Poetry at Sangam
Poetry at Sangam showcases poetry in English and translations as well as essays on poetics and news of new releases.
Temsula Ao is an Indian poet, short story writer, and ethnographer who writes in English. She is one of Nagaland’s most eminent contemporary folklorists, academics, poets, and one of the finest authors of the country. She was awarded the Padma Shri in 2007 and the Nagaland Governor’s Award for Distinction in Literature in 2009. For her collection of short stories Laburnum for My Head, Temsula Ao received the Sahitya Academi Award in 2013. She was also the recipient of the Kusumagraj National Literature Award (for Poetry) in 2015. Temsula Ao retired as Professor of English from the North Eastern Hills University which she had first joined in 1975. She has 14 books to her name and some of her works have been translated into German, French, Assamese, Bengali, Kannada and Hindi. Her latest book of short stories The Tombstone in My Garden was published by Speaking Tiger in January 2022.
Tradition, I believe, is all about managing and nurturing the emotional, intellectual and spiritual aspirations of a society. The Ao-Naga Oral tradition is not a mere form of ‘story-telling’ as opposed to a written, recorded version. It is indeed in many ways the source of the people’s literature, social customs, religion and history. But at the same time, it is much more than that; it has evolved into a comprehensive and integrated network of indigenous knowledge-system, incorporating art with reality, history with imagination and the ideal with the practical. In this sense, the tradition constitutes for the Ao the world of his origin as well as the idiom of his continuance within that world.
WHY THE MOON IS SO FAR AWAY FROM THE EARTH
THE TWO DAUGHTERS WHO BECAME BIRDS
MARRIAGE IN THE LAND OF THE DEAD
NOTE
Earlier versions were first published in The Ao-Naga Oral Tradition by Temsula Ao (Bhasha Publications, 1999).
This site is designed and maintained by GONECASE