Call for Yuyu Poems for an Upcoming Anthology!

Yuyutsu Sharma’s Eternal Snow: An Anthology of Poems originating from Yuyu’s interactions, Readings and Workshops

Edited with an Introduction by

David Austell & Kathleen D Gallagher

http://yuyusharmainspiredpoems.blogspot.com/

Fellow poets and writers!

If you have had the pleasure of meeting or interacting with Yuyu or had the opportunity of attending this internationally renowned Himalayan Poet’s  workshops, you are herein invited to submit to the upcoming  anthology, tentatively named,  Eternal Snow: An Anthology of Poems Originating from Yuyu’s Works, Readings and Workshops.

The book will be edited by David Austell and Kathleen D. Gallagher

Poems by

John Clarke 

Tracie Morell 

Lori Ann Kusterbeck

Eileen O’Connor  

Chuck Joy 

Lorraine Conlin

Kathleen D Gallagher  

David Austell  

Maria Heath

Christopher Wheeling 

Renay Sanders 

Jen Pezzo

Thomas Jenney

Shawn Aveningo

Tim Kahl 

T.M. Göttl  

Russ Green

Katya Johanna

Shannon Kline 

Timothy Gager

Steve Brightman

Kymberly Avinasha Brown

Devin Wayne Davis  

Alex Symington

Lorraine Bouchard

Please submit your work for consideration to 
Kathleen D Gallagher to
 galkathleen@gmail.com 

We look forward to reading you submissions.

More details follow…

  Namaste!

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.

Kathleen D. Gallagher is a distinguished senior lecturer of English at the University of Akron/Wayne College, an award winning writer (2007 Writer’s Digest Honorable Mention for a feature article entitled “Cutting Storm,” and a 2011 Honorable Mention for her essay “Flying Objects” in the 2011 Writer’s Digest competition). She is also a poet with works in journals such as South Coast Poetry Journal; Issue #15 (Honorable Mention for “Focal Point” judged by writer/poet James Dickey). She is a former NEOMFA creative writing student at Kent State University. Gallagher was a finalist in the First Grand Tournament event through Writing Knights Press which resulted in her first poetry chapbook “I See Things are Falling.” She was nominated for a Pushcart prize in December 2012 through Writing Knights Press

Yuyutsu Sharma Workshop in Akron, Ohio

Posted in Latest News | Tagged American Poetry, Annapurnas, Indian English Poets, Nepal Buddhism 

ACCLAIMED POET YUYUTSU RD SHARMA PERFORMS AT Central Connecticut State University, ON 2/5

ACCLAIMED NEPALESE/INDIAN POET YUYUTSU RD SHARMA PERFORMS AT CCSU ON 2/5

Reads in Marcus White Living Room on the campus
of Central Connecticut State University, 1615 Stanley Street, New Britain, CT 06050
at 3 PM on Wednesday, Feb. 5th. Free and open to the public.

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).

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

Please contact Ravi Shankar [ShankarR@ccsu.edu]; 860-832-2766 with questions.

Yuyutsu Sharma’s Upcoming Readings: New York, Connecticut, Ohio and Pennsylvania

New York

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 had several g readings in New York, Colorado, New Mexico and West Coast. Here is a list of some the immediate readings.
(Only Public readings are listed )

New York City

Friday, Feb 7, 2014, 6:00-8:30 pm, Yuyutsu Sharma and David Austell, guests of the Rubin Museum of Art’s Himalayan Heritage Meetup Group, Theme: Love Poetry of the 6^th Dalai Lama, Hosted by Tashi Chodron, Rubin Museum, 150 W 17th St, New York, www.rmanyc.org. Phone: (212) 620-5000. Free and open to public.

Meet in the Museum’s café at 6:00 pm.

Tuesday, Feb 4, 2014, 6:30 pm, Acclaimed Poet Yuyutsu Sharma to read at
Port Jefferson Free Library, 100 East Main St. / Port Jefferson, NY. Hosted by Katya Johanna: Open to public, Free.( Directions – Take Route 112 north. 112 turns into 25A/Main Street. Turn right at East Main Street (fancy street sign). Go up East Main Street, hooking left to Thompson Street (library on the right side). Turn right on Thompson Street) www.portjefflibrary.org Phone: 631.473.0022.

