Indivisible: An Anthology of Contemporary South Asian American Poetry

"Rarely does one have the pleasure of seeing so many poets violate the truth that no one can be in two places at the same time. Indivisible provides hundreds of local poetic delights and deserves a place among the best anthologies of poetry."

--Billy Collins

"Like seedlings breaking through concrete cracks, the poems collected in Indivisible widen the literary landscape and expose the reader to fresh terrain. A gathering together for the first time of an expansive and varied set of voices representing the breadth of South Asian American poetry, reading Indivisible is like witnessing the wings of a newly discovered bird, outstretched, reaching for an untouched horizon.

--Matthew Shenoda, author of Seasons of Lotus, Seasons of Bone

"No-one can speak for 'America' or 'Humanity,' but these poems give us a glimpse of both. Scattered among them are treasures and heartbreaks, mercurial descriptions of life and languid backward glances at what is left behind, what cannot be recovered. This is a language map of South Asian America. Come. Come for a ride."

--Vijay Prashad, author of The Darker Nations: A People's History of the Third World and The Karma of Brown Folk

The first anthology of its kind, Indivisible brings together forty-nine American poets who trace their roots to Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. Featuring award-winning poets including Meena Alexander, Agha Shahid Ali, Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, and Vijay Seshadri, here are poets who share a long history of grappling with a multiplicity of languages, cultures, and faiths. The poems gathered here take us from basketball courts to Bollywood, from the Grand Canyon to sugar plantations, and from Hindu-Muslim riots in India to anti-immigrant attacks on the streets of post-9/11 America.

Showcasing a diversity of forms, from traditional ghazals and sestinas to free verse, experimental writing, and slam poetry, Indivisible presents 141 poems by authors who are rewriting the cultural and literary landscape of their time and their place. Includes biographies of each poet.