Sharmila Ray Author
Poems
PAST TENSE english
RUINS english
HELLO english
PERHAPS english
SUMMER english
Sharmila Ray Author
photo © Sharmila Ray
* 25.09.1960, India
lives in: Kolkata, India
Sharmila Ray is a poet and non-fiction essayist writing in English, anthologised and featured in India and abroad. Her poems, short stories and non-fictional essays have appeared in various national and international magazines and journals since the late 1990s. She is an Associate Professor and Head of the Department of History at City College, Kolkata.
She was on the English Board of Sahitya Akademi. She was the editor of The Journal (Poetry Society India) and looked after a column ‘Moving Hand Writes’ (Times of India, Kolkata. ). To popularize poetry she has experimented her poems with sarod (Indian string instrument) and the result is a CD— Journey Through Poetry And Music (Cozmik Harmony). She has performed this at IIC, New Delhi and at the American Centre, Kolkata. Another CD with music is Hello (STM Cassette). She has also performed with noted singer, director, actor Anjan Dutta- songs and poetry. She also curated an exhibition combining paintings and poems on natural calamity and violence, sponsored by Alliance Francaise, Calcutta and Indian Aluminium. Recently she staged a bilingual(English and Bengali) show with poet Tanmoy Chakraborty-Kolkata Are You Listening?-with poetry, music and video.
photo © Sharmila Ray
Currently she is the vice-president of the Intercultural Poetry Performance Library and the editor of the journal Poetry At The Heart Of The Nation of the organization. Kolkata and a Board Member of the Poetry Society India. She writes in English and has authored nine books of poetry: Earth Me And You (Granthalaya, Kolkata 1996), A Day With Rini (Poetry And Art 1998), Down Salt Water (Poets Foundation, Kolkata 1999), Violet Heart Strings (Poetry And Art 1999), Living Other Lives (Minerva Press, New Delhi, Mumbai, London 2004), It’s Fantasy, It’s Reality (Punaschya, Kolkata 2010), With Salt And Brine (Yeti Publishers, Calicut 2013), Windows (Blank Rune Press, Australia 2016), Scrawls And Scribbles (Hawakal Publishers, Kolkata, 2016).She also writes on Partition and her articles have been published in Bengal Past and Present and Glimpses of Partition in South Asian Fiction: A Critical Re-Interpretation, edited by Farzana S. Ali. She was also on the board of juries for All India Poetry Competition organized by Poetry Society of India and Ministry of Human Resources, Government Of India. She has conducted poetry workshops organized by British Council, the Poetry Society of India and Sahitya Akademi.
She has read her poems at various poetry festivals in India. She had been invited to International Struga Poetry Evenings in Macedonia, where she represented India, International poets and writers’ meet Hanoi, Vietnam and International Poets Meet in Kerala to share the stage with Ben Okri. She was the only poet writing in English from West Bengal to participate in VAK –the first poetry biennial held in New Delhi (2017). Her poems have been translated into Hindi, Bengali, Urdu, Manipuri, Slovene, Hebrew and Spanish. Currently she is working on a manuscript of non- fictional essays and poetry.
She has received award from Women’s Times and Green Tara Initiatives for poetry (2018).
lives in: Kolkata, India
Sharmila Ray is a poet and non-fiction essayist writing in English, anthologised and featured in India and abroad. Her poems, short stories and non-fictional essays have appeared in various national and international magazines and journals since the late 1990s. She is an Associate Professor and Head of the Department of History at City College, Kolkata.
She was on the English Board of Sahitya Akademi. She was the editor of The Journal (Poetry Society India) and looked after a column ‘Moving Hand Writes’ (Times of India, Kolkata. ). To popularize poetry she has experimented her poems with sarod (Indian string instrument) and the result is a CD— Journey Through Poetry And Music (Cozmik Harmony). She has performed this at IIC, New Delhi and at the American Centre, Kolkata. Another CD with music is Hello (STM Cassette). She has also performed with noted singer, director, actor Anjan Dutta- songs and poetry. She also curated an exhibition combining paintings and poems on natural calamity and violence, sponsored by Alliance Francaise, Calcutta and Indian Aluminium. Recently she staged a bilingual(English and Bengali) show with poet Tanmoy Chakraborty-Kolkata Are You Listening?-with poetry, music and video.
photo © Sharmila RayShe has read her poems at various poetry festivals in India. She had been invited to International Struga Poetry Evenings in Macedonia, where she represented India, International poets and writers’ meet Hanoi, Vietnam and International Poets Meet in Kerala to share the stage with Ben Okri. She was the only poet writing in English from West Bengal to participate in VAK –the first poetry biennial held in New Delhi (2017). Her poems have been translated into Hindi, Bengali, Urdu, Manipuri, Slovene, Hebrew and Spanish. Currently she is working on a manuscript of non- fictional essays and poetry.
She has received award from Women’s Times and Green Tara Initiatives for poetry (2018).