The Penguin Book of Indian Poets
EDITED BY JEET THAYIL
Jeet Thayil has compiled the definitive anthology of Indian poetry in English. This monumental undertaking, two decades in the making, brings together writers from across the world, a wealth of voices–in dialogue, in soliloquy, in rhetoric, and in play–to present an expansive, encompassing idea of what makes an ‘Indian’ poet. Included are lost, uncollected, or out of print poems by major poets, essays that place entire bodies of work into their precise cultural contexts, and a collection of classic black and white portraits by Madhu Kapparath. These images, taken over a period of thirty years, form an archive of breathtaking historical scope. They offer the viewer unparalleled intimacy and access to the lives of some of India’s greatest poets.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
JEET THAYIL was born into a Syrian Christian family in Kerala. As a boy, he travelled through much of the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia with his father, TJS George, a writer and editor. He worked as a journalist for twenty-one years, in Bombay, Bangalore, Hong Kong and New York City. In 2005, he began to write fiction. The first instalment of his Bombay Trilogy, Narcopolis, was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and became an unlikely bestseller. His book of poems, These Errors Are Correct, won the Sahitya Akademi Award (India's National Academy of Letters), and his musical collaborations include the opera Babur in London.
PRAISE
“A dazzling, authoritative, and, I suspect, instantly canonical anthology in which brilliant new voices are in fruitful dialogue with older eminences. A delight to read.”
— Salman Rushdie
“More than an anthology, this is a luminous constellation--a gathering of souls, across time and space, in urgent conversation about what it means to be human.”
— Tracy K. Smith
INFORMATION
Published by Penguin, 2024ISBN 978-0670096862
908 pages, hardback