USA based Writer Launches her Book on the Existential Crises of Women
"LET THE NIGHT SING" BOOK LAUNCH
“For most of history, Anonymous was a woman.” --- Virginia Woolf
In the lands
of today, many things have changed yet everything is the same, astray. A fact I
can properly say that we humans might take to our graves. Poetry and stories
help us talk about those changes in life that have happened and most
importantly the changes people want to make.
Feminism is
the mother of many changes that society has had over the years and nowadays
more and more women and men alike are talking and writing about it.
29th July,
2017 was one such day, esteemed writer Lopamudra Banerjee launched her book of
poems titled “Let the Night Sing”, a tribute to not just her experiences as a
mother, a daughter, a lover but also as a woman.
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| (From left) Ms Sufia Khatoon,Dr Santosh Bakaya, Lopamudra Banerjee Dr Sanjukta Dasgupta |
In her book
she has graced us with many poems, one being about the women of the illustrious
brothel of Calcutta, Sonagachi. She says that many of her poems are her reactions
to existential issues dealing with women such as the plight of Jyoti Singh, the
spirit of Malala Yousufzai to name a couple.
When we
asked her about her feelings regarding the topic of feminism and what her
stance is as a feminist, she told us that feminism is an elemental but yet an
essential part of humanism according to her. Her words were:
“raw,
vulnerable entities of women in our everyday lives form the tapestry that is my
muse in this life”.
She said she
uses this raw energy in her writings and this energy is what defines her
identity as a woman. In her non-fiction book “Thwarted Escape” and her present “Let
the Night Sing” she claims to have strived to essay the inward journey of women
that’s replete.
During our talk
with her, she with her undying humility referred to herself as a lover of the
night. “I’m in love with night” being her exact words, and the reason for the
title of her book. She explained that she has narrated her feelings about love,
attachment, and even relationships in the form of her many poems. She has
talked about the relationship between a mother and a daughter, the relationship
between her daughters and their father, and even her love for her city in this
book.
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| (From left) Dr Santosh Bakaya with Lopamudra Banerjee and Dr Sanjukta Dasgupta at the launch |
“At the same
time, many others are written as surreal inner sojourns which come from an
intense personal space where I delve deep into my childhood, my motherhood and
also my personal anguish resulting from the loss of loved ones. For example, in
my poem ‘For Fathers and Daughters’, I have presented a dedication to my
daughters and their relationship with their father where my childhood also
comes to haunt me as a melancholic melody, in context of his terminal ailment
and later, his demise.”
She says
that apart from this, writing about other painful experiences like her mother’s demise
was immensely difficult for her but she had to, for her own good.
“I write
about a plethora of poems ranging from personal trauma and anguish, including
my mother’s demise, and putting them in words were indeed challenging, but I
had to do it for my own catharsis.”
It’s a
collection of all these “broken pieces” that she says make up “Let the Night
Sing” so I urge you all to please give it a read. It is a humble woman’s journey
while taking the heinous thorns and splinters of life, but still never losing
faith in it’s beauty at the same time.
Lopamudra
Banerjee is a writer, poet, editor and translator, currently based in Dallas,
USA. She has a Masters’ degree with thesis in creative nonfiction writing from
the Department of English, University of Nebraska at Omaha. She is the
co-editor of the bestselling anthology on women, 'Defiant Dreams: Tales of
Everyday Divas'.
'Thwarted
Escape: An Immigrant's Wayward Journey', her debut memoir/nonfiction novel,
published by Authorspress, has recently received Honorable Mention at the Los
Angeles Book Festival 2017. The manuscript has also been a First Place Category
Winner at the Journey Awards 2014 hosted by Chanticleer Reviews and Media LLC.
Her literary works have appeared in numerous journals and anthologies, both in
India and the US and her fiction is published in Silhouette I & II
anthology, by Authorspress.
She has
received the Reuel International Award 2016 (category: Translation) for her
English translation of Rabindranath Tagore's novella Nastanirh (translated as
The Broken Home) instituted by The Significant League, a renowned literature
group in Facebook, and the book is available in Amazon Kindle.It is now part of
the book 'The Broken Home and Other Stories'.
Book blurb:
By: Aritro Ghosh
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