Yuyutsu Sharma reading in Taos, New Mexico

Yuyutsu Sharma reading in New Mexico for the first time.

Recipient of fellowships and grants from The Rockefeller Foundation, Ireland Literature Exchange, Trubar Foundation, Slovenia, The Institute for the Translation of Hebrew Literature and The Foundation for the Production and Translation of Dutch Literature, Yuyutsu RD Sharma is a distinguished poet and translator.

He has published nine poetry collections including, Milarepa’s Bones, 33 New Poems, (Nirala, New Delhi 2012), Nepal Trilogy, Photographs and Poetry on Annapurna, Everest, Helambu & Langtang (www.Nepal-Trilogy.de, Epsilonmedia, Karlsruhe, 2010), a 900-page book with renowned German photographer, Andreas Stimm, Space Cake, Amsterdam, & Other Poems from Europe and America, (2009, Indian reprint 2013) and Annapurna Poems, 2008, Reprint, 2012).
Yuyutsu also brought out a translation of Irish poet Cathal O’ Searcaigh poetry in Nepali in a bilingual collection entitled, Kathmandu: Poems, Selected and New (2006) and a translation of Hebrew poet Ronny Someck’s poetry in Nepali in a bilingual edition, Baghdad, February 1991 & Other Poems. He has translated and edited several anthologies of contemporary Nepali poetry in English and launched a literary movement, Kathya Kayakalpa (Content Metamorphosis) in Nepali poetry.

Two books of his poetry, Poemes de l’ Himalayas (L’Harmattan, Paris) and Poemas de Los Himalayas (Cosmopoeticia, Cordoba, Spain) just appeared in French and Spanish respectively.

Widely traveled author, he has read his works at several prestigious places including Poetry Café, London, Seamus Heaney Center for Poetry, Belfast, New York University, New York, The Kring, Amsterdam, P.E.N, Paris, Knox College, Illinois, Whittier College, California, Baruch College, New York, WB Yeats’ Center, Sligo, Gustav Stressemann Institute, Bonn, Rubin Museum, New York, Irish Writers’ Centre, Dublin, The Guardian Newsroom, London, Trois Rivieres Poetry Festival, Quebec, Arnofini, Bristol, Borders, London, Slovenian Book Days, Ljubljana, Royal Society of Dramatic Arts, London, Gunter Grass House, Bremen, GTZ, Kathmandu, Nehru Center, London, March Hare, Newfoundland, Canada, Gannon University, Erie, Frankfurt Book Fair, Frankfurt, Indian International Center, New Delhi, and Villa Serbelloni, Italy.

He has held workshop in creative writing and translation at Queen’s University, Belfast, University of Ottawa and South Asian Institute, Heidelberg University, Germany, University of California, Davis, Sacramento State University, California and New York University, New York.

His works have appeared in Poetry Review, Chanrdrabhaga, Sodobnost, Amsterdam Weekly, Indian Literature, Irish Pages, Delo, Modern Poetry in Translation, Exiled Ink, Iton77, Little Magazine, The Telegraph, Indian Express and Asiaweek.

The Library of Congress has nominated his recent book of Nepali translations entitled Roaring Recitals; Five Nepali Poets as Best Book of the Year 2001 from Asia under the Program, A World of Books International Perspectives.

Yuyutsu’s own work has been translated into German, French, Italian, Slovenian, Hebrew, Spanish and Dutch. He just published his nonfiction, Annapurnas & Stains of Blood: Life, Travel and Writing a Page of Snow, (Nirala, 2010). He edits Pratik, A Magazine of Contemporary Writing and contributes literary columns to Nepal’s leading daily, The Himalayan Times.

He was at the Poetry Parnassus Festival organized to celebrate London Olympics 2012 where he represented Nepal and India.

Currently, he is in New York as a Visiting Poet at New York University.

Half the year, he travels and reads all over the world to read from his works and conducts creative writing workshop at various universities in North America and Europe but goes trekking in the Himalayas when back home.

More: www.yuyutsu.de, www.niralapublications.com

Yuyutsu Sharma’s Upcoming Colorado and New Mexico Tour!

Yuyutsu Sharma is South Asia’s leading poet published by Nirala with growing International acclaim. He is currently in New York City as a visiting poet at New York University and has several readings coming up in New York, Colorado , New Mexico and West Coast. Here is a list of some immediate readings in Colorado and New Mexico.

(Only Public Readings are listed)

Taos, New Mexico

Wednesday, Jan 15, 2014, 6,30 pm, Yuyutsu Sharma : Poet from the Himalayasreading for the first time from his new book on New York City at Copper Moon Gallery, 105, Kit Carson Road, Taos, NM 87571, Phone: (575) 758-8833, www. coppermoongallerytaos.com, info@ coppermoongallerytaos.com, Hosted by Susan Keiser : Open to public, free

Denver, Colorado

Saturday, January 11, 2014: 11:00 am-1.00 pm Meet Yuyutsu Sharma at Society of Nepalese creators. Colorado at 2123 S Waco Street, Aurora, Colorado 80013; Chaired by Mr Padam Biswakarma & Mrs.Kamala Bishwakarma, Hosted by Raju Sitaula: Entrance by Invitation, Phone:7206286313

Thursday, Jan 16, 2014, 7,00 pm, Evoking the Himalayan Muse : Yuyutsu Sharma reading from his new book, Nine New York Poems: A Prelude to A Blizzard in My Bones: New York Poems and Annapurna Poems at Book Bar, 4280 Tennyson Street, Denver, CO 80212. Phone: 720-443-2227; email: info@bookbardenver.com, Webste: www.bookbardenver.com , Hosted by Joseph Hutchison: Open to public, free

Friday, January 17, 2014: 7:00 pm A Wonderful Poetry Event: Yuyutsu Sharma reading with Maria Berardi at Glovinsky Gallery 800 w 8th ave, Denver, Colorado 80204; Hosted by Janet Glovinsky: Open to public, Free Email: jglovinsky@yahoo.com
Website: http://glovinskygallery.com

Yuyutsu Sharma to read at Saturn Series at Revival, Union Square

Monday, Nov.25  Happy Thanksgiving  Reading        

Yuyutsu Sharma  to read as Special Guest  from his new book, Nine New York Poems: A Prelude (Nirala, 2014)
 to A Blizzard In My Bones: New York Poems.

 with Erica Mapp 

at Saturn Series at Revival  

MONDAY... November 25 at 8:00 PM 

Saturn Series Poetry Reading & Open Mike  8 to 10PM every Monday!
at Revival 129 East 15 Street,  Between Irving Place & 3rd Ave. http://www.revivalbarnyc.com/ 
Please purchase a drink at the bar and come to the upstairs lounge.
Sign up for open mike 7:45, Starts at 8pm.   $3 donation requested and drink purchase.
Open Mike Surrounds Features.

Venue is updated on supolo.com 
REVIVAL !!!  129 East 15 Street Between 3rd Ave. & Irving Place.   NEW LATER START AT 8 PM
We meet every Monday night at 8:00 pm

Open Mike + 1 or 2 features - Sign up at 7:45 pm, Starts 8:00 & goes to 10:00 pm
Hosted by Su Polo  -  $3.00 donation plus drink purchase.  Please order a drink or two to support our event at this fine venue which has invited us to meet at their lovely upstairs lounge (about five steps up inside the front door)
This spacious room is decorated in delightful trompe d'oeil artistry.  http://www.supolo.com
http://www.supolo.com/Saturn_Series_Poetry

About Yuyutsu Ramdass Sharma..

. Recipient of fellowships and grants from The Rockefeller Foundation, Ireland Literature Exchange, Trubar Foundation, Slovenia, The Institute for the Translation of Hebrew Literature and The Foundation for the Production and Translation of Dutch Literature, Yuyutsu RD Sharma is a distinguished poet and translator.
He has published nine poetry collections including, Milarepa’s Bones, 33 New Poems, (Nirala, New Delhi 2012), Nepal Trilogy, Photographs and Poetry on Annapurna, Everest, Helambu & Langtang (www.Nepal-Trilogy.de, Epsilonmedia, Karlsruhe, 2010), a 900-page book with renowned German photographer, Andreas Stimm, Space Cake, Amsterdam, & Other Poems from Europe and America, (2009, Indian reprint 2014) and Annapurna Poems, 2008), Reprint, 2012, 14).
Yuyutsu has also brought out a translation of Irish poet Cathal O’ Searcaigh poetry in Nepali in a bilingual collection entitled, Kathmandu: Poems, Selected and New (2006) and a translation of Hebrew poet Ronny Someck’s poetry in Nepali in a bilingual edition, Baghdad, February 1991 & Other Poems. He has translated and edited several anthologies of contemporary Nepali poetry in English and launched a literary movement, Kathya Kayakalpa (Content Metamorphosis) in Nepali poetry.
Two books of his poetry, Poemes de l’ Himalayas (L’Harmattan, Paris) and Poemas de Los Himalayas (Cosmopoeticia, Cordoba, Spain) have appeared in French and Spanish respectively.
Widely traveled author, he has read his works at several prestigious places including The Poetry Café, London, The Seamus Heaney Center for Poetry, Belfast, New York University, New York, The Kring, Amsterdam, P.E.N, Paris, Knox College, Illinois, Whittier College, California, Baruch College, New York, WB Yeats’ Center, Sligo, Gustav Stressemann Institute, Bonn, Rubin Museum, New York, Irish Writers’ Centre, Dublin, The Guardian Newsroom, London, Trois Rivieres Poetry Festival, Quebec, Arnofini, Bristol, Borders, London, Slovenian Book Days, Ljubljana, Royal Society of Dramatic Arts, London, Gunter Grass House, Bremen, Nehru Center, London, March Hare, Newfoundland, Canada, South Bank Center, London, Gannon University, Erie, Frankfurt Book Fair, Frankfurt, Indian International Center, New Delhi, and Villa Serbelloni, Italy.
He has held workshops in creative writing and translation at Queen’s University, Belfast, University of Ottawa and South Asian Institute, Heidelberg University, Germany, University of California, Davis, Sacramento State University, California and New York University, New York.
Yuyutsu’s own work has been translated into German, French, Italian, Slovenian, Hebrew, Spanish and Dutch. He has also published his non-fiction, Annapurnas & Stains of Blood: Life, Travel and Writing a Page of Snow and edits Pratik, A Magazine of Contemporary Writing. He contributes literary columns to Nepal’s leading daily, The Himalayan Times.
Yuyutsu was at the Poetry Parnassus Festival organized to celebrate London Olympics 2012 where he represented Nepal and India. He will visit NYU later this year as Special Visiting Poet and in 2014, Nicaragua as Guest Poet to participate in International Poetry Festival of Granada.
Half the year, he travels and reads all over the world from his works and conducts creative writing workshop at various universities in North America and Europe but goes trekking in the Himalayas when back home.
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About Erica Mapp... 

Erica Mapp, originally from Trinidad, is a long-term New York resident with poems in The Avocet, 360 degrees, (recently published by the Circle of Poets in Trinidad), Commonweal magazine, MOBIUS, WORDS magazine, (published by the School of Visual Arts in New York), Dinner With the Muse, an anthology edited by Evie Ivy, COLUMBIA magazine and the former LAKE EFFECT. She is a graduate of Cave Canem, a black writers’ group.

She received a Bachelor’s Degree in Fine Arts, from The Cooper Union School of Art in New York City and a Master’s Degree in Art Education, from New York University, School of Education. Her continuing education includes thirty credits in poetry at the graduate level, from the Graduate English Department, Queens College of the City of New York, (C.C.N.Y.), where she studied with the acclaimed poet, Marie Ponsot for almost two years. She also studied poetry with Marie Ponsot privately, for many years and with Grace Schulman at the 92nd Street Y in New York City.  In more recent years, she studied with Cave Canem teachers, Jacqueline La Mon and Tracy K. Smith, Pulitzer prize winning author and poet.

She has taken part in many poetry readings both here and abroad and is seeking publication for her two completed poetry manuscripts and an uncompleted book of essays.

To the Highest Heavens: Poetry of Heights: New York City, The Himalayas, and Mars–Yuyutsu Ram Dass Sharma & David B. Austell

Posted on November 17, 2013

To the Highest Heavens:
Poetry of Heights: New York City, The Himalayas, and Mars
Yuyutsu Ram Dass Sharma & David B. Austell

A poetry reading at New York University
during
International Education Week 2013
Yuyutsu Sharma returns to New York City to read from his new book entitled Nine New York Poems: A Prelude to A Blizzard in My Bones: New York Poems (Nirala 2014)
David Austell will read from the New Revised Paperback edition of his much discussedLittle Creek and Other Poems (Nirala, 2014). David will also read from his ambitious forthcoming book, The Tin Man,
to be published by Nirala later in 2014.

Thursday, November 21, 2013
Office of Global Services
516 LaGuardia Place
New York University
6:00pm

Directions: The Office of Global Services (OGS) is located at 561 LaGuardia Place at the corner of West 3rd Street and LaGuardia Place in Greenwich Village, Manhattan. OGS is directly behind the NYU Bobst Library, and is very close to Washington Square (South). Signage for OGS is visible from LaGuardia Place. Please enter thought the front entrance on the first floor. The building OGS is located in is Washington Square Village Building 1.

New York University
70 Washington Square South, New York, New York 10012
View Map • Get Directions

David B. Austell

David B. Austell is Assistant Vice President and Director of the Office of Global Services at New York University in New York City, where he is also an Associate Professor of International Education in the NYU Steinhardt School (adjunct). David has undergraduate and graduate degrees in English Literature from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where he also completed his Ph.D. in Higher Education focusing on International Education. In 1992, David was a Fulbright grantee in Japan and Korea. The love of poetry grows from deep roots, and in David’s case from his parents: his mother who sent poetry, sacred and secular, to him all through college with her letters, and his father who read Shakespeare and Coleridge to him as a child.

Yuyutsu RD Sharma

Recipient of fellowships and grants from The Rockefeller Foundation, Ireland Literature Exchange, Trubar Foundation, Slovenia, The Institute for the Translation of Hebrew Literature and The Foundation for the Production and Translation of Dutch Literature, Yuyutsu RD Sharma is a distinguished poet and translator.

He has published nine poetry collections including, Milarepa’s Bones, 33 New Poems, (Nirala, New Delhi 2012), Nepal Trilogy, Photographs and Poetry on Annapurna, Everest, Helambu & Langtang (www.Nepal-Trilogy.de, Epsilonmedia, Karlsruhe, 2010), a 900-page book with renowned German photographer, Andreas Stimm, Space Cake, Amsterdam, & Other Poems from Europe and America, (2009, Indian reprint 2014) and Annapurna Poems, 2008), Reprint, 2012, 14).

Yuyutsu has also brought out a translation of Irish poet Cathal O’ Searcaigh poetry in Nepali in a bilingual collection entitled, Kathmandu: Poems, Selected and New (2006) and a translation of Hebrew poet Ronny Someck’s poetry in Nepali in a bilingual edition, Baghdad, February 1991 & Other Poems. He has translated and edited several anthologies of contemporary Nepali poetry in English and launched a literary movement, Kathya Kayakalpa (Content Metamorphosis) in Nepali poetry.

Two books of his poetry, Poemes de l’ Himalayas (L’Harmattan, Paris) and Poemas de Los Himalayas (Cosmopoeticia, Cordoba, Spain) have appeared in French and Spanish respectively.

Widely traveled author, he has read his works at several prestigious places including The Poetry Café, London, The Seamus Heaney Center for Poetry, Belfast, New York University, New York, The Kring, Amsterdam, P.E.N, Paris, Knox College, Illinois, Whittier College, California, Baruch College, New York, WB Yeats’ Center, Sligo, Gustav Stressemann Institute, Bonn, Rubin Museum, New York, Irish Writers’ Centre, Dublin, The Guardian Newsroom, London, Trois Rivieres Poetry Festival, Quebec, Arnofini, Bristol, Borders, London, Slovenian Book Days, Ljubljana, Royal Society of Dramatic Arts, London, Gunter Grass House, Bremen, Nehru Center, London, March Hare, Newfoundland, Canada, South Bank Center, London, Gannon University, Erie, Frankfurt Book Fair, Frankfurt, Indian International Center, New Delhi, and Villa Serbelloni, Italy.

He has held workshops in creative writing and translation at Queen’s University, Belfast, University of Ottawa and South Asian Institute, Heidelberg University, Germany, University of California, Davis, Sacramento State University, California and New York University, New York.

Yuyutsu’s own work has been translated into German, French, Italian, Slovenian, Hebrew, Spanish and Dutch. He has also published his non-fiction, Annapurnas & Stains of Blood: Life, Travel and Writing a Page of Snow and edits Pratik, A Magazine of Contemporary Writing. He contributes literary columns to Nepal’s leading daily, The Himalayan Times.

Yuyutsu was at the Poetry Parnassus Festival organized to celebrate London Olympics 2012 where he represented Nepal and India. He will visit NYU later this year as Special Visiting Poet and in 2014, Nicaragua as Guest Poet to participate in International Poetry Festival of Granada.

Half the year, he travels and reads all over the world from his works and conducts creative writing workshop at various universities in North America and Europe but goes trekking in the Himalayas when back home.

EL AL: Yuyutsu Sharma's Column on New York City

Streets of Manhattan
Musings on New York's ability to embrace all
YUYUTSU RD SHARMA

KATHMANDU:

Your name

like your yogurt kisses

I long to forget

in the boulevards of NYC’s

alphabet avenues

Your kisses

like your cherry mouth

sings Starbucks songs

of winds stirred by flames

of freedom.

(Your Name, A Blizzard in my Bones)

“There is something in the New York air that makes sleep useless,” says Simone Beauvoir about the vital bustle the mega city. For over a year, I have been working on the manuscript of my New York poems, entitled, A Blizzard in My Bones. The very energy of the city is electrifying in a special way, making you go back to it, and walk its bistros, boulevards and shores, even when you are away, far, far away.

The first time I went there, I had fortune of living in Greenwich Village where legendary John Lennon “regretted profoundly” that he “was not born in”.

Back home as the Kathmandu Valley rivers swelled from incessant monsoons, I have been walking the suburbs, working long hours in small tea shops over my notes on this city of cities where, in words of Groucho Marx, “Practically everybody ... has half a mind to write a book — and does.”

In the winter of 2012, I also had the leisure of walking the numbered streets of Manhattan with my manuscript in mind, hanging out with fellow poets, spending time in art places, libraries and spacious bookstores. Often, I went to share my works at local NYC poetry venues, and read almost everything I could lay my hands on —memoirs, poetry, stories, reports along with all time favourites like Catcher in the Rye, The Great Gatsby, Lunch Poems, even recent books on the city, including, Salman Rushdie’s Fury and Deborah Landau’s The Last Usable Hour.

One of the first few books I had read about the city remains Maxim Gorky’s The City of the Yellow Demon. The book had clouded my vision of the city for a long time. Gorky sees New York as a bleak underworld without a glint of happiness, a working class hell. However, landing in New York, I was amazed to find a very different world. What I saw was not a dreary dungeon, but as Salvador Dali pointed out “an Egypt turned inside out. For she erected pyramids of slavery to death, and you erect pyramids of democracy with the vertical organ-pipes of your skyscrapers all meeting at the point of infinity of liberty!”

Another crucial book I found by chance in a Greenwich Village cafe was Federico Garcia Lorca’s Poet in New York City. Again, I had difficulty in dealing with Lorca’s surreal accounts the city emptied of any spirituality, “a city that doesn’t sleep”. Lorca presents the metropolis as a brutal place where every day “they slaughter/four million ducks,/five million hogs,/two thousand pigeons to accommodate the tastes of the dying,/one million cows,/one million lambs,/and two million roosters/that smash the sky to pieces”.

Could I too write on this city in a similar vein? Just because it is customary for poets to be critical of the cities and civilisations? Shall I lash the city that has become a refuge for million nationalities from every corner of the world, including the American people from every State?

Over the years, my stay in New York City had given me different impressions. While working on my take on it, I could see how today the Cold War bias was uncalled for, almost irrational. I could not but celebrate this glorious city’s status as previously I had celebrated the Himalayas. The Himalayas are nature-made and New York man-made, humanity’s triumph. For that is what hopefully in the coming decades humanity would turn into, if it evolves from tribal, narrow visions.

