2023: a year for wonders.
March 29, 2023: Humbled that my poem won a poetry prize at The Writing Salon. Even more humbled by 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: An astute, attentive reading of my work 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: My poem, “Saraswati is perturbed when the swami says 1 + 1 = 1,” is out on Dialogist. I started this poem 10 years ago, thinking about the vast difference between theoretical spirituality & everyday realities – especially 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. I’m thrilled my poetry is woven 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 project, Missed Fortunes. Bring the art home from our shop.
Listen to an interview with me on Dear Brown Parents
10 Books to Read for National Poetry Month by Kundiman
Get more of my recent advocacy & poetry 411 right now here.
Join me for wonder & healing in this series I curated for the Center for Book Arts: