Yavanika Press
Japanese short-forms
“If inventive haiku and haiga are blooms in the field of why, poet and artist Shloka Shankar’s strong narrative is the well-tended path that leads us through them. In her first full-length collection, we soon see that what begins as an expression of loss and anxiety evolves to a search for identity. The skillfully-arranged poems express a mental shift toward empowerment, the personal quest for peace and acceptance, and thediscovery of what remains untouched by our struggles. These pieces are powerful expressions of what cannot be broken, and the reader is sure to be rewarded for their careful unpacking as they consider the difficulties of their own ‘field of why’.”
— Robin Anna Smith, Co-Editor of whiptail: journal of the single-line poem
the field of why
“Ash Evan Lippert’s freshman debut, god of the body, explores the unity of the mythic and prosaic, large and small, abstract and concrete. Running through the collection is a fully-formed poetic voice that is at once muscular and vulnerable. Lippert writes poems in the gendai tradition, using neologisms, unusual phrasings, and polysemy to create multiple parsings. The predominant theme is one of confrontation and uneasy reconciliation—with God, with nature, and with oneself. One comes away from the collection with an impression of a poet decomposing their heart and transmogrifying the parts into poems. Somehow, the heart still beats.”
— Pippa Phillips
god of the body
“After having dived into master pieces, one cannot unsee how not only haiku can be a way of living, but chess too. What an exciting pairing! Ron Scully takes us along on a journey through a magnifying glass, sharpening the characters and ties of pieces, their tractive forces, and draws on 64 squares and beyond. Move for move. Picture a game of chess, bent heads, and as the pieces move, so does life, and the players as well. Thought-provoking poems from the well-trained eye of a dedicated observer.”
— Kati Mohr, Poet & Artist
master pieces
“In his first collection of twenty micro (and nano) poems, Chidambar Navalgund captures moments from his life, his breath pausing at each juncture to process loss, helplessness, acceptance, and perhaps, making sense of existence itself. The words exude a depth of knowledge of his traditions and yet, he goes beyond, to rely on his inner strength as he traverses the bumpy road to healing. In the final analysis, what is important? As the poet writes: ‘between response & stimuli being human’.”
— Geethanjali Rajan, Haiku Editor of cattails
the sound of healing
Poetry
“What strikes me about these poems is the directness and sustained intimacy of their address to a fictional character – a reminder of how literary community can be no less real for being imaginary. These poems also ask questions that linger: questions about ‘how we came to this’, how we ‘cover up the skinness of our being’, and above all, ‘What now?’ I am curious to see the questions to which Rahana’s poetry leads her in the years ahead.”
— Arundhathi Subramaniam
Newtness
“The poems in Aswin Vijayan’s debut collection bear witness to the startling beauty of dailyness—rain falling on freshly wiped windows, the hoof steps of ammamma’s walker, a happy dog turning in its sleep… There is a stillness at the heart of each poem, a stillness that weaves a spell. Each poem is carefully crafted, embellished with just the right amount of detail. A fine storyteller, there is a certain playfulness to the way Aswin deploys form. Aswin’s is a gentle but assured voice, a voice that teases out the mystery of the ordinary moment. You will want to savour these poems one at a time.”
— K Srilata, Poet, Translator, and Academic
Under the Handstand Statue Man
“Tejashree Murugan’s debut begins with a quote by Ray Bradbury on what science fiction means, a choice that feels stunningly appropriate when you plunge into her vivid, descriptive words. Covering themes we are all familiar with, like love and pain and self-discovery and self-sabotage, she manages to do that unique thing of making the human experience feel fantastically literary. Murugan draws upon and pays homage to existing works of poetry, art, and pop culture, and turns them inside out and upside down in a deliciously thorough dissection of ideas. Her words are as sharp as they are comforting, and will stay with you long after you read the last line.”
— Ria Chopra
Science Fiction
Prose
“In their very authenticity, Darlene O’Dell’s haiku and haibun both capture and transcend the personal. Vivid snippets of family folklore—forklift and coffee cup miracles—help us recall our own. The fine texture of her memories—constricting patent leather shoes, scratchy lawn chairs—elicit similar (or the same!) sensations in others. But the unifying thread here is poetry, a lifeline from parent to child to adult—one that may not save us from life’s adversities, but just might sustain us.”
— Scott Mason
Raised in the World
of Everyday Poets
“A beautifully written collection from a talented writer who knows how to invoke stunning imagery with just the right word. Moving easily between subjects as common as water and as abstract as aliens, E. M. Sherwood Foster creates beautiful vignettes of everything from the everyday beauty of the earth, to the vast cosmos of space with the kind of elevated prose that is sure to please any poetry fan.”
— K. M. Allan, Author of The Blackbirch Series
