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Tag: Usha Akella

Matwaala’s Poets of Colour Series: Native American Women Poets

8th August 20229th August 2022  Lucy Writers

Matwaala’s latest Poets of Colour series brings together four poets and one artist whose work explores the lands, rivers, culture and histories belonging to and inherited by contemporary Native Americans.

Read More “Matwaala’s Poets of Colour Series: Native American Women Poets”
Posted in Creative Writing, PoetryTagged: Andrina Smith, Indigenous peoples, Jeremy Dennis, Kamala Platt, Lucille Lang Day, Matwaala, Native American Poets, Pramila Venkateswaran, Usha Akella, women poets

Wo(e)manhood and the Architecture of Feminist Solidarity: A Review of Usha Akella’s I Will Not Bear You Sons

4th July 20225th July 2022  Basudhara Roy

In these immaculately crafted and powerful, polyphonic poems, Usha Akella issues a rallying cry for all women to unite, resist and fight the violence of the patriarchy.

Read More “Wo(e)manhood and the Architecture of Feminist Solidarity: A Review of Usha Akella’s I Will Not Bear You Sons”
Posted in Arts, Books, PoetryTagged: Abortion, Basudhara Roy, Feminism, I Will Not Bear You Sons, Poetry, poetry review, Review, Roe vs Wade, Spinifex Press, Usha Akella

Poetry by Mexican Women Writers

22nd September 202124th September 2021  Lucy Writers

Usha Akella and Pramila Venkateswaran present the second collection of poems by Mexican women poets – Ana Belén López, Natalie Toledo, Elsa Cross, Maria Baranda and Mariana Bernardez – held in honour of Matwaala’s 2021 Festival of Poets of Colour series.

Read More “Poetry by Mexican Women Writers”
Posted in Creative Writing, PoetryTagged: Ana Belén López, Carolina V.Zapata, Clare Sullivan, Elsa Cross, Juan M. Esquivel, Maria Baranda, Mariana Bernardez, Matwaala, Mexican Poets, Mexican Women Writers, mexico, Natalia Toledo, nature, nature writing, Octavio Paz, Paul Hoover, Poetry, Pramila Venkateswaran, Susan Ayres, Translation, Usha Akella

Matwaala 2021, Poets of Colour Festival: African American Women Poets

12th May 202112th May 2021  Lucy Writers

For their Poets of Colour Festival, Matwaala 2021 brings together five prize-winning African American women poets – Dorothy Randall Gray, Cynthia Manick, Loretta Diane Walker, Marsha Nelson and Anastasia Tomkin. Here, Lucy Writers showcases their brilliant, moving work, which ranges from a celebration of Black motherhood through to the final moments of George Floyd’s life.

Read More “Matwaala 2021, Poets of Colour Festival: African American Women Poets”
Posted in Creative Writing, Lucy Features, My Cambridge, PoetryTagged: African American women poets, Black Lives Matter, black women, BLM 2020, daughters, Gandhi, George Floyd, John Lewis, Matwaala, Motherhood, Poetry, Pramila Venkateswaran, Usha Akella, women writers

‘Space Paths’ by Pramila Venkateswaran

2nd July 20202nd July 2020  Pramila Venkateswaran

In our final poem from Usha Akella’s Flora and Fauna series, Pramila Venkateswaran encourages us to look upwards and contemplate the magical, ‘unseen paths’ above the terra firma.

Read More “‘Space Paths’ by Pramila Venkateswaran”
Posted in Creative Writing, PoetryTagged: Flora & Fauna of Foreign Places, Flora and Fauna, Matwaala, Poetry, Pramila Venkateswaran, South Asian Diaspora Poetry Festival, Usha Akella

‘Cypress’ by Shamini Sriskandarajah

27th June 202027th June 2020  Shamini Sriskandarajah

In Shamini Sriskandarajah’s short and beautiful poem, ‘Cypress’, two people sit under the quiet warmth of a leylandii tree reflecting on past moments of togetherness.

