Rochelle Potkar's Blog, page 37
March 30, 2019
Salt & pepper & silver linings is out on Amazon.in!
‘Aai, Avo, Aaji, Achamma, Ammachi, Ammumma, Dadi, Eyabhai, Gowrimma, Gramma, Granny, Iye’mi, Jejema, Lala, Mariamma, Maruska, Nani, Olinka, Oma, Paati, Unniamma: matriarchs by any name blaze as molten-bright and rise to bear witness across nations, cultures and generations.
An ode to the lives of 44 feisty women we are proud to call our foremothers.’
The book is out here:
‘In its pages, you will find vivid, quirky, bittersweet testimonies that often turn the cliché of the doting grandmother on its head.
Edited by Abhirami Girija Sriram and Babitha Marina Justin, Salt & pepper & silver linings is an alphabet of memory which brings together a sisterhood of vibrant voices from across the world.’
“A warm book…warm, aromatic and plentiful, like home-baked bread.“
– J Devika, feminist reader and researcher.
March 27, 2019
Muse India, Issue 83 has poems by me too
Muse India, issue 83 has poems by me too under the ‘Feature: Indian English Writing’ edited by Charanjeet Kaur.
Click to read:
https://goo.gl/F8JPMu
March 26, 2019
My story ‘Parfum’, a notable entry, 2019 Disquiet Literary Contest.
Glad to share news that my story ‘Parfum’ was a notable entry at the 2019 Disquiet Literary Contest amid 1400 entries.
Judges comments – ‘Russi’s world of smells offers a wealth of tiny narratives which are like the water this story swims in, the city and the life of an obsessive dreamer are very well-drawn.’
I was offered a tuition scholarship by the program.
I was rooting for this story yet worried about its pace. It was being rejected everywhere, but instinct told me to keep at it.
Now Disquiet!
March 10, 2019
Scripts & Screenplays with NFDC in Hong Kong
Friends, wish us luck with Hong Kong.
This is exciting!
March 1, 2019
Joao-Roque Literary Journal Issue # 11 is out!
Issue # 11 of the Joao-Roque Literary Journal is out!
Homelands Far Away.
This issue features moving poetry by Chandramohan Sathyanathan, Sonnet Mondal, Pitambar Naik, and Salil Chaturvedi.
In the beautiful words of Editor Selma Carvalho…
Dear readers,
It is hard to believe that we are already into our third year of publishing the journal. My deepest gratitude to Rochelle Potkar who has been with the journal since its inception in 2017, and Jessica Faleiro who joined in 2018. We now welcome Jugneeta Sudan as Art Review Editor, but Jugneeta has already contributed substantially to the journal. The journal takes many collective hours of sourcing, planning and editing to come to fruition. Without my fellow editors’ input, commissioning and support, the journal would not have been sustained. Writing is always a solitary affair but we must do all we can to build community, and create social and intellectual capital. That is what drives us at the JRLJ, and as such we are committed to featuring new, aspiring literary voices and artists, but also reviewing or showcasing the work of established writers.
The issue is titled, ‘Homelands Far Away,’ as yet again we focus on the contributions of Goans in the diaspora, political activists such as Pio Gama Pinto in Kenya and Sita Valles in Angola, and the mandarin class of doctors, empire created in Bombay. In Finding Father: A Norwegian-Goan Story, we look at what it means to be a biracial Goan. There are wonderful short stories and poems to enjoy, an interview with author Savia Viegas and an art review which focus on the new literary and artistic work coming out of Goa.
Happy reading,
Selma Carvalho
Editor
Enjoy reading!
https://www.joaoroqueliteraryjournal.com/
February 26, 2019
Four Degrees of Separation gets reviewed at Wasafiri
Delighted that ‘Four Degrees of Separation‘ has been reviewed at Wasafiri by the incisive and discerning Mohammad Farhan.
He writes:
“As an iconoclastic poet questioning the age-old illiberal cultural customs, she thus asks, ‘why should the world be telling us what is less and what is more? … why is the world telling us what to wear? … all the time?
Varied in tone and inventive in style with riverine dimensions, all the poems share the substratal theme of gender politics. However, Potkar focuses on an array of diverse topics including alienation, love, loss, dislocation, resistance, identity, unhappy relationships and nostalgia.”
Read the whole review here, by scrolling way below.
February 22, 2019
For Poetry Without Walls
Yesterday was an interesting Mumbai event. Unusual poets yoked together, a few who might never have read in the same space given the walls & lines (with no windows) drawn between them.
FOR A WORLD WITHOUT WALLS
A brave act of inclusiveness by Bina Sarkar Ellias who inhaled and implemented the truest spirit of poetry, going much beyond its weather-beaten rhetorical and pontifical garbs.
Lovely to see poetry-in-action.
February 21, 2019
A talk on language, Dosti House, American Library, BKC
Session on: Enhancing Reading and writing skills.
The subject expert in Herat will speak on speaking skills. I will speak on writing skills.
Participants will join in from Herat, Afghanistan and Dosti House, BKC and Ahmedabad Corner through virtual medium.
College students, welcome.
Meet you on February 26, 2019
2 – 4:30 pm
Dosti House, American Library, BKC.
With Sita Murugan.
Let’s talk language.
February 20, 2019
The Mumbai chapter of World Poetry Movement, 22nd Feb 2019
In case you need a reminder for the 22nd February 2019 readings of The Mumbai chapter of World Poetry Movement curated by Bina Sarkar Ellias, here it is!
See you 6:30 pm to 8 pm
Alliance Francaise de Bombay, Theosophy Hall, Marine Lines.
February 9, 2019
See you in Kerala with poetry!
You are gorgeously invited to this event.
Details – 17th February 2019, 9:30 am.
If you are in Thiruvananthapuram.
If not, in spirit.
With Chandramohan Sathyanathan and Dr. Sigma Satish.
