Description
Ramesh Karthik Nayak’s poems are marked by rich imagery, poignant stanzas, and moving stories about his people. I enjoyed reading his poems. — Hansda Sowvendra Shekhar
Ramesh Karthik Nayak distills all the pains and fears of his tribe to create a poetry of intense suffering and profound communion with nature. There is something primal, elemental, about his poetry that helps the reader distinguish it from the dominantly urban Indian English poetry. The poet brings a fresh voice, a new tone, and timbre seldom seen in traditional English poetry in the country, without making his poetry less sophisticated.
— K Satchidanandan
Through his poems, Ramesh Karthik Nayak presents the celebratory life of the Banjara people; at the same time, he questions his existence. The questions he poses to us are both poignant and plausible. The poet expresses the truth with spontaneity and ferocity that if we are untouchables then, from nature to your vitality to your body, everything in this world has been touched by us. — Sukirtharani
Ramesh Karthik Nayak’s poems represent the dimensionalisation of Indian poetry in English. It’s appalling to think that a mature collection of poetry from a tribal/nomadic tribe poet had to wait for so long after Maucauley’s initiatives. Anchored in his cultural inheritance, Nayak documents with elan his dreams for the future. — Chandramohan S
Ramesh Karthik Nayak (b 1997) is a Banjara (nomadic aboriginal community in South Asia) writer from India. He writes in the Banjara dialect through the Telugu script and in Telugu and English. He is one of the first writers to depict the lifestyle of the Banjara tribe in literature.
His writings have appeared in Poetry at Sangam, Indian Periodical, Live Wire, Outlook India, Nether Quarterly, and Borderless Journal and his story, ‘The Story of Birth’ was published in Exchanges: Journal of Literary Translation, University of IOWA.
He was thrice shortlisted for the Sahitya Akademi Yuva Puraskar in Telugu for the years 2021, 2022, and 2023 for his poetry and short story collections.
One of his poems ‘Jarer Baati’ is part of the undergraduate (fifth semester, BA Telugu) syllabus of SR&BGNR Govt Degree College, Khammam, and his debut collection Balder Bandi is a part of the MA Telugu (fourth semester) syllabus of Andhra University.
Chakmak is his first collection of poems in English.
The poet can be reached at [email protected].