eSkylark- Issue 5/2016: Poet-of-the-Month Phinder Dulai

                                                                       

eSkylark A Voice of the NRI - Diasporic Poets Editor: Yogesh Patel Consulting Editor: Dr Debjani Chatterjee, MBE The main focus of Skylark Publications UK is to support the Word Masala Foundation ISSN 2397-1878 (printed and digital)/ Issue 5/2016   We are very proud of our successful award ceremony at the House of Lords on 22nd June 2016. Dr Debjani Chatterjee has written a very engaging report, which has been published by many newspapers and magazines across the world. Confluence  l  Indo American News l   The Hindu  l  Asian Lite   l Muse India l Asian Voice www.skylarkpublications.co.uk Good qualities are appreciated in whomsoever they are found.  Uttararaamacharitam (Bhavabhuti) Director: Yogesh Patel Suite 6, Riverside House, 196 Wandle Road, Morden, Surrey SM4 6AU, England Patrons: Lord Parekh and Lord Dholakia Previous award-winners can be found at http://www.skylarkpublications.co.uk/poetsandawards.html   Word Masala Award winners: Dr Debjani Chatterjee, MBE Dr Shanta Acharya Usha Akella Reginald Massey Daljit Nagra Saleem Peeradina Usha Kishore Meena Alexander Pramila Venkateswaran Siddhartha Bose Kavita A Jindal Bobby Nayyar * WM Special Citation  Award winners: Sweta Vikram This issue is dedicated to our latest Word Masala Award winner Phinder Dulai Publishers Winning Word Masala 'Champion of the Diaspora Poetry' Award Arc Publications Eyewear Publishing Emma Press Faber and Faber HopeRoad Publishing Limehouse Books Nine Arches Press and Valley Press Our special thanks to Eyewear Publishing for agreeing to publish one of our Word Masala Award-winning poet Usha Kishore We are also grateful to Nine Arches Press, Emma Press and Valley Press for considering our recommendations  Opportunities for publishers and magazines All equal opportunity publishers and magazines are welcome to submit a brief for the consideration of our prestigious accolade which puts them on the map with a proof that they are working hard to support BAME agenda. Our ward is not a token, serious enough it will scrutinize your genuine efforts. We award publishers' and magazines' positive steps in including South-Asian diaspora poets in their publishing programme. We work on projects, select and solicit writers and poets for their quality and help publishers and magazines achieve their equal opportunity status. Please contact us if you think we can help you achieve this. Working with us will benefit you at no extra cost! We are proud to have following prestigious magazines, newspapers and independent presses as our partners and supporters Asian Lite Confluence The Book Review Asian Voice Opinion Sahitya Press Core Publications UK Sixties Press .Features 1.   Editorial  2.   Poetry in Translation: 3.   A Crowdfunding Initiative 4.   A Review Group 5.   Audio Archive 6.   Poet-of-the-Month: Phinder Dulai 7.   Books by the Poet-of-the-Month 8.   Contact the Poet-of-the-Month for readings, interviews, etc. 9.   Required Reading in this Period 10  Events Listing 11. Contests without fee 12. Unsolicited Submission Requests  13. Marketing your Book 14. Help this NON-PROFIT project? Editorial  Guest Editor: Saleem Peeradina                                                                                        Phinder is the Vancouver-based author of three books of poetry, the most recent of which is dream/arteries (2014) which contains “soul-journ to the end of the pacific,” the centerpiece of his poetic achievement. A story that waited a hundred years to be exhumed, it describes the journey of the Japanese ship Komagata Maru carrying 376 Sikh, Muslim, and Hindu migrants from Punjab who were refused entry into Canada and forced to return to India. Many indignities were heaped on them by the locals while the ship was docked in port. The selection offered here is broadly illustrative of Phinder’s style and preoccupations in his verse. “Presence” is an intimate poem that straddles two worlds of literary experience – one is an ephemeral lightness of being disconnected from one’s past, and the other is the weight of the historical past that weighs on the troubled present. Phinder uses the Imagist approach to language to bring the reader to a place of solace and knowing embodied in Mataji conferring her blessings on her grandchildren. Last year, I had the pleasure of meeting Phinder at the Matwaala poetry festival in Austin, Texas, where he presented an audio-visual reading of the Komagata Maru series. I felt his work deserved wider recognition. Saleem Peeradina Saleem Peeradina's latest collection of poems, Final Cut, is published by Valley Press. See below for the links to its reviews. Poet-of-the-Month           Phinder Dulai  presence a room brims with ideas we catch scratch back step back consider another weave and “other” narrative each broken piece, our soul healed by the iridescent fall light walk toward no conclusion or pronouncement to drift in silence to the floor of the maple tree in late autumn un-owned nor repatriated dreaming toward its own veined humanity both are inexplicably linked grandmother’s soft and fleshy palm placed on forehead her head tipped forward brushes against your brow