Monday, Feb 3, 2014, 9,00 pm, Yuyutsu Sharma at The Poet in New York Series withStephen Motika and Musician Michael Beharie , Bowery Poetry Club, 308 Bowery, New York, New York, Hosted by Elizabeth Peters, Co-curated by Nikhil Melnechuk,Open to public, $10.00, also Open Mike http://www.boweryartsandscience.org/ http://www.thepoetinnewyork.com/

Sunday, Feb 2, 2014, 4,00 pm-6:00 pm: Yuyutsu Sharma Phoenix Reading Series @ The Upright Brew with Michael Dorr, Bruce Weber, Joanne Pagano Weber: , 547 Hudson Street NY, NY 10014 212-810-9944 Hosted by Michael Graves : Open to public, An eight dollar ($8) cover buys a drink or pays part of a more expensive, Directions : www.uprightbrewhouse.com

Wednesday, Jan 29, 2014, 7,00 pm, Yuyutsu Sharma The Green Pavilion Poetry Event with David Austell and Valerie Conti.: 4307-18th Ave. Brooklyn (F train to 18th Ave. station. 4307-18th Ave. Bk * * *(F train to 18th Ave. station) Hosted by Evie Ivy : Open to public, $6.00 min. toward restaurant, $3.00 suggested donation.

Connecticut

Wednesday, Feb 5, 2014, 3,00 pm, Acclaimed Nepalese Poet to read at Marcus White Living Room, Central Connecticut State University, 1615 Stanley Street, New Britain, CT 06050 Hosted by Ravi Shankar, Free and open to the public, www.ccsu.edu, http://www.ccsu.edu/page.cfm?id=2272&verbose=63181&backcal=1

Ohio

Wednesday, Feb 12, 2014: 5:30 pm Yuyutsu Sharma Workshop: Writing Lakes, Mountains and Cities: A Himalayan Experience and Exercise at Mac’s Backs- Books on the Coventry, 1820 Coventry Rd Cleveland Heights, Ohio 44118, Registration $10.00 or $5.00 for students.; Please email info@macsbacks.com to register. Hosted by Suzanne DeGaetano, www.macsbacks.com, 216-321-2665 http://www.macsbacks.com/event/yuyutsu-sharma-workshop

Thursday, Feb 13 2014: Yuyutsu Sharma’s The University of Akron Wayne College, 1901 Smucker Road, Orrville, OH 44667, Details to be announced soon…

Saturday, Feb 15, 2014: 7:00 pm Yuyutsu Sharma A Himalayan Poet in Akron, A Poetry Workshop at @ Rubber City Recording Studios & Polymer City Record Label & Promotions, 68 West Exchange St. Akron, OH 44308. Hosted by Jen Pezzo;The cost of this workshop: $15 per person, $10 per student followed by Open Mic costing $5 for those unable to attend the workshop. Please email jenpezzo@gmail.com to register, http://www.polymercityrecords.com/

Pennsylvania

Friday, Feb 14, 2014: 8:00 pm The New York City Poems from the Himalayan Poet,at Poet’s Hall- The International Fellowship of Poets and Spoken Word Artists 1136 E. Lake Rd, Erie, Pennsylvania Hosted by Cee Williams,
poet2thebone@gmail.com

Nirala Announcing New Edition of Yuyutsu Sharma’s Space Cake, Amsterdam, and Other Poems from Europe and America

Space Cake, Amsterdam & Other Poems from Europe and America
Yuyutsu RD Sharma
ISBN-81-8250-059-1 2014 Hard pp. 100

Sharma is “a shaman…black bag bulging / from magical rainbows, / serpents from an Hindu Heaven, / skull of an abducted female Yeti,” and he casts spells in these strange, visionary, outrageous and magical poems.’
Tony Barnstone
The Albert Upton Professor and Chair of English
Whittier College, Author/Translator of Everyman’s Chinese Erotic Poems

A fiercely sublime poet …the book confirms an enormous talent, as well as purity of purpose with which he approaches his calling. Lines jump out, burning themselves into your consciousness.
Eddie Woods in Amsterdam Weekly

Yuyutsu RD Sharma brings the bracing airs of the Himalayas to any city. His vigorous, expansive and elemental poems leave Yeti tracks on the streets and mule trails on the Tube. They are packed with rapturous couplings of the urban and the feral.
Pascale Petit, Former Poetry Editor, Poetry London

Most noted, justifiably, for his poems about his native India/Nepal, Mr Sharma proves in this volume that he is a genuine poet of the English-speaking world whose gentle yet ironic gaze is equally at home in the west, and equally adept with cultures which must have been as strange to him at first as the Yeti is to us.

So, if you want a glimpse of the future, when cosmopolitan writers cross borders and enrich techniques, Space Cake, Amsterdam is an excellent place to start. Mr Sharma is living proof that English has become the medium for international cultural exchange, and that poets of his skill and scope are its chroniclers and sages.
–Robert Scotto
Professor of English and Comparative Literature,
Baruch College, CUNY

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!