Description
Poets have found the world in a drop of dew and a grain of sand. Sufia Khatoon discovers it in the being of the pomegranate tree. […] I read these poems with the only thing that remains now: hope.
— Sumana Roy
Sufia writes “The world is a pomegranate and I am the seed…” She has also been mesmerised by the soul of a pomegranate; its red liquid, a passionate river coursing through Ger-mi-na-tion in search of herself in the realm of loneliness…
— Bina Sarkar Ellias
Truthful, imaginative, sad, lonely and wise: these poems speak straight to the reader’s heart.
— K Satchidanandan
These sensuous, passionate poems reflect a life that is magical in its manifestations. Sufia Khatoon finds strange worlds in the pomegranates. The poet and her tree are always together. The interiors of the pomegranates are like the blood in her heart.
— Bibhu Padhi
Receiver of the Kavi Salam Award 2018, Sufia Khatoon is a multi-lingual performance poet, artist, literary translator and facilitator. She is the co-founder of Rhythm Divine Poets Community, Kolkata and the editor of EKL Review. Her debut collection of poems, Death in the Holy Month, was shortlisted for the Sahitya Akademi Yuva Puraskar 2020. She has presented her poems in the Festival of Letters and Avishkar Young Writer’s Festival by the Sahitya Akademi in 2019, Apeejay Kolkata Literary Festival in 2019-20 and Ethos Literary Festival in 2018-19. She has also received Amio Santa Award 2017 for her social efforts. Her works have appeared in Indian Literature, Aainanagar, Bengaluru Review, The Alipore Post, Mad Swirl, Indian Periodical, TMYS Review, Narrow Road, Poetry Dialogue, The New Indian Express, The Yearbook of Indian Poetry in English 20-21, Kolkata Cadence, The Shape of a Poem: The Red River Book of Contemporary Erotic Poetry, Witness: The Red River Book of Poetry of Dissent, The Best of Mad Swirl, 100 Poems Are Not Enough, and the forthcoming North Indian Languages anthology by the Sahitya Akademi. Her short story Papayas of Gobra was longlisted for Bengaluru Review short story contest in 2020. Her stories have been featured in Tell Me Your Story, Asateer, 17 Women and Their Stories, TMYS Review, etc. Her poetry installation, titled 300 Peace Poetry Prayer Flag, as part of Rooh-E-Sukun solo show in Alliances Francaise Du Bengale 2019 was widely appreciated.