Three Indian poets you shouldn't miss

Tishani Doshi

If there is a discourse on gender and sexuality in poetry, you can trust Doshi to swim you through it, fearlessly. Even her debut novel, Small Days and Nights, is fluid verse in every sentence, punctuated only by a period. We are, however, most partial to her 2018 collection, Girls are Coming Out of the Woods, coincidentally released during the #MeToo wave. "Girls are coming out of the woods the way birds arrive at morning windows - pecking and humming, until all you can hear is the smash of their minuscule hearts against glass," she writes. You can also listen to her on lyrikline.org

Sumana Roy

We love Roy, because she makes trees come to life, and gives character to fruits. Her most recent collections, How I Became A Tree and Out of Syllabus, are handbooks to mindfulness. And, if you follow her on Facebook, she keeps surprising you with her skill in language, rhyme and inspiration. We were enchanted by Jackfruit, which was published in the Berfrois anthology, where she compares the fruit to Buddha's head. "...dots, mounds, spikes - his curls, as in the Gandharva statues."

Akhil Katyal

Katyal is, by far, one of the finest poets tackling contemporary issues. We were fortunate to read Katyal's How Many Countries Does The Indus Cross months before it was published. Here, he tackles the issues of border, identity, religion, conflict and more. You will be moved by The Incredible India J&K Tourism Video, in which he writes: "I suppose the most crucial role here is the editor's; so damn difficult to keep the dead out. To keep the green of the hills... and still, to keep the red out."

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