Smitha Vishwanath's Blog, page 41

NaPoWriMo 2023: Day 8 – My dreams are birds of gold

Today’s resource is “Public Access Poetry,” an online feature from the Poetry Project, presenting digitized audio files of a poetry-themed public-access TV show that aired in New York City in 1977 and 1978. Listen to stalwarts and shining lights of the late-70s NYC “scene” such as Bernadette Mayer, Ron Padgett, Eileen Myles, and more! And […]

NaPoWriMo 2023- Day 7: Lists and I

Last, but not least, here’s our daily prompt (optional, as always). Start by reading James Tate’s poem “The List of Famous Hats.”  Now, write a poem that plays with the idea of a list. Tate’s poem is a list that isn’t – he never gets beyond the first entry. You could try to write such […]

NaPoWriM0 2023: Day 6 – I write the life I like

Our daily resource is Poetry International, a wonderful source of contemporary poems in many different languages. Besides hosting so many poems online, Poetry International also puts on an annual poetry festival. This year’s will take place in Rotterdam in June. Today’s (optional) prompt is again drawn from our archives, and builds off our daily resource. Take […]

NaPoWriMo Day2023- Day 5: Grandma’s funeral

Today, our featured resource is Verse Daily, where you will find – you guessed it – a new poem every day. You can also check out more than twenty years of archived poems – a rich collection indeed. Finally, here’s our (optional) prompt for the day. Begin by reading Charles Simic’s poem “The Melon.” It would […]

NaPoWriMo Day 4, 2023- Migrating

Today’s poetry resource is this collection of poetry video recordings from the Dodge Poetry Program. If you’re not familiar with the Program, every two years it sponsors a four-day poetry festival in New Jersey, bringing together poets and students from across the United States and internationally. And now here’s another prompt drawn from our archives – and, […]

NaPoWriMo Day 1, 2023: The Feet

P.C. John Lord Peck. Dress and Care of the Feet. New York: Fowler & Wells, 1871 ‘And here’s our own prompt (optional, as always) for the first day of Na/GloPoWriMo. They say you can’t judge a book by its cover, but they never said you can’t try to write a poem based on a book cover […]

NaPoWriMo Day 2 2023- A series of sweet nothings

I’m catching up with the days I missed. The prompt on Day 2 was ‘And now for today’s (optional) prompt! The Romanian-born poet Paul Celan once wrote a series of surrealist questions and answers. Here are a couple of examples:                What is forgetting?                                An unripe apple stabbed by a spear.                What is a tear?                                A scale awaiting a weight. […]

NaPoWriMo Day 3: Hero

I’m a little late this year as I’ve been travelling and returned home only last evening. I’ve been busy editing and getting my debut novel out into the world that it feels like a long time since I wrote a poem. It had me a little scared of participating in NaPoWriMo this year. However, here […]

It’s out! Available now on Amazon India

‘Coming Home’ is finally out and available on Amazon India. I’d like to thank all those who waited with me for this baby to be delivered. It took longer than expected and ran through a few hiccups but it’s here now and has me smiling. ‘Coming Home’ is a story of self-discovery, love, destiny and […]

Published: Author interview at SpillWords Press

I’m very excited to share my interview as an author, published on SpillWords Press. I’ve been meaning to share it here since the 16th of March, the day it was published, but I’ve been extraordinarily busy thanks to my publisher and things completely beyond my control. Here’s an excerpt of the interview. It’s a huge […]