BIOGRAPHY
about the poet
Sonnet Mondal was born and brought up in Kolkata, India. His latest collection of poems include Karmic Chanting(Copper Coin publishers) and Ink & Line (Dhauli Books). His poems and works have appeared in Kyoto journal, Irish Examiner, the World Literature Today, Blesok, the Mcneese Review (Mcneese State University), Blesok, Rochford Street Review, Palestine Chronicle, Drunken Boat, Indian Literature, Common Ground Review (Western New England University), Asia Literary Review, Sheepshead Review (University of Wisconsin, Green Bay), Fieldstone Review (University of Saskatchewan), The Penguin Review (Youngstown State University), Clackamas Literary Review (Clackamas Community College, Oregon), Two Thirds North (Stockholm University), Willard and Maple (Champlain College), Steam Ticket (University of Wisconsin, La Crosse), Connotation Press, Nth Position, and Sanskrit magazine (University of North Carolina).
He was featured as one of the Famous Five of Bengali youths in India Today magazine in 2010, listed among the celebrated authors of India in Forbes Magazine in 2014 & 2015 and the Culture Trip magazine, London listed him as one of the top five literary entrepreneurs of Indian poetry in March 2015. On 15th August 2015 he was featured in the Kuwait Times newspaper-Indian Special edition. In August 2016, his interview in Croatian translation appeared in Croatian Cultural magazine india.hr of the Cultural Centre at Zagreb, Croatia. In 2011 he was inducted in the Significant Achievements Plaque at the museum of Bengal Engineering and Science University, Shibpur. Sonnet has been in focus multiple times in the Bulletin of Ministry of External Affairs, Macedonia for contributing to international cultural exchange with Macedonia since 2011 through The Enchanting Verses Literary Review.
Winner of the 2016 Gayatri Gamarsh Memorial award for literary excellence, Mondal was one of the authors of the ‘Silk Routes’ project of the IWP, University of Iowa, from 2014 to 2016 (funded by Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs at the U.S. Department of State). Sonnet’s poems in Slovenian translation by Barbara Pogacnik, were aired at the Literary Nokturno program of the Public Radio & Television of Slovenia in 2016. He read at the International Uskudar Poetry Festival in 2015 and International Young Poets’ Meet in 2016, both funded by the Government of Turkey.
Mondal led an Indian cultural delegation to the Ars Poetica International Festival, Slovakia in November 2016 and read at the 2017 edition of the Cork International Poetry festival, Ireland and 53rd Struga Poetry Evenings, Macedonia in 2014. Sonnet collaborated with Kathak exponent Sangeeta Majumder for a simultaneous dance and poetry rendition- Echoing Shadows in an Indian special evening sponsored by Ars Poetica and the Indian embassy in Slovakia in 2016. A Writer in Residence at Sierra Neveda College's MFA in Creative Writing program, Mondal represented India at the 10th year anniversary edition of the International Istanbul Poetry and Literature Festival. He has conducted poetry workshops at the 2018 Fairway Galle Literary Festival, Sri Lanka and most recently he has been included in Sahitya Akademi’s Modern English Poetry by Younger Indians edited by Sudeep Sen.
A guest editor for Poetry at Sangam, and Words Without Borders, New York, he edits the Indian section of Lyrikline (Haus für Poesie- House of Poetry, Berlin / formerly Literaturwerkstatt, Berlin) in partnership with The Enchanting Verses Lit. Review and serves as the Editor in Chief of the Enchanting Verses Literary Review (www.theenchantingverses.org). He also serves on the editorial board of Levure littéraire magazine and on the board of the Odisha Art & Literature Festival, Bhubaneswar, India. His poetry has been translated into Hindi, Hungarian, Italian, Slovenian, Spanish, Portuguese, Slovak, Turkish, Macedonian, Bengali and Arabic.
He was featured as one of the Famous Five of Bengali youths in India Today magazine in 2010, listed among the celebrated authors of India in Forbes Magazine in 2014 & 2015 and the Culture Trip magazine, London listed him as one of the top five literary entrepreneurs of Indian poetry in March 2015. On 15th August 2015 he was featured in the Kuwait Times newspaper-Indian Special edition. In August 2016, his interview in Croatian translation appeared in Croatian Cultural magazine india.hr of the Cultural Centre at Zagreb, Croatia. In 2011 he was inducted in the Significant Achievements Plaque at the museum of Bengal Engineering and Science University, Shibpur. Sonnet has been in focus multiple times in the Bulletin of Ministry of External Affairs, Macedonia for contributing to international cultural exchange with Macedonia since 2011 through The Enchanting Verses Literary Review.
Winner of the 2016 Gayatri Gamarsh Memorial award for literary excellence, Mondal was one of the authors of the ‘Silk Routes’ project of the IWP, University of Iowa, from 2014 to 2016 (funded by Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs at the U.S. Department of State). Sonnet’s poems in Slovenian translation by Barbara Pogacnik, were aired at the Literary Nokturno program of the Public Radio & Television of Slovenia in 2016. He read at the International Uskudar Poetry Festival in 2015 and International Young Poets’ Meet in 2016, both funded by the Government of Turkey.
Mondal led an Indian cultural delegation to the Ars Poetica International Festival, Slovakia in November 2016 and read at the 2017 edition of the Cork International Poetry festival, Ireland and 53rd Struga Poetry Evenings, Macedonia in 2014. Sonnet collaborated with Kathak exponent Sangeeta Majumder for a simultaneous dance and poetry rendition- Echoing Shadows in an Indian special evening sponsored by Ars Poetica and the Indian embassy in Slovakia in 2016. A Writer in Residence at Sierra Neveda College's MFA in Creative Writing program, Mondal represented India at the 10th year anniversary edition of the International Istanbul Poetry and Literature Festival. He has conducted poetry workshops at the 2018 Fairway Galle Literary Festival, Sri Lanka and most recently he has been included in Sahitya Akademi’s Modern English Poetry by Younger Indians edited by Sudeep Sen.
A guest editor for Poetry at Sangam, and Words Without Borders, New York, he edits the Indian section of Lyrikline (Haus für Poesie- House of Poetry, Berlin / formerly Literaturwerkstatt, Berlin) in partnership with The Enchanting Verses Lit. Review and serves as the Editor in Chief of the Enchanting Verses Literary Review (www.theenchantingverses.org). He also serves on the editorial board of Levure littéraire magazine and on the board of the Odisha Art & Literature Festival, Bhubaneswar, India. His poetry has been translated into Hindi, Hungarian, Italian, Slovenian, Spanish, Portuguese, Slovak, Turkish, Macedonian, Bengali and Arabic.
