The earth weeps published in the Nov/Dec 2008 issue of Munyori Review

(click to enlarge the photos)

From the last book to the reader selected for "THE LAST BOOK" installation, a project by Luis Camnitzer, sponsored by the National Library of Spain.
"The Last Book" opened on October 31^th in the National Library of Argentina, where it will remain open to the public until March of 2009.

Here is some information on the project:

The Last Book is a project to compile written as well as visual statements in which the authors may leave a legacy for future generations. The premise of the project is that book-based culture is coming to an end. On one hand, new technologies have introduced cultural mutations by transferring information to television and the Internet. On the other, there has been an increasing deterioration in the educational systems (as much in the First World as on the periphery) and a proliferation of religious and anti-intellectual fundamentalisms. The Last Book will serve as a time-capsule and leave a document and testament of our time, as well as a stimulus for a possible reactivation of culture in case of disappearance by negligence, catastrophe or conflagration.

Interviewed by Asha for 4TTT radio

Bad time to die published in Lit Chaos Issue#40

Featured on Poetic Portal. 3 poems published.
Thanks to all the readers for their kind words.

Featured poet at Poetry Life and Times(Aug/Sept 2008) along with

Joseph Armstead,

Ofile (Max Janis),

Grace Andreacchi,

James Schwartz,

Richard Lloyd Cederberg,

and Len Bourret.

Two untitled poems published in the featured poets section.

Webcam Suicide published in Creative Saplings, a new Indian literary magazine edited by Dr. Shaileen Singh. Here is what he had to say about my poem in the editorial:

Nikesh Murali has fairly experimented with innovative style of technical phraseology in his poem 'The Webcam Suicide.' Certain lines where he uses computer vocabulary are impressive in context of emotive diction; the last ghazal of inebriated love/ binary expression (expression of the feelings of beloved and her lover) of muted cries/ digital murmur (fluctuating sobs and gasps) of a broken heart."

Canadian photographer Maddie quotes my poem 'To college in a traditional saree'on her photoblog
http://flickr.com/photos/82131747@N00/461554844

My name and bibliographic details have been entered into the AUSLIT database. Thanks to Cheryl Taylor and Linda Wight for this honour.

AustLit is a non-profit collaboration between twelve Australian Universities and the National Library of Australia providing authoritative information on hundreds of thousands of creative and critical Australian literature works relating to more than 100,000 Australian authors and literary organisations. Its coverage spans 1780 to the present day.

AustLit indexes and describes Australian literature published in a range of print and electronic information sources. It also makes available selected critical articles and creative writing in full text. Researchers, bibliographers and librarians, working around the country, gather information about Australian writers and writing, providing authoritative information on and facilitating access to Australian literature.

http://www.austlit.edu.au/about

Dirty Moon published in LitUp Magazine

Here are some excerpts from Umar's(Check out his blog at http://pappyrus.blogspot.com/) paper titled "Angry Peacocks-The concept of India in Australian Writing with special reference to the poetry of Nikesh Murali" prepared towards his degree in Australian Literature Studies at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India.

"There is a little secret in my heart

That I told the silent walls

And they stared at me blankly with contempt.

I told the sunlight streaming through my bedroom window

And heard the birds laugh in the garden.

I told the steady rain on the roof

But it drowned my voice with a deluge.

The image of the `streaming sunlight’ is more Australian than Indian. Australian poets are `sun-worshippers.’ They have a virile faith in the power and vitality that the sun represents. Every true Australian is a sun worshipper. In this instance, the anthropomorphic image of the sunlight as someone to be talked to, points to a brilliant commingling of Indian and Australian literary influences.

India, as a global powerhouse in the Anglophone literary arena has made its presence felt in the Australian shores. The poetry of Nikesh Murali bears the imprint of Indian philosophy that is transposed to an Australian milieu.

The rain that is presented here is a coastal Indian image. Such a startling juxtaposition across national borders provides the necessary poetic fodder for a post-modern imagination."

"Spring is the necromancy of winter and loneliness is like being with voodoo dolls of our companions of the past. Myths are the divination of collective dreams and tears are runes in love letters that we never read.

Here the lines take on an aphoristic sensibility that is essential to Indian Literature. It could have been a sloka in Sanskrit, or a ghazal in Hindi. Apart from its spiritual dimension, the poem also explores the possibilities of defining quantities in an emerging poetic practice.

These very quantities conceal depths that are self- reflexive and labyrinthine. Spring emerges from winter; loneliness is linked to companionship.

Everything is itself and also its opposite."

