Anthology takes Litquake by storm

Tanuja Mehrotra (top left)

Ravi Chandra (middle)

(Bottom) Minal Hajratwala and journalist/radio
show producer Sandip Roy

The first indication that the festival reading was going to be a runaway success was, I suppose, when I arrived early to the sound-check only to find a long line of people already filling the sidewalk outside...

By the time the event got going later that evening, there were people sitting on chairs, tables, other people, while a solid bank of poetry devotees stood patiently in an adjoining room, listening to the reading being piped in from the main stage next door. (The venue staff later estimated that there had been between 100-150 people attending the reading at any one time.)

And the night went from strength to strength. The audience even started applauding during the introductory remarks as we explained our mission behind curating and editing this ground-breaking collection. It's moments like these that make those grueling hours at the editorial desk seem worthwhile...

Our featured poets held the audience in trance as they freewheeled through a host of styles, from Tanuja Mehrotra with her "threaded ghazals", a form she has created blending together two lyric traditions, to Ravi Chandra's juggling of formal verse and syncopations from his days on the slam poetry scene, and Minal Hajratwala's languid explorations of language and sensuality. Highpoints include Tanuja breaking into song at the podium, Minal's tiara, and Ravi's request, at the start of his reading, that audience members join him, fist upraised, in a traditional South Asian chant — "Jai Obama!"

Days later, we're still receiving positive feedback from the event, here in San Francisco. We're delighted to report that two faculty members who were in the audience that night have asked us to present an anthology reading to their respective universities, while also offering to review the collection when it comes out, in their newly established journal of Asian American literature. We've also been inundated with people asking to find out more about the anthology and join our mailing list, while the venue organizers have given us an open invitation to return at any time.

Here's to future readings being as successful as this one!