offers a word jhindé raeho continue to live Phinder Dulai Phinder Dulai’s critically acclaimed poetry collection dream / arteries (Talonbooks) was published in 2014. He is the author of two previous books of poetry: Ragas from the Periphery (Arsenal Pulp Press, 1995) and Basmati Brown (Nightwood Editions, 2000). Dulai lives in Surrey, BC, Canada and comes from a Punjabi background. Dulai has been touring dream / arteries since 2014, and has toured in both Canada and the USA, giving readings at universities, festivals and reading series. He currently works as a consulting editor for Talon Books and Curator of the Floor 9 Arts Salon for the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada in Vancouver, BC. Dulai was a co-convener on Sound Thinking Symposium 2015 entitled Voicing the City In/verse: Reading Surrey and the Super- Suburb; and has collaborated on a sound installation called The Grove – A Spatial Narrative with artists Carmen Papalia and Andrew Lee for the Surrey Art Gallery. His most recent work has been published in TripWire Journal, Canada and Beyond, Dusie, Canadian Literature and Cue Books Anthology. Dulai is a co-founder of the interdisciplinary contemporary arts group The South of Fraser Inter Arts Collective (SOFIA/c). Recently, Dulai was awarded the Word Masala Award by the Word Masala Non-Profit Foundation in London, England. He will travel to England in 2017 to receive the award.   Poet's corner Poetry continues to move me towards a meaningful life. There are reasons for writing a poem; I convey through words, through form and the under-pinning science of the art - information, possible ways of experiencing the world if you were to live behind my eyes and senses. I do this in hopes that we (you the reader and I) arrive at this place of solace and knowing; that there are deeper connections of grieving and mourning from the horrors of the past, that we can span across generations and oceans in a kind of stand-in for a lost communion – and as my Mataji so often said and loved to do with her grandchildren – to place a palm on a child’s head and say those words. Phinder Dulai Please encourage our poets For example, why not contact a featured poet above for an interview, poetry reading, speaking engagements, or even to write a review? Contact Phinder Dulai from this link:  https://phinderdulai.wordpress.com/ 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. Add a brief note on yourself and your project or activity too. Books by the Poet-of-the-Month Talon books www.talonbooks.com ISBN 9789889706081 To order, please click on the name below: dream/arteries   Read Reviews at goodreads.com bcbooklook.com vancouversun.com aaww.org Other books by the poet: Basmati Brown:  www.nightwoodeditions.com Ragas From The Periphery: www.arsenalpulp.com Please benefit from our review group Word Masala Foundation initiative runs a review group which helps diaspora poets with reviews. Past winners are expected to help with this, but above all, it is open to anyone to come forward to offer such support. 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 A Jindal. Latest Yogesh Patel reviews Two books launched at our House of Lords Award celebrations 1. Saleem Peeradina's Final Cut in the Book Review: http://www.thebookreviewindia.org/articles/archives-5119/2016/september/9/accommodating-the-universe-on-a-sheet-of-paper.html and https://asianlite.com/culture-corner/book-and-litereture/yogesh-patel-on-saleem-peeradinas-final-cut/ 2. Bobby Nayyar's Glass Scissors: http://epaper.asianlite.com/epaper/edition/28/asian-lite-news-2016---september-01---september-15/page/34   Read Saleem Peeradina's review at World Literature Today here: http://www.worldliteraturetoday.org/2016/march/flowers-chinese-culture-folklore-poetry-religion-lan-zhang 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. Magazine promotion The Book Review   The Book Review is a non-political, ideologically non-partisan journal, which tries to reflect all shades of intellectual opinions and ideas. The views of the reviewers and authors writing for the journal are their own. All reviews and articles published in The Book Review are exclusive to the journal and may not be reprinted without the prior permission of the editors. Published by Chandra Chari for The Book Review Literary Trust, 239 Vasant Enclave, New Delhi 110057. Printed at National Printers, B-56, Naraina Industrial Area Phase-II, New Delhi 110028 Word Masala recommends The Book Review. Please subscribe to it at www.thebookreviewindia.org Individual: Rs. 1500 / $75 / £50 ------ Under the Radar . http://ninearchespress.com/shop.html Under the Radar magazine is at the heart of operations at Nine Arches Press.  It is a lively mix of the best up-and-coming and established poets and writers, as well as reviews and articles. Under the Radar is a place for readers and writers alike to make new discoveries. Take out a great value four-issue subscription! Poetry Editors: Jane Commane & Matt Merritt Reviews Editor: Maria Taylor Crowdfunding THE WORD MASALA CROWDFUNDING INITIATIVE  The first poet to receive this AWARD at the House of Lords 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 http://www.museindia.com/regularcontent.asp?issid=65&id=6336 Also read her latest short story on page 121 in Lakeview International Journal of Literature and Arts: https://issuu.com/lijla/docs/lijlavol4.no.1feb2016  Please, purchase this book at the prepublication price of £9.99 plus postage.  