Zee Jaipur Literature Festival: Mumbai poet gets Khushwant Singh prize

For her collection titled 'When God is a Traveller', Mumbai-based poet Arundhati Subramaniam was on Saturday awarded the inaugural Khushwant Singh memorial prize for poetry at the Zee Jaipur Literature Festival 2015. The prize is worth Rs. 2 lakh. It was open to Indian poets who brought out books in English (including translations), between September 15, 2013 and September 15, 2014.

Accepting the prize from Suhel Seth, who instituted it in the memory of late writer and journalist Khushwant Singh, Subramaniam said, "Poetry today is a muted form… poets feel inconsequential and unheard. An award like this is far more affirming than I imagine. It says that this art of murmur and whispers still counts."

Award jury member and poet Ashok Vajpeyi praised Subramaniam's work for its "emotional rigour and linguistic zeal."

The other shortlisted poets were Sridala Swami, Ranjit Hoskote, Keki Daruwalla, and Joy Goswami (translated by Sampurna Chattarji).

Subramaniam has worked as a critic, poetry editor and curator. Besides 'When God is a Traveller', she has written three other books of poetry.