'Tether That Light' by Debasish Lahiri: Panel Discussion and Poetry Launch
Speakers: Debasish Lahiri (poet), Pradipta Mukherjee (Vidyasagar College for Women, University of Calcutta), Yogesh Patel (poet), Richard Williams (SOAS)
Chair: Joe Ford (ILCS)
Panellists will discuss Debasish Lahiri’s most recent collection of poetry, Tether that Light, which is a set of forty-one poems that document how cultural memory, in the shape of Indian Miniature Paintings, flows from an immemorial legendary past to a contemporary politically striated present. The artefacts and the poems surrounding them offer proof of a living tradition that permeates every sphere of life, from the mundane to the spiritual.
Debasish Lahiri is a poet and academic from Kolkata, India. Lahiri’s previous poetry publications include First Will & Testament (2012), No Waiting like Departure (2016), Tinder Tender: Poems of Love & Loitering (2018), Poppies in the Post & Other Poems (2020) and Paysages sans Verbes (2021), a French translation of his selected poetry. He is the recipient of the Prix-du-Merite, Naji Naaman Literary Prize 2019.
Pradipta Mukherjee is Associate Professor, Department of English, Vidyasagar College for Women, University of Calcutta. She is a film critic with her areas of expertise being Shakespeare adaptations and Bollywood. She is a member of the advisory board of Inspirare Arts Foundation.
Yogesh Patel MBE is a renowned poet and has published international contemporary poetry since the seventies. Currently, he runs the Word Masala Project to promote writers and poets of the South Asian diaspora. He also edits eSkylark and writes a regular column for Confluence.
Richard David Williams is Senior Lecturer in Music and South Asian Studies at SOAS University of London. A cultural historian of early modern and colonial India, his research explores the connections between music, literature, and aesthetics.
Event date: 1 December 2022