You will be supporting future publications by our diaspora poets. Your support is vital. www.skylarkpublications.co.uk/crowdfunding.html Poetry in Translation  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  The following anthology just published features poetry translations of many diaspora poets past and present: Contact via vatayanpoetry.wordpress.com The WM poetry audio archive at our website If you are a published poet from the diaspora, and write in English, please send us the audio file of your best poem, read by you. We are building 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 Required reading this period 1. Tanay by Sachin Kundalkar translated by Jerry Pinto https://electricliterature.com/tanay-by-sachin-kundalkar-f77d3c50e039#.o8v6i0sql Events  8 October 2016 PEN TO PRINT POETRY WORKSHOPS Free poetry workshops at Barking Learning Centre as part of Barking and Dagenham Library services Pen to Print project. Open to all levels of experience. Led by Anna Robinson (Into the Woods and Finders of London – Enitharmon Press). The workshops are fortnightly. Email Lena Smith for further details: Lena.Smith@lbbd.gov.uk 9 October 2016 WRITING URBAN POETRY, A POETRY WRITING EXPERIENCE An intense writing workshop with writing exercises led by publisher and poetry editor Katherine Lockton. We will look at ways to write an urban poem and how we can respond to cities. We will also look at what we can learn from well known poets as well as poems that have previously appeared in South Bank Poetry Magazine. We will focus on writing new material. Participants will come away with a body of creative work from the day (3 or 4 first drafts.) A limited number of places are available to ensure the tutor has ample time for each student. All levels welcome. 12:30pm– 5.30pm Where? Westminster Cathedral, The Hinsley Room, Morpeth Terrace SW1. Book via: http://southbankpoetry.co.uk/product/writing-urban-poetry/ Contests without fee TOM-GALLON TRUST AWARD NO ENTRY FEE Deadline October 31 (must be received by this date). Recommended free contest from the Society of Authors gives top prize of 1,000 pounds for a short story (5,000 words maximum) by a resident of the United Kingdom, Commonwealth or the Republic of Ireland who has had at least one short story published or accepted for publication. Authors must have serious writing ambitions, and the financial circumstances of the writer will be taken into account. Previously published work accepted. Entry form and list of previously published work, including publisher and date of publication, must be submitted along with the short story. Tom-Gallon Trust Award Sponsored by: Society of Authors Guidelines URL: http://www.societyofauthors.org/tom-gallon NEW YORK ENCOUNTER 2017 POETRY CONTEST http://www.newyorkencounter.org/poetry-contest-2017 NO ENTRY FEE. Deadline November 1, 2016. The Encounter is an annual three-day public cultural event in the heart of New York City. The Encounter's poetry contest invites all poets writing in English to submit up to three poems (maximum 30 lines each), related in some way to the theme, Reality Has Never Betrayed Me. Prizes of $300, $200 and $100 will be awarded to first, second and third place poems. The winners will be invited to read their poems on the NYE stage during the Encounter January 13-15, 2017. The first place poem will be printed in the program.  Submissions Requests Nine Arches Press Please visit: http://ninearchespress.com/submissions.html Watershed Review is now open for Fall submissions of poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, and art at: watershedreview.submittable.com/submit Wild Age Press seeks fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry for a special Black Lives Matter issue guest edited by Katrina Otuonye. Marketing ANDREW LOWNIE LITERARY AGENCY http://www.andrewlownie.co.uk/how_to_submit THE RIGHTS FACTORY - LITERARY AGENCY http://therightsfactory.com/about-us/  Please make your purchase through  and help us raise funds It costs you nothing extra while you would shop normally at eBay, Amazon, and many more places. By going via our partner, the retailer contributes to help the project, but at no extra cost or loss of any of your discounts. So please help if you can. Please register at https://www.easyfundraising.org.uk/causes/wordmasalaproject/ Advertise your related services and products to fund this project  When visiting our website, do not forget to explore our advertisers there. Each click adds to a fund in support of our cause. Printed copies of our winners' anthology and of this magazine are available at: The Poetry Library Level 5, Royal Festival Hall, London SE1 8XX  Your help is important to us As the Foundation's work is a non-profit venture, it is constantly evolving. Word Masala welcomes local poets and authors to join hands in making it a meaningful stop for all our creative talents worldwide. 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. (c) Word Masala & Skylark Publications UK

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