Where to find me, where I am found.
March 7, 2026: I’ll be at AWP presenting on “Reading & Writing in Times of Political Upheaval” from 12:10-1:25 pm in Room 308 at the Baltimore Convention Center.
My poem, “Whistle,” won the swamp pink prize!
Poems new in the world: “Uncolonial this shelter, home my skin, bring me ocean & a song of tangling limbs” at Bellingham Review, “We know fires before the fireworks” at Volume Poetry, “You believed only a girl born of dandelion can be ferocious –” at Poem-A-Day, “Visas” at F(r)iction, “Tía rebuilds her house as she snores” at Philadelphia Stories, and “Pressure” in Bellevue Literary Review.
My story, “Eldest,” is 1 of 17 published through Money Chronicles, a national story contest fostering experiences with money in storytelling.
Jan. 11, 2026: After a riveting performance of The Ford/Hill Project, I co-led a restorative justice talkback with Charlene Allen & Devin Deane of The Collaborative for Restoring Healing and Transforming Communities.
Oct. 19, 2025: A joyful gathering of writers as part of Pyaari Azaadi’s phenomenal show celebrating social justice, community, and revolutionary art.
Sept. 21, 2025: With Troy Woodley, at Street Works Earth 2025, I led an interactive installation, Swan Song, to enable Jackson Heights community members to bear witness to what is disappearing while mapping how we resist erasures and build abundant futures.
Oct. 19, 2024: Dodge Poetry Festival! I’m sharing at the Community Catalyst Stage.
Sept. 22, 2024: Street Works Earth 2024: Through Green Card, I explored the impact of lack of green space on birds (and us!) as part of a public festival for justice, climate action, and participatory art.
In June, I supported the Kundiman retreat, nurturing a vibrant community of AAPI writers.
During AANHPI month in May, I shared on the vitality of poetry in exploring history on WNBC.
In May, I shared poetry at the Brooklyn Museum & MC’d the launch of Lines of Flight – Madhu Kaza’s brilliant rumination on translation, error, and aliveness.
In April, I co-facilitated a session on poetry & collective healing at the National Association of Poetry Therapy conference and read at the Bellevue Literary Review issue launch.
In 2023, “Wrangler,” from Sycamore Review & “Broodings” from Quarter After Eight were nominated for Pushcart Prizes and “Had Penelope a kiln, she would outcast” from The Cincinnati Review for Best of the Net.
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 at Dialogist. I started this poem 10 years ago, investigating the vast difference in 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,” Gabrielle Civil, Rosamond S. King, Christina Olivares, Seema Reza, and I explore: 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: On Instagram Live, 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.
I curated wonder & healing in this series for the Center for Book Arts: