Where to find me, where I am found.
Good news! Three pieces published in 2023 are nominated for prizes -“Wrangler,” from Sycamore Review and “Broodings” from Quarter After Eight for Pushcart Prizes and “Had Penelope a kiln, she would outcast” from The Cincinnati Review for Best of the Net.
Oct. 17, 2023: One of 17 finalists for my story, “Eldest,” through Money Chronicles: A Story Initiative, a national short story contest designed to encourage conversations about money and bring experiences with money – positive and negative – out of the shadows.
July 17, 2023: Robert Lee Brewer on “Helix of the gift, lineage song“: “What spoke to me in the poem was the sense of connection and distance that many of us have felt since 2020—but also pairing that with the connection and distance of family migration, whether it’s migration from one country and culture to another or even from one city to another. Then, add to that the sense of connection and distance between generations who love each other but see the world in different ways. For me, this poem does so much.”
March 29, 2023: Judge Sharan Strange’s profound response: “The winning poem, ‘In a womb — a new era — & Kali’s tongue,’ speaks so poignantly of culturally- (and therefore generationally-) embedded wounding that I feel both unsettled and encouraged by its elegiac meditation, which implicitly challenges foundational beliefs that devalue women and perpetuate their victimization. The poem’s recursive meanderings intrigue me and leave me pondering it long after its suspended, yet hopeful resolution.”
Jan. 25, 2023: Astute analysis by The Cincinnati Review Associate Editor Connor Yeck: Purvi Shah’s “Had Penelope a kiln, she would outcast” is a finely edged mediation on intimacy and action, histories both vast and minute. Carried by a mythic yet restrained tenor, we glimpse a figure reckoning with bodiliness, patience, and a looming sense of arrival. Shah carries us through this work with prismatic language that disarms us at every junction. Here is a landscape of immolation, assassin, and ash, all infused with an unwavering aura of patience, the timeless voice that “[beckons] / each suitor into a smaller chamber . . . [lengthening] the quiet / of an afternoon.”
Jan. 13, 2023: “Saraswati is perturbed when the swami says 1 + 1 = 1,” is out on Dialogist. I started this poem 10 years ago, investigating the vast difference between theoretical spirituality & everyday realities for girls & women. My third poetry manuscript, Post/Conditional, which includes this poem, was a 2022 finalist for the Black Lawrence Immigrant Writing Series.
June 12, 2022: Dancer Sonali Skandan developed “In Her Element” to give Nature voice, weaving my poetry through this piece which premiered at the Jiva Arts (un)silent voices festival.
May 16, 2022: In “The delight of this work,” I share space with versatile and powerful artists Gabrielle Civil, Rosamond S. King, Christina Olivares, and Seema Reza. What does it mean to be a woman of color writer? To have a second book? How do we collectively celebrate & care for each other?
October 26, 2021: Watch the Instagram Live as Anjali Deshmukh & I share about Ready to Heal / Ready to Grieve with the NYC Department of Cultural Arts.
What new rituals did you create in 2020? What fortunes do you wish for now? Visual artist Anjali Deshmukh & I created 6 poetry & art prints as part of our community storytelling & healing project, Missed Fortunes. Bring the art home.
I curated wonder & healing in this series for the Center for Book Arts: