Poetry at Sangam
Poetry at Sangam showcases poetry in English and translations as well as essays on poetics and news of new releases.
Shobhana Kumar has two collections of poetry and six works of non-fiction. Her poem, ‘Just Married’ was selected and translated by Gulzar in his monumental work, A Poem a Day, published by HarperCollins. Her short stories have been published or are forthcoming in a few anthologies. Her book of haibun, ‘A Sky Full of Bucket Lists’ was published by Red River in 2021.
Kumar is Poetry Editor of Sonic Boom Journal and its imprint, Yavanika Press. She is co-curator, The Quarantine Train, a writing collective founded by Arjun Rajendran. She works in the spaces of corporate communication, branding and advertising, and education. Along with a group of friends, she runs Small Differences, an NGO that works with vulnerable and marginalised communities.
For some years now, I have been trying to seek the meaning of ‘home’ through the eyes of everydayness—the inanimate, the homeless, the beaten and vulnerable, and the co-inhabitants of the world that speak a far richer language than us. This is often the start point of what I attempt to put into a page. It is the journey of the seeking that I am drawn to and invariably write about, and therefore, the ‘self’ in these explorations, simply whittles away or recedes to the place of witness. Arun Kolatkar’s ‘Jejuri’ has been my go-to source of inspiration and has undoubtedly been one of my biggest influences.