Description

---

An anthology of poems written originally in English by thirty-seven Nepali poets from the 1950s to the present.

Kavya, a representative anthology of Nepal poetry in English, includes works by poets who write from a hybrid, in-between world traced by the traditions of Nepali and English literature as well as the worldviews of western modernity and eastern spiritualism. The poems included in this anthology reveal the evolution of Nepali poetry in English from the 1950s to the present and encompass varied thematic interests, literary styles, and cultural locations. A must read for all those who are interested in the history and practice of Nepali English writing.
-Sanjeev Uprety, critic and author of Ghanachakkar

Kavya is a remarkable, important collection. The excellent introduction provides context for the emergence of work by Nepali poets choosing to create in English. Rarely does a poetry anthology give us the opportunity to experience such an efflorescence almost in real time, as it is happening.

The voices are diverse-many echo with centuries-old contemplative traditions and ceremonies. Others vibrate with anger at injustices and war. Still others spill over with the grief of loss, dislocation and diaspora: "I write of Mother in my not-mother / tongue..." But above all, the anthology is held together by the scents, sounds, images of Nepal-not as exotic abstractions but as a lived, loved home.
-Alice Major, author of Welcome to the Anthropocene

Kāvya, as we know it, endowed with rasa, alankāra, guna, rīti, lakṣana, belongs to all South Asia. This anthology of Nepali English Kāvyahas confirmed again the great heights reached by the Nepali poets, justifying their place in world literature. The editors of Kāvya have ensured that Mahakavi Devkota will continue to live in the hearts of poetry lovers around the world through the creative ingenuity of poets who inherited his legacy.
-Daya Dissanayake, author of Inequality

This is a seminal anthology, where a landlocked country comes to life through poetry, under the shade of the mighty Himalayas and the burbling of many rivers. Place resounds in every poem and poet in Kavya, painting a complex landscape of Nepal, where the English language didn't necessarily arrive via colonialism but from the need to communicate with the outer world. Through terraced farms, the overburdened Sherpa carrying goods to Everest base camp, fermented betel nut and kukri knives, we experience the joys and pain of a nation under oligarchy and revolution, where horrific violence exists within stunning vistas of nature. Kavya is a poetic testament of a land and people which are resilient yet thoughtful, where the poems are one of witness and elegy, leaving the reader riveted.
-Shikha Malaviya, poet, writer & publisher, Geography of Tongues & In Her Own Voice: Poems of Anandibai Joshee (forthcoming)

Rich with imagery and ripe with deep feelings, the poems in Kavya: Representative Nepali Poetry in English are beautifully curated by the five editors. These compassionate, truth-seeking poems rooted in a love of place move beyond borders and boundaries into the timelessness poetry gifts us with. May this necessary and intimate collection reach as many readers as possible.
-Catherine Graham, author of Put Flowers Around Us and Pretend We're Dead: New and Selected Poems