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Sonnet Mondal’s poetry uses rich metaphors and elegant anguish to depict a quest. These poems can be overwhelming for the senses, but they also take the reader on a rewarding journey. Even when the object of his musings is nothing more substantial than cigarette smoke curling up and towards a lamp, he manages to find something profound in that very insubstantiality.
~ Scroll.in |
There is no direct anger or nostalgia in the poems, but a hurt expressed as a result of abrasions with life. Mondal has a way of twisting words out of seemingly unrelated contexts, and make things happen in his verse- a foreboding melody of love, recalcitrance, faith and even mistrust. The paintings by Sukrita Paul Kumar representing each poem sustain the poems with the melody- seeking here in life and hereinafter.
~ Shillong Times |
Recent & UPCOMING EVENTS
"Sonnet Mondal’s Karmic Chanting brings to life the mystic traditions of Rumi and Kahlil Gibran"
Deccan Chronicle, 2019
"Over the pages, the spiritual principle of cause and effect where intent and actions of an individual influence the future of that individual are recited in a hypnotic symphony, carrying carries us through the poems-leaves and verses-waves that compose the body of work."
Khmer Times, 2019
"...the book flickers as a wick and on dark days it can be a good fellow traveller. It’s for those who are looking for a mix of nostalgia, unseen alleys, letters-in-progress, lyrical trajectories coupled with ‘the encircling presence of mortal ruin’ because the collection offers more than just verbal play."
New Indian Express, 2019
Deccan Chronicle, 2019
"Over the pages, the spiritual principle of cause and effect where intent and actions of an individual influence the future of that individual are recited in a hypnotic symphony, carrying carries us through the poems-leaves and verses-waves that compose the body of work."
Khmer Times, 2019
"...the book flickers as a wick and on dark days it can be a good fellow traveller. It’s for those who are looking for a mix of nostalgia, unseen alleys, letters-in-progress, lyrical trajectories coupled with ‘the encircling presence of mortal ruin’ because the collection offers more than just verbal play."
New Indian Express, 2019
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Sonnet joins Lyrikline Poetry Archive
(Haus für Poesie- House of Poetry, Berlin /formerly Literaturwerkstatt, Berlin) |
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Sonnet to participate in the 2020 edition of Genova International Poetry festival & Poetry on the Lake International festival
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ABOUT
Sonnet Mondal is an Indian poet, editor and the author of Karmic Chanting, Ink and Line, and five other books of poetry. Mondal has been one of the authors of the “Silk Routes” project of the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa, from 2014 to 2016. Editor in Chief of The Enchanting Verses Literary Review, Mondal is an international coordinator for Lyrikline Poetry Network (Haus für Poesie, Berlin) and is the founder director of Chair Poetry Evenings International festival. He has been a guest editor for Words Without Borders, New York and Poetry at Sangam, India and acts as a curator of Dutch authors travelling to India on behalf of The Dutch Foundation for Literature. Sonnet has read at literary festivals in Macedonia; Cork, Ireland; Istanbul, Turkey; Granada, Nicaragua; Galle, Sri Lanka; Berlin, Italy: Ukraine; Germany; Hungary; and Slovakia. Winner of the 2016 Gayatri Gamarsh Memorial award for literary excellence, his recent works have appeared in the publications of Kyoto Journal, Irish Examiner, World Literature Today, Rockford Street Review, Mcneese State University, Sahitya Akademi, University of Wisconsin, Green Bay, Western New England University, University of Saskatchewan, Youngstown State University, Stockholm University, University of South Alabama, University of Wisconsin, La Crosse and University of North Carolina among others.
TOP LISTS
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"Sonnet Mondal’s poems are nostalgic. They evoke an unabashed love for the rural as contrary to the urban. This is their dialectic. They infuse images of nature and the countryside. The poems evoke images at once real and stark. The reader may find love, and longing here but at best the poems are conundrums."
The Thumb Print Magazine, February, 2015
Often in his poetry declamations of protest clamour across the page: …a hunger to attain/evolves without bargains// bliss in loneliness/ gets confused/ with fleeting pleasure. I wonder if this doesn’t reflect the poet’s bewilderment at the sad state of life. At other times his voice ranges from the quirky to the contradictory to the startling as in this on the trickled porosity of tears …Tears are digging deep inside// a canyon of remembrances/ is getting drilled … Here‘s an excerpt, where again the poet laments against loss, from Nobody Speaks of You Syria : …The bullets you have consumed/ have rusted inside your womb/ and stained the colour of your blood.// Civilization looks as blank as/ a dry river/ that doesn’t thirst for rains.
Priya Sarukkai Chabria Editor, Poetry at Sangam (September 2017)
The Thumb Print Magazine, February, 2015
Often in his poetry declamations of protest clamour across the page: …a hunger to attain/evolves without bargains// bliss in loneliness/ gets confused/ with fleeting pleasure. I wonder if this doesn’t reflect the poet’s bewilderment at the sad state of life. At other times his voice ranges from the quirky to the contradictory to the startling as in this on the trickled porosity of tears …Tears are digging deep inside// a canyon of remembrances/ is getting drilled … Here‘s an excerpt, where again the poet laments against loss, from Nobody Speaks of You Syria : …The bullets you have consumed/ have rusted inside your womb/ and stained the colour of your blood.// Civilization looks as blank as/ a dry river/ that doesn’t thirst for rains.
Priya Sarukkai Chabria Editor, Poetry at Sangam (September 2017)
"The poems in the collection, Ink and Line, demystify the paintings and the paintings demythologize the poems which gives a clear comprehension of this artistic collection of the ekphrastic poetry. The book is a marvelous gift to the lovers of poetry."
The Rising Kashmir News, 2015
The Rising Kashmir News, 2015
"Sonnet Mondal is a poet strong in contemporary idiom because he seems to know the changing contours of the modern world of poetry."
Muse India Journal (Issue 44)
Muse India Journal (Issue 44)
"Sonnet's approach to penning poetry is distinct & has a charm of its own. Past and present juxtaposes in his poems.The poems move in three dimensions and have sometimes a three dimensional effect on the back ground of life."
The Journal, Poetry Society of India, 2013 Issue
The Journal, Poetry Society of India, 2013 Issue
Ars Poetica to start with, showcased a stunning interactive presentation of Sangeeta Majumdar’s Kathak dance in consonance with Sonnet Mondal’s poetry. The audience was enthralled by the near mystical atmosphere created through mythical poetry knitted skillfully into the vibrant dance performance.
The Hindu, December 12, 2016
The Hindu, December 12, 2016
Words Without Borders July 2018 |
Poetry at sangam September 2017 |
Read the July 2018 issue of Words Without Borders, New York guest edited by Sonnet Mondal.
Time never forsakes memories. It just preserves them in quieter pastures. While preserving a culture through literature, the familiarity of daily life sometimes gets forgotten. Capitulating to changes around us, we change our creations. We are afraid of perceived mistakes and consequences, since life’s trials and errors present frequent dilemmas along the way. And as we become exhausted in our journey, we tend to become seekers—seeking the very nature of the energy that makes us, sustains us, and breaks us. The poets from the region of Punjab in India refuse to succumb under political suppression, but this hasn't incited them to pen confrontational and vengeful pieces. Instead they have preserved the seeker in them over centuries of not fearing probable predicaments in their quest to experiment with their literature. Treating conflict with restoration has enabled Punjabi poetry to survive years of it. Ruin has been a metaphor for rise, and hope never feels like a stranger in their poems. Almost a thousand years old, Punjabi poetry stands on ashes, reinforced by a blend of spirituality and dissent. Life-friendly and full of natural resources, the terrain of India attracted expansionist rulers from around the world. Located in northwestern India, the state of Punjab has been subjected to numerous attacks, primarily by Muslim invaders for whom it was the principal entry point into India. The repeated conquest of the region resulted in disintegration of the sociopolitical and cultural scene in this part of India, and the reaction was literary dissent and the emergence of Punjabi poetry. |
Read the September 2017 issue of Poetry at Sangam (Sangam House, India) guest edited by Sonnet Mondal.
The poets in this issue — Brian Turner, Les Wicks, Ladan Osman, José Luís Peixoto, Erik Lindner, Stephen Collis, and Aurélia Lassaque delicately respond to various inner conflicts and reflect over possible ways of taming them. When it comes to war poets, my greatest influence has been Wilfred Owen who meditated upon futility of war in his poem Strange Meeting. Brian Turner subtly invokes the same message — especially through The Al-A’imma Bridge and Call It Leaves and Rain. His poems highlight a poet’s turmoil — hovering between love and loss. The terrain of his poems comprises of his memories and reflections while he was a part of the Iraq war. His work shows — how he has always been a poet — sitting and swaying in the swing of remembrances, even while serving as a Sergeant in the US army. Coming to Les Wicks: in an increasingly university focused poetry world, he is an odd one out who teaches, edits & writes away from poetics & theory toward a more elemental starting point from which he teases out messages, words & images to a (hopefully) nuanced, enriching experience for the reader. While Ladan Osman is an interrogating observer, José Luís Peixoto’s poems are short monologues, rich in sensitivity — starting with the obvious and going beyond the expected. Erik Lindner, a quintessential wordsmith, chisels out daily observations into his poems. He dives deep into the pool of our belief, without creating ripples. Stephen Collis is experimental in tone and seems to address a series of societal and semantic concerns put forward by his inner voice. His creative architecture comes equipped with words — placed like bricks — cemented by fresh turns of phrase. Aurélia Lassaque has more to tell than show. In this collection, she revisits the myth of the Odyssey, giving voice to Ulysses and an unnamed woman called « She ». In the form of a dialogue in eight cantos, the poet evokes the ancient Greek theatrical form to explore the frontiers between theatre and poetry. |
"A rueful new poem for April on romance, regret and repetition."
Asia Literary Review, 2016
Our team of editors has identified your piece, "April and My Plastic Sunflowers" as a beacon of light in the world of flight.
Willard and Maple, Chaplain College, Vermont, 2016
“Sukrita collaborates with Sonnet Mondal in ‘Ink and Line’, where her paintings and sketches stand side by side with Mondal’s words, adding yet another layer to the book.”
The Hindu, 2014
Asia Literary Review, 2016
Our team of editors has identified your piece, "April and My Plastic Sunflowers" as a beacon of light in the world of flight.
Willard and Maple, Chaplain College, Vermont, 2016
“Sukrita collaborates with Sonnet Mondal in ‘Ink and Line’, where her paintings and sketches stand side by side with Mondal’s words, adding yet another layer to the book.”
The Hindu, 2014
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