writings and other things

poetry

  1. Yearbook of Indian Poetry 2023: Anthology
  2. Gulmohur Quarterly: PARLOUR AUNTY TOLD ME I LOOK LIKE A MAN SO I STORMED OUT IN ANGER (ALSO CRYING) AND HERE’S WHAT I SAW ON MY WAY HOME
  3. Madras Courier: Outside the Prabhadevi Mandir
  4. The Bombay Literary Magazine: Navratri on the Muni, Layering Up in October, Blue Gloves and Condensed Chicken Chettinad
  5. Aainanagar: Two Ghazals
  6. Outlook Weekend: Prabhadevi before dawn & Thatha Teaches Me Tamil
  7. Vayavya: Sunita Aunty
  8. Kitaab: Findings at Khwaja Khizr’s Tomb
  9. Writing For Peace, DoveTales: after the riots
  10. Rigorous Magazine: after the riots, Goddess’s Ghazal & Chai and Politics
  11. The Bombay Review: Chennai in Frames & Sestina
  12. Madras Courier: off balance
  13. Indolent Books, What Rough Beast covid19 edition: These Days
  14. The Bombay Review: Article 370 Has Been Abrogated & riyaz
  15. Spark The Magazine: The Crow Outside the Window Sill
  16. Indian Review: If I Weren’t From Bombay
  17. Print: 30N Journal (2016) Alchemy Literary Journal (2017)

essays/articles

  1. ArteSpace: Existing in the Present Continuous, Anupam Roy exhibition review
  2. Hammock Mag: Awami Idara, Urdu Literature and Public Amnesia
  3. SAAG: The Changing Landscape of Heritage
  4. Frontline: What Does the Sahitya Akademi Do?
  5. Lithub: Bombay & The Beats: Bridging Bombay and San Francisco through their 20th century poets
  6. Museum of Art & Photography: Arrested Audience: Why I Can’t Stop Staring at Bhupen Khakhar’s Man With a Bouquet of Plastic Flowers
  7. The Caravan: Conqueror in White
  8. Foreword to The Light of the Sabbath: Poems by Kavita Ezekiel Mendonca
  9. Penguin Random House;The Cockroach and I [Financial Times/The Bodley Head Essay Prize 2020 runner up]
  10. ALMA Magazine: The Intimate Relationship Between the Private and the Public in Tamil Sangam Poetry
  11. The Bombay Review: Reading Bombay Through Arun Kolatkar’s Kala Ghoda Poems
  12. Scroll: https://scroll.in/author/14989
  13. Rolling Stone India: https://rollingstoneindia.com/author/saranya-subramanian/

movement: a video poetry series

bombay has been, and will always be, my muse, my lover, my inspiration. and so came about the idea to combine all the many sights and sounds and smells and tastes i experience in the city — sensorial experiences that are always in motion — with my quest for stillness. or at least trying to understand what stillness means at all.

videos conceptualised, shot and edited by saranya subramanian. poetry written and performed by saranya subramanian.

Copyright @Saranya Subramanian, 2023.
All Rights Reserved.

movement: part six
movement: part five
movement: part four
movement: part three
movement: part two
movement: part one

நெய்தல்: a box of poems

inspired by ancient tamil sangam poetry, and the “neytal” metonym which translates to “anxious waiting” and “secret meetings by the seashore”. this is inspired by 3 things:

  • non-linear poetic forms
  • sangam poetry dating back to 2nd century bce (neytal poems are about “anxiously waiting”)
  • dating in 2024

sangam poetry was discovered on dried palm leaves, centuries after it was written. it was a deeply secular, feminist, erotic, intelligent form of ancient tamil poetry. writing about dating in 2024 felt like something that needed to be scattered and fragmented – just like the actual experience is. and i’m curious about what happens when we have a poetry collection in a box: with no strict order, arrangement, or linear narrative. you just pick out any poem in any order, and hold that with you. what happens if you can hold poetry?

Copyright @Saranya Subramanian, 2023.
All Rights Reserved.