“Make your mark in New York,” wrote Mark Twain, “and you are a made man.” Last year I reached the city a week before the Hurricane Sandy hit the West Coast and a month before notorious New Town massacre. I had expected the worst, the whole island upside down, civilian life disrupted. Due to nasty road expansion work and chaos in my own Himalayan metropolis, I had sore memories seething in my mind. Due to the hurricane, my NYU assignments were postponed for a couple of weeks and I had to prolong my stopover in London.

After a fortnight as I reached the city, I found everything in order. Eager, I looked for the signs the calamity might have caused. Like a child, I ran in the spacious streets of Manhattan and took E Train to Brooklyn. All I got was some stray narratives of the Sandy-hit areas in few poetry readings. So quickly, the Sandy catastrophe had turned into a thing of the past. People talked how there was no electricity for a few days and one of my poet friends said she had to go all the way to affluent Uptown to get a hot cup of coffee.

On my way back on subway past midnight, I went laughing all the way. I had left the Valley where 18 hours of power-cuts has become a norm. Our children have grown up groping in the darkness of a republic-in-the-making that has not been able to find a focus. They have become used to the drone of maddening power generators and the clouds of dusts of hovering over the streets ripped apart and left bleeding like permanent wounds. Day to day civilian suffering along with rampant corruption has left a permanent scar on the face of Nepali polity.

Of course, you expect quick action from a First World nation, one could argue, and there’s nothing to be surprised if things had come back to normal. That’s not the only reason that makes you celebrate the city of the blazing skyline. New York is a place where humanity has evolved. No matter where you come from, you are welcomed there the morning you arrive. All you have to do is imbibe the free spirit of a New Yorker. “One belongs to New York instantly,” discerns Tom Wolfe, “one belongs to it as much in five minutes as in five years.”

To the rest of the world, it might seem different. If ever the humanity evolves into a place of ultimate coexistence, that’s what it would look like, a New York. What to talk of Europe and Americas, we know how in our own subcontinent, in cities like Kathmandu, Mumbai or New Delhi, in the inner circles the outsiders are looked upon with suspicion and distrust. Our cities have a long history of ostracising and humiliating outsiders. The literatures in vernacular languages of the subcontinent are full of such tribal assaults of our so-called “barbarous civilisations”. That’s why one wonders, wasn’t it along such lines of logic Walt Whitman had to shout, “Give me such shows — give me the streets of Manhattan!”

Your smile

like your bright eyes

stays calm as stars

over blue Atlantic waters.

Your eyes

like your dolphin heart

beats frantic

in the numbered streets

of Manhattan.

Your heart mind

reading horoscopes

of my life’s withered leaf

aflutter in the dark streets

of your city.

(Your Name, A Blizzard in my Bones)

(The writer can be reached at yuyutsurd@yahoo.com)

Yuyutsu Sharma's Five Picks: Republica Daily

Extracts
Yuyutsu Sharma's Five Picks


YUYUTSU R D SHARMA
I am standing on the crossroads of life. If you want to be a poet, put your house on fire and come with me.
– Kabir, 13th Century Indian Poet

Writing poetry is not an easy task. There are too many sacrifices to be made; too many personal interests have to be abandoned. Kabir himself, who was a very famous poet of his generation, had made many sacrifices to walk that road of poetry.

This particular quote by Kabir stands close to my heart because I find it very relatable. I myself began my journey into poetry by teaching. Later, I discovered that my true passion lay in writing poems, creating a different world with words. Then I quit teaching in 1996 and chose my career as a freelance writer. At the same time, I visited the Annapurna region and that kindled the poet in me. [BREAK]

I realized that teaching is very easy compared to writing poems. Teaching is about living in a world made by someone else while writing poems is a different story. It is about creating a different world altogether. And it is no wonder that not everyone has become great poets, or even writers. It requires a lot of hard work to be a writer and you cannot simply accomplish that feat unless you take risks; unless you prepare yourself for a harsh journey that is certain to follow.

About Sharma
Yuyutsu Ram Das Shama is a widely acclaimed writer based in Nepal. He moved to Nepal at an early age from his hometown Nakodar, Punjab, and now writes in both Nepali and English. He travels all over the world occasionally to read from his works and conducts creative writing workshops at various universities in the United States and Europe. When back home, he goes trekking in the Himalaya where he gains inspiration to pen another creation.
Sharma grew up in a very religious environment which inspired him to read Vedic texts and epics right from a young age. He has published nine poetry collections, including, “Milarepa’s Bones,” “Nepal Trilogy,” “Photographs and Poetry on Annapurna, Everest, Helambu & Langtang” which is a 900-page book with renowned German photographer, Andreas Stimm, “Space Cake,” “Amsterdam & Other Poems from Europe and America,” and “Annapurna Poems.” Also, Sharma’s own work has been translated into German, French, Italian, Slovenian, Hebrew, Spanish and Dutch.


Aamako Sapana by Gopal Prasad Rimal

This poem by Rimal is one of the first free verse poems to be written in Nepali language. This is allegorical to the idea of democracy and freedom that Rimal always stood by.

I particularly like the way he has woven personal stories with national politics. Rimal lived a very violent and vibrant life. This can be pictured vividly in his poems. His poems are original in the sense that they are the fusion of Rimal’s own personal experiences in life and the then political situation of the country. Rimal is truly monumental when it comes to Nepali literature.

Memoirs by Pablo Neruda

This book is an autobiography of the Chilean poet and Nobel Laureate Pablo Neruda. This book chronicles his journey into becoming a fine poet. His travels, exploits, experiences are all recorded in this book which can be considered a bible for poets.

Neruda lived his life amidst political turmoil in Chile. He was also later a diplomat and a politician. This book is the story of his life from his own words that give an insight into what his life had been like and what led him to become a poet, and later a Nobel laureate.

This book stands close to my heart as I could draw inspiration from him, and his experiences are easily relatable in my life too.

The World Record: International Voices from the Southbank Centre’s Poetry Parnassus Edited by Neil Astley and Anna Selby

This particular book is an anthology of fresh poems from all around the world. In fact, this collection is the result of a world poetry conference held in London last summer to celebrate the London Olympics 2012. I had also participated in that conference representing Nepal, and it had been a wonderful opportunity meeting contemporary poets from all around the world and listen to and read them. Through this anthology, I was able to know a lot about the current poetry scenes in different parts of the world.
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Thrall by Natasha Trethewey

This is also an anthology of poems by the current poet laureate of the United States, Natasha Trethewey. In her poems, Trethewey explores the subject of races and prejudices as they happen in America.

Hers are poems on personal history backed by the making of America at their hearts. Trethewey herself has a mixed parentage. This pushed her to handle such a subject matter in her poems. This is very much close to Rimal’s poems which makes them equally enthralling to me.

In this particular collection, Trethewey has celebrated the union of races and ethnicities in the boiling pot of America. As Nepal is also a country with various races and ethnicities living together, her poems are particularly relatable here.

Garuda & Other Poems of Astral Plains by David B. Austell

This is yet another poetry collection on my list. This anthology contains poems by the New York-based poet, Austell, who is interested in Asian cultures. These poems are inspired by the legends of Garuda as in our Hindu mythology.

Austell has this particular style of writing poems; he writes long poems which are beautifully crafted and flow with perfect ease. The poems in this anthology are no exception.

Austell in his poems in this collection has explored planes higher than the Himalaya. He writes about Mars, and myth. The poems by Austell in this collection are an evocation to divine entities and the celebration of the natural elements that we should take care of.

As told to Ashish Dhakal

Forthcoming Yuyutsu Sharma Conversation organized by Embassy of India, Kathmandu!

New Book Released

Ten: The New Indian poets

Edited and Selected by
Jayanta Mahapatra & Yuyutsu Sharma

Ten is a groundbreaking anthology of fresh poetry from India just published by Nirala Publications. World renowned Indian poet Jayanta Mahapatra along with Yuyutsu Sharma selects ten poets writing in English to show case vivacious colours of new India. The majority of the poets included here come from humble middle class families, working silently and selflessly, serving the Muse without any hope of high material gain or media hype. In this light, the anthology bears testimony to hidden creative commotion feeding the flames of vigorous poetry alive in little known islands of the contemporary Indian culture.

Anupama Raju.
Rabindra K. Swain.
Malovika Pawar.
Soni Wadhwa.
Rumjhum Biswas.
Sudeep Sen.
Nabanita Kanungo.
Yuyutsu Sharma.
Robin S Ngangom.
Kympham Sing Nongkynrih.

Ten: The New Indian Poets, Hard, pp136 Rs. 295 Indian Only

ISBN 81-8250-034-6

FROM SAGARMATHA TO OLYMPUS MONS:YUYUTSU RD SHARMA & DAVID B. AUSTELL

FROM SAGARMATHA TO OLYMPUS MONS:YUYUTSU RD SHARMA & DAVID B. AUSTELL

FROM SAGARMATHA TO OLYMPUS MONS

YUYUTSU RAM DASS SHARMA

& DAVID B. AUSTELL

READING THEIR NEW AND SELECTED WORKS

THURSDAY, JANUARY 24TH at 7:00pm

Global Center for Academic and Spiritual Life, New York University

238 Thompson Street (corner of Thompson Street and West 4th Street, beside the NYU Kimmel Center)

This event is free and open to the public. The authors’ books will be available for purchase.

DR. DAVID B. AUSTELL (United States) is an emerging voice in the arena of contemporary American poetry. Austell grew up in the southern part of the United States during the 1950s and 1960s, his love of poetry growing from deep roots: from his mother who sent poetry, sacred and secular, to him all through college with her letters, and from his father who read Shakespeare and Coleridge to him as a child. He completed undergraduate and graduate degrees in English Literature at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where he also completed his Ph.D. in Higher Education focusing on International Education. He has undergraduate and graduate degrees in English Literature from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he also completed his Ph.D. in Higher Education focusing on International Education (his dissertation, The Birds in the Rich Forest, concerned Chinese students in the United States during the Student Democracy Movement). In 1992, he was a Fulbright grantee in Korea and Japan. He is currently the Executive Director of the Office of Global Services at New York University in New York City where he is also an adjunct Associate Professor of International Education in the NYU Steinhardt School His first book of poetry, Little Creek, was published in January 2011 by Nirala Press, and his second volume, Garuda (also published by Nirala), was released in March 2012. David’s poetry has also appeared in Infusion Magazine, and in The Rutherford Red Wheelbarrow.

More: http://www.davidaustell.blogspot.com/



Recipient of fellowships and grants from The Rockefeller Foundation, Ireland Literature Exchange, Trubar Foundation, Slovenia, The Institute for the Translation of Hebrew Literature and The Foundation for the Production and Translation of Dutch Literature, Yuyutsu RD Sharma is a distinguished poet and translator.

He has published nine poetry collections including, Milarepa’s Bones, 33 New Poems, (Nirala, New Delhi 2012), Nepal Trilogy, Photographs and Poetry on Annapurna, Everest, Helambu & Langtang (www.Nepal-Trilogy.de, Epsilonmedia, Karlsruhe, 2010), a 900-page book with German photographer, Andreas Stimm, Space Cake, Amsterdam, & Other Poems from Europe and America, (2009), and recently a translation of Hebrew poet Ronny Someck’s poetry in Nepali in a bilingual collection, Baghdad, February 1991 & Other Poems. He has translated and edited several anthologies of contemporary Nepali poetry in English and launched a literary movement, Kathya Kayakalpa (Content Metamorphosis) in Nepali poetry.

Two books of his poetry, Poemes de l’ Himalayas (L’Harmattan, Paris) and Poemas de Los Himalayas (Cosmopoeticia, Cordoba, Spain) just appeared in French and Spanish respectively.

Widely traveled author, he has read his works at several prestigious places including Poetry Café, London, Seamus Heaney Center for Poetry, Belfast, New York University, New York, The Kring, Amsterdam, P.E.N. Paris, Knox College, Illinois, Whittier College, California, Baruch College, New York, WB Yeats’ Center, Sligo, Gustav Stressemann Institute, Bonn, Rubin Museum, New York, Irish Writers’ Centre, Dublin, The Guardian Newsroom, London, Trois Rivieres Poetry Festival, Quebec, Arnofini, Bristol, Borders, London, Slovenian Book Days, Ljubljana, Royal Society of Dramatic Arts, London, Gunter Grass House, Bremen, GTZ, Kathmandu, Nehru Center, London, March Hare, Newfoundland, Canada, Frankfurt Book Fair, Frankfurt, Indian International Center, New Delhi, and Villa Serbelloni, Italy.

He has held workshop in creative writing and translation at Queen’s University, Belfast, University of Ottawa and South Asian Institute, Heidelberg University, Germany, University of California, Davis, Sacramento State University, California and New York University, New York.



His works have appeared in Poetry Review, Chanrdrabhaga, Sodobnost, Amsterdam Weekly, Indian Literature, Irish Pages, Delo, Words without Borders, Exiled Ink, Iton77, Little Magazine, The Telegraph, Indian Express and Asiaweek.

Born at Nakodar, Punjab and educated at Baring Union Christian College, Batala and later at Rajasthan University, Jaipur, Yuyutsu remained active in the literary circles of Rajasthan and acted in plays by Shakespeare, Bertolt Brecht, Harold Pinter, and Edward Albee. Later he taught at various campuses of Punjab University, and Tribhuwan University, Kathmandu.

The Library of Congress has nominated his recent book of Nepali translations entitled Roaring Recitals; Five Nepali Poets as Best Book of the Year 2001 from Asia under the Program, A World of Books International Perspectives.

Yuyutsu’s own work has been translated into German, French, Italian, Slovenian, Hebrew, Spanish and Dutch. He just published his nonfiction, Annapurnas & Stains of Blood: Life, Travel and Writing a Page of Snow, (Nirala, 2010). He edits Pratik, A Magazine of Contemporary Writing and contributes literary columns to Nepal’s leading daily, The Himalayan Times.

Visiting Poet this fall at New York University, early this year, he participated as Guest Poet at the Poetry Parnassus Festival organized to celebrate London Olympics 2012.

Half the year, he travels and reads all over the world to read from his works and conducts creative writing workshop at various universities in North America and Europe but goes trekking in the Himalayas when back home.

Yuyutsu Sharma reading at Time Tested Books, Sacramento!

Don’t Miss This Opportunity to Enjoy
World Renowned Poet

Yuyutsu RD Sharma



Wrapping up his US Tour in Sacramento
before returning to Kathmandu, Nepal

Come Experience This Brilliant Storyteller

Monday, Jan 21 at 7pm

Time Tested Books

1114 21st Street (between L & K)
Sacramento, California

Recipient of fellowships and grants from The Rockefeller Foundation, Ireland Literature Exchange, Trubar Foundation, Slovenia, The Institute for the Translation of Hebrew Literature and The Foundation for the Production and Translation of Dutch Literature, Yuyutsu RD Sharma is a distinguished poet and translator.
He has published nine poetry collections including, Milarepa’s Bones, 33 New Poems, (Nirala, New Delhi 2012), Nepal Trilogy, Photographs and Poetry on Annapurna, Everest, Helambu & Langtang (www.Nepal-Trilogy.de, Epsilonmedia, Karlsruhe, 2010), a 900-page book with renowned German photographer, Andreas Stimm, Space Cake, Amsterdam, & Other Poems from Europe and America, (2009, Indian reprint 2013) and Annapurna Poems, 2008, Reprint, 2012).

Yuyutsu also brought out a translation of Irish poet Cathal O’ Searcaigh poetry in Nepali in a bilingual collection entitled, Kathmandu: Poems, Selected and New (2006) and a translation of Hebrew poet Ronny Someck’s poetry in Nepali in a bilingual edition, Baghdad, February 1991 & Other Poems. He has translated and edited several anthologies of contemporary Nepali poetry in English and launched a literary movement, Kathya Kayakalpa (Content Metamorphosis) in Nepali poetry.

Two books of his poetry, Poemes de l’ Himalayas (L’Harmattan, Paris) and Poemas de Los Himalayas (Cosmopoeticia, Cordoba, Spain) just appeared in French and Spanish respectively.

Widely traveled author, he has read his works at several prestigious places including Poetry Café, London, Seamus Heaney Center for Poetry, Belfast, New York University, New York, The Kring, Amsterdam, P.E.N, Paris, Knox College, Illinois, Whittier College, California, Baruch College, New York, WB Yeats’ Center, Sligo, Gustav Stressemann Institute, Bonn, Rubin Museum, New York, Irish Writers’ Centre, Dublin, The Guardian Newsroom, London, Trois Rivieres Poetry Festival, Quebec, Arnofini, Bristol, Borders, London, Slovenian Book Days, Ljubljana, Royal Society of Dramatic Arts, London, Gunter Grass House, Bremen, GTZ, Kathmandu, Nehru Center, London, March Hare, Newfoundland, Canada, Gannon University, Erie, Frankfurt Book Fair, Frankfurt, Indian International Center, New Delhi, and Villa Serbelloni, Italy.
He has held workshop in creative writing and translation at Queen’s University, Belfast, University of Ottawa and South Asian Institute, Heidelberg University, Germany, University of California, Davis, Sacramento State University, California and New York University, New York.
His works have appeared in Poetry Review, Chanrdrabhaga, Sodobnost, Amsterdam Weekly, Indian Literature, Irish Pages, Delo, Modern Poetry in Translation, Exiled Ink, Iton77, Little Magazine, The Telegraph, Indian Express and Asiaweek.

Born at Nakodar, Punjab and educated at Baring Union Christian College, Batala and later at Rajasthan University, Jaipur, Yuyutsu remained active in the literary circles of Rajasthan and acted in plays by Shakespeare, Bertolt Brecht, Harold Pinter, and Edward Albee. Later he taught at various campuses of Punjab University, and Tribhuwan University, Kathmandu.

The Library of Congress has nominated his recent book of Nepali translations entitled Roaring Recitals; Five Nepali Poets as Best Book of the Year 2001 from Asia under the Program, A World of Books International Perspectives.

Yuyutsu’s own work has been translated into German, French, Italian, Slovenian, Hebrew, Spanish and Dutch. He just published his nonfiction, Annapurnas & Stains of Blood: Life, Travel and Writing a Page of Snow, (Nirala, 2010). He edits Pratik, A Magazine of Contemporary Writing and contributes literary columns to Nepal’s leading daily, The Himalayan Times.

He has just returned from the Poetry Parnassus Festival organized to celebrate London Olympics 2012 where he represented Nepal and India and will be visiting NYU later in the year as Special Guest during International Education Week.

Half the year, he travels and reads all over the world to read from his works and conducts creative writing workshop at various universities in North America and Europe but goes trekking in the Himalayas when back home.



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Shawn Aveningo
The Poetry Box

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Yuyutsu Sharma to read at Sacramento Poetry Center

Yuyutsu Sharma to read at Sacramento Poetry Center



Yuyutsu Sharma and Art Mantecon



Yuyutsu RD Sharma and Art Mantecon

Fri. January 18, 2013 at 7:30 PM
1719 25th Street at SPC
Host: Tim Kahl

Yuyutsu RD Sharma is a favorite among Sacramentans. He is a widely traveled Nepali /Indian writer who was born at Nakodar, Punjab, India and moved to Nepal at an early age and now writes in English and Nepali. Half the year, he travels and reads all over the world to read from his works and conducts creative writing workshop at various universities in the United States and Europe but goes trekking in the Himalayas when back home.

He has published nine poetry collections including, Milarepa’s Bones, Helambu:33 New Poems, (Nirala, New Delhi, 2012), Space Cake, Amsterdam, & Other Poems from Europe and America, (Howling Dog Press, Colorado, 2009), Annapurna Poems, (Nirala, New Delhi 2008),Everest Failures (White Lotus Book Shop, Kathmandu, 2008), Nepal Trilogy, Photographs and Poetry on Annapurna, Everest, Helambu & Langtang (www.Nepal-Trilogy.de, Epsilonmedia, Karlsruhe, 2010), a 900-page book with German photographer, Andreas Stimm. He has brought out a translation of Irish poet Cathal O’ Searcaigh poetry in Nepali in a bilingual collection entitled, Kathmandu: Poems, Selected and New, (2006) and a translation of Hebrew poet Ronny Someck’s poetry in Nepali in a bilingual collection, Baghdad, February 1991 & Other Poems. He has translated and edited several anthologies of contemporary Nepali poetry in English and along with Shailendra Sakar launched a literary movement, Kathyakayakalp (“content metamorphosis”), in Nepali poetry.

Yuyutsu’s own work has been translated into German, French, Italian, Slovenian, Hebrew,Korean Spanish and Dutch. Currently, he editsPratik, A Magazine of Contemporary Writing and contributes literary columns to Nepal’s leading daily, The Himalayan Times.

Art Mantecón is a longtime poet and poetry booster who is known throughout the Sacramento Valley poetry community as a man of rich talents, a sharp wit, and insistent humor.

He was born north of Mexico in Laredo, Texas and grew up south of Canada in Detroit, Michigan. He always wanted to be a writer of some sort. For a while he thought he’d be a newspaper reporter. He went to school and ended up a state worker despite better intentions.

Art Mantecón began writing poetry after Francisco Alarcón, who had never even heard him read a poem, insisted that he was a poet. He figured Francisco knew what he was talking about (and that if he didn’t know what he was talking about, it would do minimal harm) and has been writing poetry ever since.

He is the editor and translator of a collection of poems by Spanish poet Leopoldo Maria Panero entitled My Naked Brain, which was a finalist for The Northern California Book Award for translation in 2012.

Yuyutsu Sharma and David Austell in Summit, New Jersey!

Saturday, December 22, 2012: 7:30 pm: From Chomungla to Olympus Mons: Readings from Yuyutsu Sharma and David Austell at Mondo Summit,426 Springfield Avenue, Third Floor, New Jersey, www.mondosummit.com

Yuyutsu Sharma's Current North American Tour

Yuyutsu Sharma is South Asian’s leading poet published by Nirala with growing International acclaim. After a brief stopover in London, he’s currently in New York City as a visiting poet at New York University He has just returned from a successful tour of Erie and Cleveland and has several upcoming readings up in New York, Boston, and West Coast. Here is a list of some immediate readings…

New York City

Monday, December 17, 2012: 8:00 pm: Yuyutsu Special Feature at Holiday Party of Saturn Series at Revival, 129 East 15 Street, Between Irving Place & 3rd Ave. New York, food, pot luck and Key Lime pie, Limited open Mike, http://www.revivalbarnyc.com/ www.supolo.com

New Jersey

Saturday, December 22, 2012: 7:30 pm: From Chomungla to Olympus Mons: Readings from Yuyutsu Sharma and David Austell at Mondo Summit,426 Springfield Avenue, Third Floor, New Jersey, www.mondosummit.com

Boston

Friday, January 4, 2012: 8:00 pm: Dire Literary Series: James Arthur, Yuyutsu Sharma, & David Austell at The Out of the Blue Gallery, 106 Prospect Street, Cambridge Massachusetts, Starts at Four 15 minute open mike slots at 8 pm, followed by Features: Sign up at 7 pm http://www.timothygager.com/

Past Readings


Erie, Pennsylvania

Sunday, December 2, 2012: 3:00 pm: Yuyutsu Special Guest at Poets’ Hall -the International Fellowship of Poets and Spoken Word Artists 1136 E. Lake Rd, Erie, Pennsylvania 16507, Event Hosted By Cee Williams and Chuck Joy

Tuesday, December 4, 2012 at 7 pm:Yuyutsu Sharma’s Gannon University Reading at The Knight Club 4th and Sassafras Streets, Erie,16541 Event Sponsored by Sigma Tan Delta and The English Department, Gannon University, Open to All

New York Upstate

Sunday, December 9, 2012, 3;30 pm ; Yuyutsu Sharma at read at William Seaton’ s Dada:An Introduction’s book Launch at the Seligmann Center for the Arts, 23 White Oak Drive, Sugar Loaf, New York Books by both authors will be available Admission is free.

Cleveland, Ohio

Saturday, December 1, 2012 at 8 pm: Yuyutsu Sharma Reading as Special Guest at WritingKnights Press Event, Literary Cafe 1031 Literary Rd., Cleveland, Ohio 44113

Wednesday, December 5, 2012 at 7 pm: Yuyutsu Sharma Reading at Mac’s Backs,
1820 Coventry Road Cleveland Heights, OH 44118 (216) 321-2665 Open to All www.macsbacks.com/contact

Recipient of fellowships and grants from The Rockefeller Foundation, Ireland Literature Exchange, Trubar Foundation, Slovenia, The Institute for the Translation of Hebrew Literature and The Foundation for the Production and Translation of Dutch Literature, Yuyutsu RD Sharma is a distinguished poet and translator.
He has published nine poetry collections including, Milarepa’s Bones, 33 New Poems, (Nirala, New Delhi 2012), Nepal Trilogy, Photographs and Poetry on Annapurna, Everest, Helambu & Langtang (www.Nepal-Trilogy.de, Epsilonmedia, Karlsruhe, 2010), a 900-page book with renowned German photographer, Andreas Stimm, Space Cake, Amsterdam, & Other Poems from Europe and America, (Howling Dog Press, Colorado, 2009) and Annapurna Poems, 2008, Reprint, 2012).

Yuyutsu also brought out a translation of Irish poet Cathal O’ Searcaigh poetry in Nepali in a bilingual collection entitled, Kathmandu: Poems, Selected and New, (2006) and a translation of Hebrew poet Ronny Someck’s poetry in Nepali in a bilingual edition, Baghdad, February 1991 & He has translated and edited several anthologies of contemporary Nepali poetry in English and launched a literary movement, Kathya Kayakalpa (Content Metamorphosis) in Nepali poetry.
Two books of his poetry, Poemes de l’ Himalayas (L’Harmattan, Paris) and Poemas de Los Himalayas (Cosmopoeticia, Cordoba, Spain) just appeared in French and Spanish respectively.

Widely traveled author, he has read his works at several prestigious places including Poetry Café, London, Seamus Heaney Center for Poetry, Belfast, New York University, New York, The Kring, Amsterdam, P.E.N. Paris, Knox College, Illinois, Whittier College, California, Baruch College, New York, WB Yeats’ Center, Sligo, Gustav Stressemann Institute, Bonn, Rubin Museum, New York, Irish Writers’ Centre, Dublin, The Guardian Newsroom, London, Trois Rivieres Poetry Festival, Quebec, Arnofini, Bristol, Borders, London, Slovenian Book Days, Ljubljana, Royal Society of Dramatic Arts, London, Gunter Grass House, Bremen, GTZ, Kathmandu, Nehru Center, London, March Hare, Newfoundland, Canada, Frankfurt Book Fair, Frankfurt, Indian International Center, New Delhi, and Villa Serbelloni, Italy.
He has held workshop in creative writing and translation at Queen’s University, Belfast, University of Ottawa and South Asian Institute, Heidelberg University, Germany, University of California, Davis, Sacramento State University, California and New York University, New York.
His works have appeared in Poetry Review, Chanrdrabhaga, Sodobnost, Amsterdam Weekly, Indian Literature, Irish Pages, Delo, Modern Poetry in Translation, Exiled Ink, Iton77, Little Magazine, The Telegraph, Indian Express and Asiaweek.
Born at Nakodar, Punjab and educated at Baring Union Christian College, Batala and later at Rajasthan University, Jaipur, Yuyutsu remained active in the literary circles of Rajasthan and acted in plays by Shakespeare, Bertolt Brecht, Harold Pinter, and Edward Albee. Later he taught at various campuses of Punjab University, and Tribhuwan University, Kathmandu.
The Library of Congress has nominated his recent book of Nepali translations entitled Roaring Recitals; Five Nepali Poets as Best Book of the Year 2001 from Asia under the Program, A World of Books International Perspectives.
Yuyutsu’s own work has been translated into German, French, Italian, Slovenian, Hebrew, Spanish and Dutch. He just published his nonfiction, Annapurnas & Stains of Blood: Life, Travel and Writing a Page of Snow, (Nirala, 2010). He edits Pratik, A Magazine of Contemporary Writing and contributes literary columns to Nepal’s leading daily, The Himalayan Times.

He has just returned from the Poetry Parnassus Festival organized to celebrate London Olympics 2012 where he represented Nepal and India and will be visiting NYU later in the year as Special Guest during International Education Week.

Half the year, he travels and reads all over the world to read from his works and conducts creative writing workshop at various universities in North America and Europe but goes trekking in the Himalayas when back home.
More: www.yuyutsu.de, www.niralapublications.com

World Renowned Poet Comes to Erie: The Erie Reader interview with Yuyutsu Sharma

BY BEN SPEGGEN | NOVEMBER 29, 2012

From his birth, Yuyutsu Sharma’s been on the move. Born in Nakodar, Punjab, Sharma grew up there before living in the Nangal Township of Shivalkis ranges of the Mahabharata Hills. He then moved to Nepal at an early age. His father, a devout follower of wandering saints, tried to donate him to the head priest of a shrine on the banks of Satluj. Lucky for him, us, and the poetry community at large, the priest told Sharma’s father to send him to school because he would become something important, as he pinched ashes from a bonfire before him and rubbed them on Sharma’s forehead, blessing him to become what he has today: a wandering poet.

This critically-acclaimed wandering poet, thanks to the efforts of some notable local poets, has found his way to Erie, where he’ll deliver to two readings, one Sunday, Dec. 2 at the Poets’ Hall at 1136 East Lake Road at 3 p.m., and the other at Gannon University’s Knight Club at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 4 at 162 W. Fourth St. 

Ben Speggen: You spend a considerable time on tour throughout the U.S. and Europe. What are some of the most memorable places you’ve read your poetry?

Yuyutsu Sharma: I love London and New York, London is a poet’s paradise. And the respect for literature, language is what fascinates. Each and every corner speaks of literary history. I was staying in London once in Kentish town, and soon I discovered little farther in Hamstead Heath was Keats’ house and close to my neighborhood a cemetery where both Marx and Freud lay buried. And Dickens’ house wasn’t far away. This makes you feel so special. And New York I love because this is the place where you are accepted so easily. No matter where you come from, in a day, you are a New Yorker. I think humanity has evolved here; in Europe or Asia this wouldn’t happen – no matter how much you try you will never ever become one of them, but New York is so special.

BS: When you’re not touring, you’re trekking in the Himalayas. What does that do for you as a poet, as a writer, as a person?

YS: Himalayas is a great abode of gods and place of learning. Since centuries, people have gone to the Himalayas to seek wisdom and to meditate. And there’s so much life there – it’s not just mountains like in Alps or American Rockies. It’s people struggling for bare survival, folk lore and the legend, the monasteries and monuments, and awesome vistas of nature that so compelling. It has become my second home.

BS: At the age of 9, you became a Shaman because you were thought to be under the possession of a serpent spirit. What was that like?

YS: In my village in Punjab, I used to visit our local shrine devoted to the serpent spirit with my late grandpa. During one of my visits as the folk singers played the drums and narrated the legend of Guga Sain, I started shaking and crawling like a snake on the ground. From that day onwards, everyone in my family including my grandpa started bowing to me in reverence. But then I was going to this English school and I thought, ‘What would my friends say? They would think I am crazy...’ So over the years, I lost that gift as western education taught me to be objective and empirical. Only later when I grew up I learnt I had this gift from the gods, and since I did not believe in it, I lost it. But somehow even today the spirit visits me in form of Muse and I shake as my pen moves across a blank page.

BS: Your work has been translated into German, French, Italian, Slovenian, Hebrew, Spanish, and Dutch. Do you ever fear that something’s been lost in the translation from the language you write in to the language your work is translated to?

YS: Well, translation by definition is impossible. A lot is lost, but what comes through is important. And due to multiple languages and diversity of cultures, the poets in the Indian subcontinent have always been translating the scriptures into respective languages. In Nepal’s case, it was the translation of The Ramayana by poet Bhanubhakta Acharya that made the birth of Nepal nation possible. It’s on the basis of the Nepali language the rulers of that time were able to unify scattered principalities of the Himalayas into a nation. So Nepal is a nation born out of the breath of poet-translators.

BS: How did you come to find out about Erie?

YS: It was poet Chuck Joy who wrote to me last year and I came to learn more about Erie. I am a lover of lakes. One of my books is called “The Lake Fewa and a Horse.” I fell in love with this lake at the foothills of the Annapurnas and have been writing about it for more than a decade now. I am eagerly waiting to come to Erie and breathe in its celestial airs.

BS: What are three things an audience in Erie can expect from your readings?

YS: In Sanskrit, the Himalayas are called Devatatma, meaning the place where soul of the God lives. They should prepare to enter the colossal house of God’s soul, forget the mundane, and prepare to trek to the top of the world.

Ben Speggen can be contacted at bSpeggen@ErieReader.com

Yuyutsu Sharma Special Guest at NYU Education Week

Ten: The New Indian poets : Edited and Selected by Jayanta Mahapatra & Yuyutsu Sharma

Ten: The New Indian poets

Edited and Selected by
Jayanta Mahapatra & Yuyutsu Sharma

Ten is a groundbreaking anthology of fresh poetry from India just published by Nirala Publications. World renowned Indian poet Jayanta Mahapatra along with Yuyutsu Sharma selects ten poets writing in English to show case vivacious colours of new India. The majority of the poets included here come from humble middle class families, working silently and selflessly, serving the Muse without any hope of high material gain or media hype. In this light, the anthology bears testimony to hidden creative commotion feeding the flames of vigorous poetry alive in little known islands of the contemporary Indian culture.

Anupama Raju.
Rabindra K. Swain.
Malovika Pawar.
Soni Wadhwa.
Rumjhum Biswas.
Sudeep Sen.
Nabanita Kanungo.
Yuyutsu Sharma.
Robin S Ngangom.
Kympham Sing Nongkynrih.


Ten: The New Indian Poets, Hard, pp136 Rs. 295 Indian Only

ISBN 81-8250-034-6.
http://niralapublications.com/2012/10/26/ten-the-new-indian-poets/