Two in a row for Singaporean poet at the Jaipur Literature Festival

Neil Daswani’s second submission, a poem titled “Boots” from his debut volume of poetry Why Now? has also been  selected to be showcased for viewing on the 20th of February at the Jaipur Literature Festival. This year’s Jaipur Literature Festival 2021 proved to be a happy hunting ground for Singaporean poet Neil Daswani. His poetic works were chosen to be featured at this prestigious literary event not just once, but twice! 
Camera & Quill, a collaborative work of photography and poetry by Anita Thomas (photographer) and Neil Daswani (poet) featured in the ‘Writers Shorts’ section of the Festival on its opening day, February 19th.

Coming right on the heels of this initial success, Neil’s second submission, a poem titled “Boots” from his debut volume of poetry Why Now? was also selected to be showcased for viewing on the 20th of February at the Writers Shorts at the Jaipur Literature Festival. The poet’s reading of this poem will be featured tomorrow as a video recording at 4:45 p.m. IST / 7:15 p.m. Singapore time and can be viewed on https://online.jaipurliteraturefestival.org/users/signup/general.

Boots is based on a painting by a Korean artist who had lost her husband. Consumed by grief she had not painted so much as a brushstroke in three years. One day chancing upon her deceased husband’s battered old boots she painted them. In Boots the poet in fact tries put himself in her shoes as she herself reflects on the journey of her husband’s life and his boots.

Neil Daswani had a prolific debut year in 2020 publishing three separate volumes of poetry: Seen & Felt (a collaborative work with five of South Korea’s well known contemporary artists and recognised by the Art Council Korea), Redshift (showcased at the Singapore Writers Festival  October 2020) and Why Now?

Neil likes to describe himself as: a banker by day and a poet by night!

All these titles have been published by Kitaab International in Singapore.

Editor_Kitaab

Namrata is a published author who enjoys writing stories and think pieces on travel, relationships, and gender. She is a UEA alumnus and has studied travel writing at the University of Sydney.

She is also an independent editor and a book reviewer. Her writings can be found on various sites and magazines like the Asian Review of Books, Contemporary South Asia Journal of King’s College-London, Mad in Asia, The Friday Times, Daily Star, The Scroll, Feminism in India, The Brown Orient Journal, Inkspire Journal, Moonlight Journal, The Same, Chronic Pain India and Cafe Dissensus.

Her short stories have been a part of various anthologies . She has also published two short story collections of her own along with two solo titles as well. She is currently working on her debut novel. She loves travelling the length and breadth of the world and enjoys capturing the magic of life in her words. She is always in pursuit of a new country and a new story.

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