Indian poet wins prestigious poetry prize for debut collection
University of Warwick Creative Writing alumna Sohini Basak is the winner of the 2016 Beverly Series for her debut collection of poetry, We Live in the Newness of Small Differences.
Sohini originally from Barrackpore, India studied at Warwick on the MA in Writing in 2013 and was taught by various Warwick academics including Professor David Morley, winner of the Ted Hughes Award for New Poetry. On hearing of Sohini’s success David said:
‘The key to making poems is surprise in language. I remember with pleasure Sohini Basak’s poetry when I was teaching her poetry at Warwick. Her use of language, line and image always surprised and delighted.
It is no surprise therefore that she has gone on to achieve great things with her poetry. The winning of this prestigious prize and the publication of her first collection is an inspiration to student-poets at Warwick.’
Since studying at Warwick, Sohini’s poetry and fiction have appeared in journals including 3: AM Magazine, Out of Print, Suburban Review, Missing Slate, Ambit, Lighthouse, Ofi Press, Helter Skelter, and Paris Lit Up, as well as in print anthologies of Emma Press and Poetrywala. She won second prize at the inaugural RædLeaf India Poetry Prize in 2013 and was shortlisted for the Melita Hume and the Jane Martin poetry prizes in 2014. She was a 2015-2016 fellow of The (Great) Indian Poetry Collective.
The 2016 Beverley Series awarded by Eyewear Publishing LTD was open to original manuscripts in any genre by any writer working in the English language. The series received a wide range of submissions from writers both emerging and established, in over thirteen countries, writing memoir, poetry, short stories, novels, and experimental forms.
Kelly Davio, Eyewear’s Senior Editor and the final judge for the 2016 Beverly Series, selected We Live in the Newness of Small Differences from a pool of fourteen finalists determined by Eyewear’s editorial team of judges, Oliver Jones, Rosanna Hildyard, and Todd Swift.
Davio had this to say of the selection process:
‘Sohini Basak’s We Live in the Newness of Small Differences is an impressive collection with a controlled voice, an attention to musicality, a beautiful execution of the craft, and a playful sense of the elasticity and possibility of the line.
‘I have no doubt that this book’s publication will mark the emergence of a powerful new voice in the poetry world, and I’m proud that we at Eyewear have the opportunity to bring this work to the reading public.’
Sohini is currently a social media manager for the translation journal Asymptote and currently lives in Delhi.
Eyewear will publish We Live in the Newness of Small Differences in January of 2018. To reserve an advance review copy, contact info@eyewearpublishing.com
AB 12/01/2016
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