Geography of Tongues

Poetry. Asian & Asian American Studies. In GEOGRAPHY OF TONGUES by Shikha Malaviya, the poet playfully dons the role of 'morphologist,' moving deftly through continents, cultures, and personal histories, its often rugged terrain highlighted through shape-shifting poetic forms and unusual juxtapositions. Published by The (Great) Indian Poetry Collective and hailed in Scroll.in as one of '11 books of Indian poetry to read' in 2014, GEOGRAPHY OF TONGUES flexes its lyrical muscle as negotiator/communicator, as taster/holder of experience and as rebel/tease, sticking its tongue out in defiance.

'Shikha Malaviya's clever and inventive poems inhabit the contested space where Western culture collides with Hindu mythology, in a resplendent crash of forms that range from prose poems to lyrical litanies, all of them deeply felt and elegantly crafted.'—Ravi Shankar