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Indivisible
An Anthology of Contemporary South Asian American Poetry
Edited by Neelanjana Banerjee, Summi Kaipa, and Pireeni Sundaralingam
The first anthology to showcase
South Asian American poetry
"Indivisible features a lively, accomplished
array of poems, truly transnational but also quintessentially
American, exemplifying contemporary cultural pluralism. This
anthology is well worth your undivided attention."
—North American Review, Spring 2011
"[A]
remarkable collection."
—Bookdragon
“Rarely
does one have the pleasure of seeing so many poets violate
the truth that no one can be in two places at once. Indivisible
provides hundreds of local poetic delights and deserves a
place among the best anthologies of poetry.”
—Billy
Collins
"Indivisible
is seamless passion, held together by the will to cross borders
and embrace that which is sacred in the individual. This collection
of poems underscores a voyage through physical and psychological
time and space, but it also clearly undermines any notion
of a diaspora of the soul and spirit. Moments of graceful
resiliency are captured again and again, and Indivisible
becomes an unbroken map of lyrical recollection. There are
lived lives behind these marvelous poems."
—Yusef Komunyakaa, Distinguished Senior
Poet at NYU
“Like seedlings breaking through concrete cracks, the
poems collected in Indivisible widen the literary
landscape and expose the reader to fresh terrain. Gathering
together for the first time of an expansive and varied set
of voices representing the breadth of South Asian American
poetry, reading Indivisible is like witnessing the
wings of a newly discovered bird, outstretched, reaching for
an untouched horizon.
—Matthew Shenoda, author of Seasons
of Lotus, Seasons of Bone
“No-one can speak for ‘America’ or ‘Humanity,’
but these poems give us a glimpse of both. Scattered among
them are treasures and heartbreaks, mercurial descriptions
of life and languid backward glances at what is left behind,
what cannot be recovered. This is a language map of South
Asian America. Come. Come for a ride.”
—Vijay Prashad, author of The Darker
Nations: A People’s History of the Third World
and The Karma of Brown Folk
The first anthology of its kind, Indivisible brings
together forty-nine American poets who trace their roots to
Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. Featuring
award-winning poets including Meena Alexander, Agha Shahid
Ali, Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, and Vijay Seshadri, here
are poets who share a long history of grappling with a multiplicity
of languages, cultures, and faiths. The poems gathered here
take us from basketball courts to Bollywood, from the Grand
Canyon to sugar plantations, and from Hindu-Muslim riots in
India to anti-immigrant attacks on the streets of post–9/11
America.
Showcasing a diversity of forms, from traditional ghazals
and sestinas to free verse, experimental writing, and slam
poetry, Indivisible presents 141 poems by authors who are
rewriting the cultural and literary landscape of their time
and their place. Includes biographies of each poet.
Neelanjana Banerjee
is a teaching artist at the San Francisco Writers Corps and
a past editor-in-chief of Asian Week.
Summi Kaipa
is a graduate of the Iowa Writer’s Workshop, author
of three chapbooks and a play, and past editor of Interlope
magazine. She is currently completing her residency in neuropsychology.
Kaipa lives in Berkeley, California.
Pireeni Sundaralingam
is an award-winning poet, playwright, and
cognitive scientist. A former PEN USA fellow, her work has
been published in England, Ireland, Sweden, and the USA. She
is currently working on her first collection of poetry.
May
6 x 9, 220 pages
$24.95 paper
ISBN 978-1-55728-931-5
$65.00 (s) unjacketed cloth
ISBN 978-1-55728-932-2
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