Poetry at Sangam
Poetry at Sangam showcases poetry in English and translations as well as essays on poetics and news of new releases.
Saima Afreen is an award-winning poet who also works as Deputy City Editor with The New Indian Express. Her poems have appeared in several Indian and international journals, including Indian Literature, HCE Review, Barely South Review, The Bellingham Review, The Roanoke Review, The Stillwater Review, The McNeese Review, The Nassau Review, The Oklahoma Review, Staghill Literary Journal, The Notre Dame Review, Honest Ulsterman, and Existere, among others. She received ‘Writer of the Year Award, 2016’ from Nassau Community College (the State University of New York). She has been part of several literary festivals and platforms such as Sahitya Akademi Poets’ Meet, Goa Arts and Literary Festival, TEDx VNR-VJIET, Prakriti Poetry Festival, Hyderabad Literary Festival, Betty June Silconas Poetry Festival, Helsinki Poetry Jam, Pulse Radio Glasgow, the University of Stirling, the University of Westminster, Waterstones Bookstore Canterbury, and the University of Kent. In the autumn of 2017, she was awarded the Villa Sarkia Writers’ Residency (Finland), where she completed the manuscript of Sin of Semantics. This is her début poetry collection. She’s been awarded the Charles Wallace India Trust Fellowship (2019) in Creative Writing at the University of Kent, United Kingdom.
I grew up in a house full of stories. Evenings replete with folktales not just from Hindustan but from different parts of the world both in English and Hindustani infused with words from other languages. The mix was, and still is, interesting which brings me closer to the questions I am searching for. The practice of multiple tongues makes me see the same image or its development from different lenses especially the semantics. The tales associated with the origin of a phrase fascinate. It all adds dimension to what one perceives.
Anecdotes heard as a child, have stayed with me. Now, as an adult travelling for professional and personal reasons magnifies what I visualised from the eyes of a ten-year-old. I like it when some words demand to enter the lines arguing for the particular space. That’s when I crave for the unknown. Places always converse when I meet them. Exchanging each other’s trails opens more roads to experience different customs and cuisines which somehow lurk underneath what I write.
Summer Solstice in the Town of Gaya
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