essays in at least two separate publications for the prose fellowship and 20 poems in at least five publications or a published collection for the poetry fellowship.
The NEA literature department also presents fellowships to translators and grants to independent book publishers, literary journals and organizations that promote audience development, such as book festivals, literary centers, reading series and podcasts. The endowment has also created nationwide initiatives such as Poetry Out Loud, a poetry recitation contest for high school students, and The Big Read, which supports community-wide reading programs.
Kensigton Publishing Corp
Established in 1974, Kensington, America's independent publisher, located in New York City, is the foremost independent publishing house in the United States publishing in hardcover, trade paperback, and mass market. We publish over 600 books annually in both fiction and non-fiction. Kensington has sweeping and diverse imprints, including Kensington, Zebra Books, Pinnacle Books, Dafina Books, Lyrical Press, and Citadel Press. These imprints are well-known for popular commercial fiction, mysteries and thrillers, African-American titles, multicultural young adult fiction, nonfiction, as well as true crime and Westerns. Kensington continues to be the foremost American publisher of romance novels.
Read Submission Guidelines
Persea BooksFiction & Nonfiction Submissions
We are pleased to receive query letters by USPS or via email from authors and literary agents. We publish literary novels and short story collections, creative nonfiction, memoir, essays, biography, literary criticism, books on contemporary issues (multicultural, feminist, LGBT), and literary and multicultural antholgies that are assigned in secondary and university classrooms. Our list also includes a small number of Young Adult titles (0-2 per year)--again aimed at the literary reader and the educational market.
Most of all, we are looking for the fresh voice, a clear point of view, the well-written work that will endure. We are pleased to publish debut books and to continue publishing the authors we take on.
Marketing your book
The things you can do to promote your books
http://lithub.com/the-things-we-do-to-promote-the-books-we-write/
Advertise your related services and products to fund this project and more poetry collections like the one below
When visiting our website, do not forget to explore our advertisers there.
Each click adds to a fund in support of our cause.
Can you help this project?
As this project is for all us, it is a non-profit venture in nature, and constantly evolving, 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 genretaking 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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