Arise out of the Lock

"So often South Asian poetry feels to me like a body with severed limbs, all inaccessible to each other. This anthology is both healing of that and a recognition; with the very force of its thought and its omnivorous cosmopolitanism, it will defy every stereotype you try to bring to it. A project like this would be essential for any translator to take up, but as a poet Nabina Das goes beyond the call and makes it sing." - Vivek Narayanan (Author of Life and Times of Mr S & Professor of Creative Writing, George Mason University)







"Deftly translated into an English with fittingly South Asian inflections, this timely anthology surprises and delights. Certain themes and imagery traditionally coded feminine, such as flowers and fabric, recur with surprising and thought-provoking variations in their treatment, while frequent references to characters from Islamic and Hindu mythology point to the lived experience of a shared cultural inheritance. Though demonstrating an impressive range, with poets based in Bangladesh and abroad, writing from the full 50 years since the country's creation, this is clearly only a glimpse at a wealth of literature which, it is to be hoped, other publishers will now be inspired to seek out." - Deborah Smith (Translator of The Vegetarian by Han Kang)







Contents: Foreword by Sadaf Saaz; Curator's Introduction; Translator's Note; Poems by 50 Bangladeshi Women Poets: Sufia Kamal, Khaleda Edib Chowdhury, Anwara Syed Haq, Farida Majid, Meherun Nesa, Zeenat Ara Rafiq, Suraiya Khanum, Rubi Rahman, Kazi Rozi, Zarina Akhter, Shamim Azad, Nasreen Naim, Dilara Hafiz, Anjana Saha, Nurunnahar Shirin, Nasima Sultana, Shahjadi Anzuman Ara, Jharna Rahman, Taslima Nasrin, Rahima Akhter Kalpana, Ferdous Nahar, Bilora Chowdhury, Shahnaz Nasreen, Kochi Reza, Leesa Gazi, Shahnaz Munni, Shelly Naz, Nahar Monica, Aysa Jhorna, Shanta Maria, Megh Aditi, Monika Chakraborty, Alaka Nandita, Farhana Rahman, Junan Nashit, Nahida Ashrafi, Audity Falguni, Rahima Afrooz Munni, Novera Hossain, Jahanara Perveen, Shakira Parvin, Sabera Tabassum Asma Beethe, Nitu Purna, Asma Odhora, Afroja Shoma, Rimjhim Ahmed, Shafinur Shafin, Mahi Flora, and Shweta Shatabdi Esh.