Wet Silence E-Book

Sweta Srivastava Vikram

• Herausgeber: Modern History Press
• Kategorie: Poesie und Drama
• Serie: World Voices
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2015

Seitenzahl: 40

Beschreibung

"Sweta Vikram captures bold raw passion, poignant reality and crafts a powerful voice for the voiceless."
--Kate Campbell Stevenson, Actor & Producer
Wet Silence bears moving accounts of Hindu widows in India. The book raises concern about the treatment of widowed women by society; lends their stories a voice; shares their unheard tales about marriage; reveals the heavy hand of patriarchy; and, addresses the lack of companionship and sensuality in their lives. This collection of poems covers a myriad of social evils such as misogyny, infidelity, gender inequality, and celibacy amongst other things. The poems in the collection are bold, unapologetic, and visceral. The collection will haunt you.
"Nothing short of sacred genius, Wet Silence reads with a sensual and dangerous grace. It is a body of work that ushers presence into absence and love into a world that has all but done away with the word."
--Slash Coleman, author of The Bohemian Love Diaries and blogger for Psychology Today.
"Sweta's poems did a powerful job at highlighting the mental and sexual abuse, violence, loneliness and the pain experienced by millions of widows in India. Why I ask, is being a widow a crime?"
--Shruti Kapoor, Founder of Sayfty, an organization that helps women protect themselves against violence
"In a gorgeous choir of reclaimed voices, Sweta Srivastava Vikram tells the stories of women forgotten and passed over, women silenced and without choices, women who 'don't exist'--Hindu widows. Through the magical breath of her poetry Vikram not only animates these women's hopes, sorrows, dreams, and defeats, she lovingly restores them to honor."
--Melissa Studdard, award-winning author of I Ate the Cosmos for Breakfast.
From the World Voices series at Modern History Press
POE005060 Poetry : American - Asian American
SOC028000 Social Science : Women's Studies - General
FAM001000 Family & Relationships : Abuse - General

Leseprobe

WET SILENCE

Poems about Hindu widows

Sweta Srivastava Vikram

Foreword by Shaila Abdullah

From the World Voices Series

Modern History Press

Wet Silence: Poems About Hindu Widows

Copyright (c) 2015 by Sweta Srivastava Vikram. All Rights Reserved.

Learn more at www.swetavikram.com

From the World Voices Series

Distributed by Ingram Book Group, Bertram’s Books (UK), Hachette Livre (France).

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Vikram, Sweta Srivastava, 1975-

[Poems. Selections]

Wet silence : poems about hindu widows / Sweta Srivastava Vikram. –– First edition.

pages ; cm. –– (World voices series)

ISBN 978-1-61599-256-0 (softcover : acid-free paper) –– ISBN 978-1-61599-257-7 (hardcover : acid-free paper) –– ISBN 978-1-61599-258-4 (ebook)

I. Title.

PS3622.I493A6 2015

811’.6––dc23

2014040975

Published by Modern History Press

www.ModernHistoryPress.com

an Imprint of Loving Healing Press

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Ann Arbor, MI 48105

www.LHPress.com        [email protected]

Tollfree USA/CAN: 888-761-6268

FAX: [phone]

Praise for the Poetry of Sweta Srivastava Vikram

“Vikram’s wordsmithing is outstanding. I have read much poetry and have never seen such creativeness as that of this author. She allows her words to flow with rhythm and deepness. The wisdom that comes through her is beyond any I’ve seen.”

—Irene Watson, Reader Views

“In Kaleidoscope: An Asian Journey of Colors, Sweta Srivastava Vikram re-appropriates color. Cultures and mythologies collide along the way, and the result is a chapbook that feels like a quest. In the end, the colors are a map to identity. The child’s pink tonsils or the bride’s red sari are not symbols, but rather mile markers. Like Vikram’s poems, they lead toward understanding.”

—Erica Wright, Senior Poetry Editor, Guernica

“This slim chapbook is a quick bite. Poems appear and disappear in the blink of an eye, but linger in consciousness longer than you might think they would. The use of colors is fascinating to the desi mind; we, as one poem remarks, ‘exist in a hue of experiences.’”

—Vidya Pradhan, Editor, India Currents

“This chapbook is the dazzling display of a poet who teases us with fresh imagery and delicate linguistic craftsmanship. The real joy of this collection is its potential to be read in a single sitting, multiple times, with each subsequent reading revealing new insights. For poetry virgins, this text demands no sophisticated knowledge of poetics and literary discourse. To put simply, it is an accessible piece of enjoyable writing.”

—Orchid Tierney, Editor, Rem Magazine, New Zealand

“I dove into this book of poems quickly and eagerly, then slowed down to savor the words and the images, marveling over Sweta Srivastava Vikram’s unique mix of grace, humor, and eloquence, which forms a medley of beauty and color.”

—Susan Ortlieb, Suko’s Notebook

“Sweta has woven such a spell with her word usage and the symbolisms that the most complex becomes the simplest of all.”

—Smita Singh, VAANI, UK

“I’m glad I found a new South Asian author, and will be following Vikram’s work closely in the future.”

—Swapna Krishna

“Sweta Srivastava Vikram’s Because All Is Not Lost: Verse On Grief shares her personal loss and, in return, comforts the reader. Her beautifully crafted poems take the reader on a voyage that has to be undertaken by each of us individually.”

—Patricia Carragon, Brownstone Poets

“....there is a bit of defiance in her words as the color beige takes over in old age and she fights to remain red, youthful. Overall, Kaleidoscope: An Asian Journey of Colors is an even stronger chapbook poetry collection than Because All Is Not Lost because it deals more than with just emotion and healing. Sweta Srivastava Vikram is a gifted poet...”

—Serena, Savvy Verse and Wit

“This is a collection populated by a recognizable but richly diverse and dramatic cast of family characters.”

—Mary-Jane Newton, Cha: An Asian Literary Journal

“Sweta’s poetic voice flows like water smoothing and shaping stones. With great skill she uncovers, sometimes tenderly and other times more forcefully, the shroud of fog surrounding the feminine archetype... she has created and nurtured a garden, a wordscape, in which trust and healing can flourish.”

—Nick Purdon, author The Road-shaped Heart

“Sweta Srivastava Vikram holds her work close. Fold it one way, a poem of loss appears. Fold it yet again for a poem of longing. Her work is as structurally sound as the elements. It soars with anticipation. Vikram reveals lovely and powerful poems that will long linger.”

—Doug Mathewson, Editor, Blink-Ink

Also by Sweta Srivastava Vikram

Poetry

Because All Is Not Lost

Kaleidoscope: An Asian Journey of Colors

Whispering Woes of Ganges & Zambezi

Not All Birds Sing

Beyond the Scent of Sorrow

No Ocean Here

Fiction

Perfectly Untraditional

Nonfiction

Mouth full: A collection of personal essays and poetry

For Anudit, my husband—for always being my biggest fan

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”

~ Margaret Mead