Love as Invasive Species: Poems

by Ellen Kombiyil

100 pages, Paperback

Published September 16, 2024

About the author

ELLEN KOMBIYIL is the author of Histories of the Future Perfect (2015), and her micro chapbook, Avalanche Tunnel, is forthcoming with Ryga. A fellow at the University of Iowa’s International Writing Program in 2013, Kombiyil’s poetry and fiction have appeared in Beloit Poetry Journal, BOOTH, Spillway, Poemeleon, and Tinderbox, among others. She is a four-time Pushcart Prize nominee, a Best of the Net nominee, and has read, performed or taught workshops at the annual Prakriti Poetry festival in Chennai, the Raedleaf Poetry Awards in Hyderabad, and Lekhana in Bangalore. She is a co-Founder of The (Great) Indian Poetry Collective. Originally from Syracuse, New York, and a graduate of the University of Chicago, she is a recent transplant from Bangalore, India, where she lived for nearly eleven years. She currently lives in New York City.

Reviews

[Andrea · Rating 5 out of 5]

I attended a workshop a few months ago at Brooklyn Poets where we read a few excerpts from this collection. “Birthday” really stood out to me, like a vivid sensory memory I could have had myself, and I decided to buy a copy to take home. The double album structure weaves together the different generational viewpoints with so much honesty and care. Kombiyil’s exploration of generational trauma, matriarchal bonds, and how love can both wound and heal all resonated deeply with me. I really enjoyed it; this is definitely a collection I can see myself returning to.