Sridala Swamy's Book Release: Events in Hyderabad

REVIEW FOR SRIDALA SWAMY'S BOOK RELEASE

For all those complaining that there is too little of book readings in town, well, this won't change anything. But like we at fullhyd.com always say, you should make the most of a mirage.

Akshara is releasing the book A Reluctant Survivor, a collection of poems written by Sridala Swami, at the Goethe-Zentrum on 3rd July. The book will be launched by Dr. Meenakshi Mukherjee, and the excerpts from the poetry book will be read by The Little Theatre, Hyderabad.

The poetry of A Reluctant Survivor is concerned with the self and the ways in which it negotiates the world and withdraws from it by turns. In this book, places and people can appear at once familiar and fantastic, vulnerable and strange. This is her first collection of poems published by the Sahitya Akademi, New Delhi.

Most of Sridala Swami's poems are short and spare but her words are known to be deceptively simple and her silences resonate with suggestions and ambivalences. More evocative than descriptive, these poems have an inwardness bordering on meditation, but there is also an engagement with the world outside - cities, temples, riot-ravaged streets. Above all, these poems reflect on the subtleties of human relationships.

Sridala Swami, a film editor from FTII, Pune, has edited documentaries, short features and commercials. She has worked with the publishing house Katha, taught cinema and yoga, and conducted film appreciation workshops. Her poetry has been published in the online journals, Museindia and in Chanrabhaga. She lives in Hyderabad and writes poetry and fiction.

Three books for very young children, Phani's Funny Chappals, What Shall We do For A Craddle? and Kabadiwala are due to be published by Pratham in early 2007.

Meenakshi Mukherjee has taught in several universities in India and abroad, the longest spell being at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. She now lives in Hyderabad. Her publications include The Twice Born Fiction (1971, Reprinted 2000), The Perishable India (2000), Another India: An Anthology Of Contemporary Indian Fiction And Poetry, (co-edited with Nissim Ezekiel; 1990), Uponyas-e Ateet: Itihas o Kalpa-itihas (2003), Realism And Reality: The Novel And Society In India (1985, Paperback 1984), and The Virgin Fish Of Babughat (translation of Lokenath Bhattacharya's Babughater Kumari Machh, 2004). She has received the Sahitya Akademi award in 2003.

Please contact 6652-6443/2324-1791 for further details.