The Principle of a Clearing Nut Tree by Uma Gowrishankar

“Poised between enclosures and the outdoors, Uma Gowrishankar’s finely wrought poems inhabit the threshold ‘touching the space inside the shell’ of interiority. Figures of saints, monks, and ancestors are imbued with ambivalent mystery, while that of a young tonsured widow haunts her subtly charged poetic sensorium...”

— Aishwarya Iyer, Author of The Grasp of Things 

“Uma Gowrishankar’s The Principle of a Clearing Nut Tree traces a landscape of love, desire, and loss. The speakers of these poems ‘pay attention to the small things’—from the ‘smell of boiled milk’ and ‘the sharp whispers of the broom’ to the ‘row of chairs in Kabali Talkies’—and lead us through the domestic and intimate experiences of those who populate their world. These poems demand patient attention and rewards those who persist.”

— Aswin Vijayan, Author of Under the Handstand Statue Man

About the Author:

Uma Gowrishankar is a writer and artist from Chennai. Her full-length collection of poetry, Birthing History, was published by Leaky Boot Press in 2017.  Her poems have appeared in online and print journals that include City: A Journal of South Asian Literature, Feral: A Journal of Poetry and Art, Hibiscus: Poems that Heal and Empower, Nether, Poetry at Sangam, Qarrtsiluni, Silver Birch Press, Usawa Literary Review, Vayavya, and the Yearbook of Indian Poetry in English 2020-21. With over twenty years of experience in the field of education, Uma specializes in curriculum creation and enjoys designing writing programs for teachers.