Rohan Chhetri

Poetry. Asian & Asian American Studies. Winner of the Kundiman Prize for exceptional work by an Asian American poet. "In Rohan Chhetri's LOST, HURT, OR IN TRANSIT BEAUTIFUL, inherited literary forms--the ode, the lyric, and pristine tercets--are juxtaposed with gorgeously fractured and stylistically daring hybrid pieces. The end result is a work in which poetic technique is brought to bear on lingering questions of identity, artistic tradition, and the cruelty implicit in language itself. Here, form, grammar, and syntax function as a kind of containment, but also, a 'ruined field' that is rife with possibility. Chhetri dramatizes and resists the ways language, and its implicit logic, limit what is possible within our most solitary reflections, defining even those 'vague dreams' that in the end we greet alone. 'This is how violence enters / a poem,' he explains, 'through a screen / door crawling out & Mother asleep on the couch.' These pieces are as lyrical as they are grounded, and as understated as they are ambitious. 'In my language, there is a name for this music,' he tells us. As his stunning collection unfolds, Chhetri reminds us, with subtlety and grace, that the smallest stylistic decisions in poetry are politically charged. This is a haunting book."--from the Kundiman Prize Citation

Lost, Hurt, Or in Transit Beautiful

Poetry. The Emerging Poets Prize was founded in 2015 with a simple premise: to discover and nurture the best new poets coming out of India and the diaspora. Rohan Chhetri's SLOW STARTLE, the inaugural winner, is a shining testament to what this award can realize. Selected by Jeet Thayil, these are dangerous poems with everything at stake, and the only relief comes at a sudden awakening into the clarity of human suffering. Vibrant and haunting, these poems leave the reader in a still and shimmering wake. "Rohan Chhetri's unforgettable book of poems stops time and accelerates it. With language as bracing as it is smart, he has carved work that marks him as a powerful new citizen in poetry's kingdom."—Mary Karr "Rohan Chhetri's poems excite and surprise. They excite admiration and the surprises echo in my skin long after the reading. Everything is at stake here, in sentences that dazzle and console. I don't know how else to say it—read this book."—Jeet Thayil "At the heart of the beautifully controlled flow of Rohan Chhetri's words is a still centre. A wise calmness survives times of turbulence and, sometimes, of shocking violence. It is cautious, guarded, yet open to the startlingly luminous revelation a passing moment can bring. For the stilling glow at the heart of such moments and for much else, I'll return to this book again and again."—Adil Jussawalla

Slow Startle

Kazim Ali

Poetry. Asian & Asian American Studies. This volume in the Unsung Masters Series examines the poetry, life, and legacy of Shreela Ray, an Indian American poet of extraordinary ability. The Unsung Masters Series exists to bring the work of great, undervalued authors to new generations of reader.

On the Life & Work of an American Master

Shreela Ray

'This book has pain and it has discovery. It has wonder. It has the spell of a story and the effortlessness of a song. Which is why I hope it finds its way into you, your hands, readers.' Ilya Kaminsky, author of Deaf Republic In Rohan Chhetri's much-awaited second collection, inherited literary forms-the ode, the lyric, and pristine tercets-are juxtaposed with gorgeously fractured and stylistically daring hybrid pieces. Winner of the prestigious Kundiman Prize for Poetry, Lost, Hurt, Or in Transit Beautiful is a luminous and haunting book.

Rohan Chhetri

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