Pramila Venkateswaran, poet laureate of Suffolk County, Long Island (2013-15) and co-director of Matwaala: South Asian Diaspora Poetry Festival, is the author of Thirtha (Yuganta Press, 2002) Behind Dark Waters (Plain View Press, 2008), Draw Me Inmost (Stockport Flats, 2009), Trace (Finishing Line Press, 2011), Thirteen Days to Let Go (Aldrich Press, 2015), Slow Ripening (Local Gems, 2016), The Singer of Alleppey (Shanti Arts, 2018), and more recently, We are Not a Museum (Finishing Line Press, 2022).
She has performed the poetry internationally, including at the Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival and the Festival Internacional De Poesia De Granada. An award winning poet, she teaches English and Women's Studies at Nassau Community College, New York. Author of numerous essays on poetics as well as creative non-fiction, she is also the 2011 Walt Whitman Birthplace Association Long Island Poet of the Year.
Her critical essays on Dalit poetry appear in recent issues of International Women's Studies Journal, Journal of Contemporary Poetics, and Journal of Comparative Literature and Aesthetics. She leads writing workshops for breast cancer patients in their healing journey. She is a founding member of Women Included, a transnational feminist association and the current President of NOW Suffolk, Long Island.
Published Works:
We Are Not a Museum
This volume explores the life and culture of the Jews in Kerala, India, who migrated there in the 3rd century and later in the 15th century.
Published by Finishing Line Press in 2022.
The Singer of Alleppey
A novel in poetry, the author narrates the story of her maternal grandmother whose talent as a singer helped her deal with the violence of patriarchy and colonialism.
Published by Shanti Arts Publishing in 2018.
Trace
Yoga philosophy enriches the experience of yogasanas. The poems detail the spiritual core of yoga.
Published by Finishing Line Press in 2011.
Behind Dark Waters
The poems in this volume narrate the stories of women fighting against oppression in different parts of the world.
Published by Plain View Press in 2008.
Thirtha
Immigration, poetic and spiritual journeys, and other crossings are the arc of this volume of poems.
Pramila Venkateswaran, poet laureate of Suffolk County, Long Island (2013-15) and co-director of Matwaala: South Asian Diaspora Poetry Festival, is the author of Thirtha (Yuganta Press, 2002) Behind Dark Waters (Plain View Press, 2008), Draw Me Inmost (Stockport Flats, 2009), Trace (Finishing Line Press, 2011), Thirteen Days to Let Go (Aldrich Press, 2015), Slow Ripening (Local Gems, 2016), The Singer of Alleppey (Shanti Arts, 2018), and more recently, We are Not a Museum (Finishing Line Press, 2022).
This volume explores the life and culture of the Jews in Kerala, India, who migrated there in the 3rd century and later in the 15th century.
A novel in poetry, the author narrates the story of her maternal grandmother whose talent as a singer helped her deal with the violence of patriarchy and colonialism.
Yoga philosophy enriches the experience of yogasanas. The poems detail the spiritual core of yoga.
The poems in this volume narrate the stories of women fighting against oppression in different parts of the world.
Immigration, poetic and spiritual journeys, and other crossings are the arc of this volume of poems.
