Kalamkari and Cordillera: Poems of India and Chile

This collection “spattered diversely by the trades that we live by” as Pablo Neruda puts it, reflects the variety of influences that have shaped the poet’s craft. Kalamkari (from the Persian for “pen craft”) refers to the hand-painted and block-printed textiles of South India where the poet grew up, and this section of the collection contains poems combining memories of her childhood with contemporary realities especially those affecting the lives of Indian girls and women. Harsh realities ...