The Oxford India Anthology of Twelve Modern Indian Poets

Arvind Krishna Mehrotra, a well-known poet, translator, and critic-historian, has here put together an unusually sensitive selection of fine verse in English by his best contemporaries. Complete with insightful biographical and critical introductions to each poet, this is the definitive anthology of modern Indian poetry in English. The collection contains over 130 works by twelve poets, including Nissim Ezekiel, Jayanta Mahapatra, A.K. Ramanujan, Keki N. Daeruwalla, and Vikram Seth. Many of the poets chosen either present new facets of recongnized faces, or deliberately differ from those repeatedly represented in standard anthologies. Good poems in English by Indians have appeared sporadically for perhaps a century; consistently good Indian poets writing in English have appeared essentially in the last four decades; and a small group of significant new voices in the past few years has deemed necessary a carefully defined picture of the state of the art. This collection will be attractive to anyone interested in contemporary poetry, and in poetic usages of English in contemporary India.