Rochelle Potkar's Blog, page 51
July 27, 2017
Haibun workshop in Goa’s Carmel College for Women, Nuvem.
Friends in Goa who wish a haibun workshop upon themselves, here it comes!
12th August, 9 am – 1 pm, Carmel College for Women, Nuvem, Goa.
July 25, 2017
My book, ‘Four Degrees of Separation’ reviewed by Sobia Abdin, in Muse India
‘Not late in her book Four Degrees of Separation, the third poem to be precise, Rochelle Potkar defines the edges of the poetic prowess that is to follow. In a small poem titled ‘Doggerel,’ Potkar describes the essence of her poems, and of the personality of the poet. She writes of herself as “The one who was completely out of rhyme, out of tune, out of line, out of time” (Potkar 2016: 7). These lines reflect the spirit of the Self and the World, an idea that continues in her poem ‘Pivot,’ undoubtedly one of the best poems in the collection.’
Click here for the rest of Sobia Abdin’s review.
July 16, 2017
The Arcs-of-a-Circle Artists’ Residency Mumbai invites your submissions
Inviting you to apply to the Arcs-of-a-Circle Artists’ Residency Mumbai.
The Call for Submission window will be open until 31st August 2017.
http://www.aksharacentre.org/artists-residency-mumbai/
Also, please share this with those who may be interested.
For more updates, follow: https://www.facebook.com/ArcsofaCircle/
July 15, 2017
Our latest issue of The Bombay Review is out!
Check the issue, first for its delicious cover, then for its scrumptious fiction and poetry.
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Our poetry editor, Rochelle Potkar remarks about this issue:
“ The Inuit say the earth has shifted north, and collective moods are shifting this month with a riff in the air for climate change, more in the blur of celebrating trans-experiences of mind and spirit.
This sentiment reflects in the pieces chosen for this issue. But let us start at the beginning with Bibhu Padhi’s piece, ‘Arrivals and Departures’, where time jades realities, and its reminded notion ages the page with premonitions on predictability. A nice way to take a rain check on anticipation.
If we were to start on this note, it can only go ink-darker, translucence-starker with Vinita Agrawal’s ‘Artifice’ as a shamanic reading between body and sky out of the many interpretations it might potentiate, soon lending to a lilting lift in intrigue, imagery, and allure by Eloise Stevens’ poems ‘Mandakini, Uttarakhand’ and ‘To the temple of Masroor’ in the playful subversion of stereotype.
Three new voices reveal themselves in startling and refreshing ways with Misbah Ansari’s, ‘When faith blows inside a glass’, Samartha Madan Ingle’s, ‘Chameleons’, and Saheli Khastagir’s poem, ‘Dissolve into doorways’.
The post-modern blitz by Mihir Chitre with ‘A 2.31 AM Whisper’ is important to shake one up from too much of wandering… climate of stance, reverie of mise-en-scene.
And Bibhu Padhi’s second poem, ‘Missing History’ frames the end, thus concluding the conversation, like a duster erasing chalk on a board after an intense session. ”
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Reading poetry at the Bangaluru Poetry Festival (5th, 6th August 2017)
Looking forward to reading and listening, sharing and soaking, laughing and teasing, immersing in the experience of the festival and the city’s friendship.
Are you in Bangalore?
July 10, 2017
Poets meet Politics, the chapbook with my shortlisted poem… ‘Cellular P.O.W.’
…arrives by mail.
This is also the first time I hold a chapbook in its lightness. We don’t have much of a concept of chapbooks in India, or at least I haven’t seen much amid the little magazines that are wholesomely meaty.
Jennifer Russell, poet and founder of the Hungry hill international poetry competition, had this to say: ‘Your poem was read by an actor at the event and was very well received. It is a complex and interesting poem.’
Makes my day. 
July 8, 2017
Exquisite corpse: Shadow – The story needs continuation
The other day I tried my hand at ‘Exquisite corpse’, I began a story in 500 words calling it: ‘Shadow’, leaving it largely open to genre and possibilities.
The second part was written by Hanadi Falki.
Do you want to continue it? In 500 words?
Exquisite corpse: Shadow – The story needs a continuation
The other day I tried my hand at ‘Exquisite corpse’, I began a story in 500 words calling it: ‘Shadow’, leaving it largely open to genre and possibilities.
The second part was written by Hanadi Falki.
Do you want to continue it? In 500 words?
A Mentor at the Poetry College, Qtube, Bandra
I am really kicked about being associated with The Poetry college, as a mentor. Presently, preparing course content for my class.
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“Master of all trades, Varun Garg is a wonderful poet with a sense and affinity for acoustics in his writing. Rochelle Potkar, a poet who lives the poet life, traveling all over the world for poetry, being a poetry editor, is also one of the most encouraging poets on the scene.
Varun and Rochelle will not only be conducting sessions about their specialisations, they will also be course-long mentors assigned to only a few students each. The Mentor System in Poetry College means that each student will have guidance on each aspect of their poetry writing, in a continuous, unbroken manner. Each mentor will be assigned to not more than 5 students.” – The Poetry College
There will be scores of other mentors: Hemant Divate, Eloise Stevens, Dr. Dinesh Kumar, among others…
Course commences: 6th August 2017, until November.
July 4, 2017
My views also in today’s DNA on Shakespearean female-characters
Looking at Shakespearean female-characters through today’s lens. As we debate…
What do you think?
Article by Deborah Grey, with Kiran Manral and Nilakshi Roy, in today’s DNA. [4th July ’17].