" the winds could carry my sorrow to your resting place, they would weep and weave through the leaves, sharing their grief with the universe

Nikesh Murali’s poems have an intensity that seeps into the soul. Christopher Brennan’s words could be applied to describe his poetry:

The imaginative act is not, as vulgarly held, the irresponsible creation of unrealities; imagination is a faculty that perceives outside of the dusty life of outer weariness, the adequacy of our spirit to regard only those perfect things, the things of beauty. "

Lush green love and I had a dream last night published in the latest issue of Muse India.

Also checkout the interview with eminent poet O.N.V. Kurup in the same issue
http://www.museindia.com/showcurrent9.asp?id=995

Tribute to Neruda appears in The Guardian Book Blog . Robin Ouzman Hislop and Amparo Arrospide, the editors of Poetry Life and Times were kind enough to invite me to submit to their magazine after reading the poem (see comment on post below).

Love like a river appears in Great Writing

Umar(Check out his blog at http://pappyrus.blogspot.com/) is working on a paper titled "Angry Peacocks-The concept of India in Australian Writing with special reference to the poetry of Nikesh Murali" at the Australian Literature Studies department,Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India.

To college in a traditional sari features in an article on "Sari and Culturally based preferences" at the GURU MAHA GRAHA blog

Interview with M.V.Somasundaram appears in The Modern Rationalist http://www.themronline.com/200802mr/index.html

I liked it when you were here, The light house, For Casey & The night lover to appear in the Indian Journal of Post Colonial Literatures published by the Centre for English Studies and Research, Kerala, India in March. To order copies please email the editor: kdominicnewman@gmail.com

A tribute to Val Kilmer's poem in The Saint & A tribute to Wong Kar Wai's In the mood for love to appear in the special Shringara Issue of Muse India in March http://www.museindia.com/showfeature7.asp?id=886

The editor for this special issue Ambika Ananth (an outstanding poet and eminent translator) says,"Nikesh Murali’s poems have that earthiness and human element to make them absorbingly appealing. The intimate mood and the energy of sexual love is well conveyed."

Checkout her wonderful editorial(http://www.museindia.com/showfeature7.asp?id=866) for this special feature: SHRINGARA Poetry http://www.museindia.com/feature7.asp

Girl from Ipanema to appear in Borderlines '08 anthology published by University of Portsmouth, United Kingdom. Order through AMAZON
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Borderlines-Anthology-Fiction-Travel-Poetry/dp/1409204944
or
http://www.lulu.com/content/2607602

Purchase it now!!!

'It snows in Philadelphia' appears in Skive Magazine . Purchase a copy of this great short story quarterly from here http://www.lulu.com/content/2026165

Magic, The dark street, Too cold for love, Tonight I feel lonely, The terrorist, The accident, 'Middle Class' Bald headed man published in E-MAGAZINE INDIA
http://www.emagazineindia.com/nikesh.htm

Interview with author and prominent Indian atheist M.V.Somasundaram in this months' THE AUSTRALIAN ATHEIST
http://www.mediafire.com/?bwni2demfec

Listen to the beautiful and amazingly talented Shalla De Guzman reading From the smallest embers rise the beasts of fire like the Phoenix at http://www.archive.org/details/FromTheSmallestEmbersRiseTheBeastsOfFireLikeThePhoenix

You can also download it from the link.

A real honour.

Nominated for Pushcart Prize http://www.shallamagazine.com/toppicks/pushcart_2007.php

for the poem http://www.shallamagazine.com/features/poetry/Nikesh_Murali.php

I was informed by the editor of Shalla Magazine at 6 am today about my nomination for one of the most prestigious of prizes given to poets in the United States of America . Its an honour to be nominated and be in the company of some truly outstanding poets and writers being published in the small press.

I am speechless and I thank you all for all your support over the years. THANK YOU - THANK YOU!

To find out more about the prize go to http://www.pushcartprize.com/about.htm

'Mad Woman' and 'Raven' published in Muse India http://www.museindia.com/showcurrent5.asp?id=785

I am collaborating with some members of the WITS writers group in Townsville to create an anthology of stories in the fantasy genre. Checkout the project's official blog:
http://www.chroniclesoftville.blogspot.com/

Aruni Kashyap is inspired by my tribute to Neruda http://myxofura.blogspot.com/2007/07/for-neruda.html

Six new poems published in Sentinel Online Magazine #28 http://www.sentinelpoetry.org.uk/magonline0305/page10.html

Spanish translation (by eminent poet Maria Cristina Azcona) of Girl from ipanema read on http://www.fmidentidad.com/

From the smallest embers appears in Shalla Magazine as a TOP PICK
http://www.shallamagazine.com/features/poetry/Nikesh_Murali.php

Tonight I can write the saddest lines published in Muse India, India's premier literary e-journal ...click here.

Anatomy of loneliness appears in Rumble Magazine http://rumble.sy2.com/dec04/anatomy.html

Photographs appear in Jpg Magazine http://www.jpgmag.com/photos/25438