Read More “‘Cypress’ by Shamini Sriskandarajah”
Posted in Creative Writing, PoetryTagged: Cypress, Flora & Fauna of Foreign Places, Flora and Fauna, Poetry, Shamini Sriskandarajah, Trees, Usha Akella

‘Maiden’s Tears’ by Olivia Rosane

21st June 202022nd June 2020  Olivia Rosane

In Olivia Rosane’s enchanting and evocative rites-of-passage poem, ‘Maiden’s Tears’, a young woman realises her own inner power and strength when encountering a small wildflower in an open field.

Read More “‘Maiden’s Tears’ by Olivia Rosane”
Posted in Creative Writing, PoetryTagged: Flora & Fauna of Foreign Places, Maiden Tears, nature, Olivia Rosane, Poetry, Rite of Passage, Usha Akella

‘Elegy for a Sunflower’ and other poems by Sophia Naz

13th June 202014th June 2020  Sophia Naz

Sophia Naz’s lush and imagistic poems describe the fallen splendour of a wilting sunflower, the passing of a season and a desolate landscape of leafless redwood trees.

Read More “‘Elegy for a Sunflower’ and other poems by Sophia Naz”
Posted in Creative Writing, PoetryTagged: Flora & Fauna of Foreign Places, nature, Poetry, Sophia Naz, Sunflowers, Trees, turncoats, Usha Akella

‘Three Notes to Blue Jays’ and other poems by Zilka Joseph

26th May 202026th May 2020  Zilka Joseph

In her two poems, ‘Three Notes to Blue Jays’ and ‘So Much’, Zilka Joseph’s words take flight when describing the dazzling brilliance of a Blue Jay and Hummingbird in the open spaces of Michigan.

Read More “‘Three Notes to Blue Jays’ and other poems by Zilka Joseph”
Posted in Creative Writing, PoetryTagged: Birds, Blue Jays, Flora & Fauna of Foreign Places, Humming Bird, Matwaala, Michigan, Poetry, summer, Usha Akella, Zilka Joseph

‘Under the 400-Year-Old Ponderosa Pine’ and other poems by Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg

17th May 202019th May 2020  Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg

Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg’s poems offer a solitary space for readers to meditate on nature’s quiet truths, a locus in which to reorientate the self and speak in a new language of trees, birds, waterfalls and winding valleys.

Read More “‘Under the 400-Year-Old Ponderosa Pine’ and other poems by Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg”
Posted in Creative Writing, Environment, PoetryTagged: Cary Mirriam-Goldberg, Copeland Falls, Flora & Fauna of Foreign Places, Ponderosa Tree, Prevernal, Usha Akella

‘This is Lime, this is Gul Mohar, this is Mountain laurel’ by Usha Akella

12th May 202022nd May 2020  Usha Akella

Our Poetry editor, Usha Akella, recalls her time studying for an MSt. in Creative Writing at Cambridge and considers how the flora and fauna of the city inspired her writing and helped her navigate and connect with a new place.

Read More “‘This is Lime, this is Gul Mohar, this is Mountain laurel’ by Usha Akella”
Posted in Creative Writing, Environment, Lucy Features, My Cambridge, PoetryTagged: Byron, Cambridge, Daffodils, Dev Patel, Flora & Fauna of Foreign Places, Lime Trees, Lucy Cavendish College, Madingley Hall, Poetry, Ramanujam, Romantic Poets, Usha Akella, Wordsworth

Matwaala: Intoxicated by Poetry and to Intoxicate with Poetry

30th December 201830th December 2018  Usha Akella

Poet and Lucy Writers’ Poetry editor, Usha Akella, writes of the South Asian Diaspora Poets’ Collective festival, Matwaala, which she founded several years ago.

Read More “Matwaala: Intoxicated by Poetry and to Intoxicate with Poetry”
Posted in Arts, Books, Creative Writing, PoetryTagged: Amritjit Singh, Austin, Gandhi, Matwaala, Muse India, Poetry, South Asian Diaspora Poets' Collective, South Asian Poets, The Poetry Caravan, Usha Akella
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